Hey all.
I thought seeing as I've been on here for a while, it might be time to introduce myself; or rather my (very small) retro collection.
I have two arcade cabinets, one generic Jamma two player upright and a 1979 cocktail table. I have acquired a few PCB's, that I hope to find cabinets as soon as, but this will depend on convincing my wife it's a good idea.
I also have a 7' (ft) pub (bar) pool table with a slate top, that's on free play. Although, I'm trying to find a new home for this.
The cocktail cabinet is an early monochrome Space Invaders cab, proceeding the colour (color - I'm british) monitor distribution. It has a rainbow panel that sits on top of the screen to give the illusion of colour. The game it currently runs is Lunar Rescue; although it has heavy Space Invaders burn-in. So, it has a 13" mono monitor, as apposed to the 14" colour that came later. The issue I have with it, is that the flyback smokes when switched on. Suffice to say, I don't switch it on. All the schematics I have found on this cabinet/monitor show a new model monitor and chassis. This makes finding any information quite hard. The question I have is, do i replace the CRT for a newer model or keep trying to find a way to fix the issue? My preference is to keep trying. Any advice or information on where I might go with this would be greatly appreciated.
The Jamma CRT also developed some issues. But I have a reasonable idea how to go about fixing these. Mainly the black turned red and there are raster horizontal lines scrolling up or down the screen.
The PCB's I own currently, in no particular order, are:
- R-Type II
- Shadow Warriors
- Armoured Warriors
- Lunar Rescue
- The Main Event
- Phoenix
- Street Fighter II
- Tekken II
- Virtua Fighter II
My most wanted (for an affordable price) PCB's (cabinets too if found) would be any of these:
- The New Zealand Story
- Rainbow Islands
- Space Invaders
- Pac Man
- Joust
- Double Dragon
- Gauntlet II
- Ghosts 'n Goblins
(yeah, I know - like that's going to happen - but still)- Golden Axe
- Altered Beast
- Dynamite Dux
- Bomb Jack
- Power Drift
- Hard Drivin
- Toobin
- Robocop
- Computer Space (pfft, yeah I wish - but I really do)
- Frogger
- Mortal Kombat (any version)
- Lode Runner
- ...And this list keeps growing! =D
If anyone would like a great home for any of these... let me know =)
I also have a thing for retro computers (from my childhood) and the old handheld "arcade" machines; like the
that John was given. I love the old BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, ZX80/81 and the Atari 2600, etc.
As for me, I'm a Computer Scientist, working as a Software Developer. I have experience in embedded systems and IoT devices, with a specialisation in system integration and communication protocols.
I have a lot to learn about arcade maintenance and am attracted to the whole repair process, thus the love for the John's Arcade channel.
I hope to get to know more of you on here. Please feel free to drop me a line anytime, and if anyone want's know know anything about me, just haller.
DrTopCat.
