As you can see, my ability to write a good repair log has improved with my ability to fix these games.
None of these games are for sale.
Name | Game Screen | PCB Image | PCB Revision | Working? | Write-up | Misc. | What I bought it for: |
Anti-Aircraft (1974) | B | Everything works, except for the sound. The explosion sound is loud and screechy. The rectifier diodes also shorted themselves. | Write-up & Repair Logs | This is the fourth PCB I have bought. This also was the first game I fixed to the point where it is playable. | Bought for $80 (+ shipping) A good deal, considering it wasn't a basket case. |
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Jet Fighter (1975) | B | Yes. The sound still has some issues. | Write-up & Repair Logs | This board was a basket case. There were 26 faulty chips on the digital side when I bought it. | I bought it for about $70 American, including shipping. It was accurately priced. | ||
QWAK! (1974) | C | Yes. I can play a game on it. The gunshot sound is just a low buzz. | Write-up & Repair Logs | This is the third PCB I bought. I bought it with the intention of dumping the ROM. Well, you can't dump a ROM if it's dead. | Bought for $135 (+ shipping). Considering it took 2.5+ years of effort to get working, that is quite overpriced. |
(A subsidiary of the SEEBURG Jukebox Company)
For the record, See-Fun only released Olympic Tennis.
Name | Game Screen | PCB Image | PCB Revision | Working? | Write-up | Misc. | What I bought it for: |
Olympic Tennis (1973) | This board is just too far gone. | C? | No. It is quite probable this is the product of one of the rare instances where the LM309 failed by shorting the 16VAC to the +5 volt rail. Everything is at 0 volts, regardless of chip function. |
Write-up & Repair Logs | These were my first two PCBs. I don't know which I bought first; they were bought within 5 minutes of each other.
The problem with these boards is that no schematic exists, so each time an issue comes up, I have to spend several hours checking EVERY function of every chip. That is not fun. |
Bought for $75 (+ shipping) I should've bought a $20 pong knock-off |
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Olympic Tennis (1973) | C? | Yes. | Bought for $75 (+ shipping) |
How to make a No-Nonsense Test Rig that will Impress your Fellow Collectors |
The unfortunate reality with these old games is that they break, and they break often. The more games I got, the more I got sick and tired of just wiring up an edge connector and having wires trail all the way across my workbench. So, I came up with my own design for a test rig, bought a bunch of parts, and finally did it the right way. Now, I have something that is about as versatile as the Kurz-Kasch TF-650, and doesn't require the purchase of those impossible-to-find program cards. |
How I reproduced the light gun casing for Atari Outlaw | After fixing QWAK!, I decided that holding an optics assembly and a trigger switch wasn't very fun. So, I screenshotted the mechanical drawings in the manual for Atari Outlaw and I made a 3d-printable light gun casing to hold the optics assembly. It is far from perfect, but it still turned out quite well. |
My Thoughts About the Value of old Bronzeage Games |
It kinda bothers me when I see an ebay seller list their "untested but definitely not working" pong clone for $200 plus shipping. It seems that everybody thinks that being "rare" makes something valuable. This is a bit of an informal essay about what I think these games are really worth. |
Replacement Parts that do and don't Work |
Over the course of fixing my games, I have found some suitible substitutions for several part numbers. Other part numbers look like they should work, but don't. I figured this information would be of use to somebody... |
Arcade Schematics that I Redrew |
Sometimes companies don't do a particularly good job of making manuals or schematics for the operators that bought their stuff. There are a couple of schematics I've redrawn to get practice with a schematic editor, and to make things readable for collectors that just want to get their game working. |
This page was last updated 1/5/2022
Spelling, grammar, and readability corrections.
I also removed the "what I think it's worth" column since it adds nothing.