During a recent auction, I purchased a Merit Radion Force game system with a dying monitor. As the monitor was unusably dim at maximum brightness settings even under dim light, the cathode gun was likely on it’s way out; and a repair would cost many times more than what I paid for the machine itself. So rather than sink any money Read More…
Tag: arcade repair
Jackpot Crossing – The Anatomy of a Ticket Redemption Arcade Game
This game only needed some sensor repairs (a few transistors and capacitors were torn off on the coin detection boards), so I figured I’d use this post to go over the standard features of a typical ticket redemption game as well as the repair, just to keep things interesting. This game, Jackpot Crossing by American Read More…
Coney Island Boxer Restoration Project – Finishing Touches
In this post, I’ll go over the last minor fixes that I made to get the Boxer looking good as new. First off, were the lightbulbs; both the halogens on the top and LED indicators on the inside. As for the indicators, replacing them was as simple as twisting out each old bulb and replacing Read More…
Coney Island Boxer Restoration Project – Installing The Electromagnet
As it turns out, the designers of this machine were crafty in choosing parts. After receiving the electromagnet in the mail, I did some research on it’s part number and manufacturer, only to find that it’s actually a starter solenoid for a number of Fiat-like vehicles built in the 80s, most notably, the Lada. From Read More…
Coney Island Boxer Restoration Project – Installing The Coin Acceptor
The Coney Island Boxer is designed to work with an expensive Alberici mechanism, that uses somewhat proprietary signalling. In this post, I’ll go over how I got around that and was able to install an inexpensive generic multi-coin acceptor in it’s place. As I also received the new buttons in the mail, I’ll install those as Read More…
Coney Island Boxer Restoration Project – It Works!
I plugged in the boxer for the first time to test it today and received some good news. It works! I also cleaned out the inside, ran the tests, and did a few minor touchups to the display holder to make it usable. Here are some pictures: I did some research, and from the stickers + Read More…
Coney Island Boxer Restoration Project – Fixing the Display Board
I took a look at the display board today, and was pleasantly surprised – It’s fixable. The wires that were on it, are just to fix bad solder joints + breaks in the lines on the board. To fix it, I desoldered all of the segments to record the paths that needed re-soldering, and put it back Read More…
Coney Island Boxer Restoration Project – First Look
Here’s a few images of the exterior of the unit before I’ve done anything – It isn’t in that bad shape. The inside is a mess, with broken plastic, screws, nuts, and more everywhere – At least a copy of the manual + the parts list was included. The bad display board was also included, so I’ll Read More…
Coney Island Boxer Restoration Project – The Beginning
I’ve just purchased my next project from a Playdium auction. It’s a Coney Island Arcade branded boxer machine (sometimes also known as a punchball machine, strength tester, or punch measurer) that, from the auction listing, appears to be in terrible disrepair. Since there is very little repair information on boxer machines available on the internet, Read More…
Fixing a Blurry Arcade Cabinet Monitor (CRT)
I recently acquired a Simpsons Bowling arcade cabinet that had a blurry, unfocussed display. Here’s how I fixed it (for free) to be good as new. The Cabinet: Before: After: The Fix (Step-by-Step): Find a friend. Power up the game. Open up the cabinet. Find the knob labelled “focus”. It should be on the flyback transformer, on Read More…