I preface this by saying thanks to John. YOU MADE THIS POSSIBLE. You found the game on craigslist and told me GET THIS MACHINE. So I took your advice and here is the story.
My only regret is that I don't have MORE pictures. Last weekend was the most enjoyable time I've spent with friends and family, mostly my brother, he rode with me to Elkhart.
We got on the road Saturday morning and headed out from Peoria Illinois to Elkhart Indiana. Solid 8 hours round trip. The drive was pleasant. We arrived on time and things were shall we say interesting at the house. We walked in the door and were greeted by a half dozen cats. Right then I thought great chance we will be leaving without a game. I'm not bringing home anything soaked in cat piss and clawed to hell and back.
Turns out he kept the game in a no-cats area. The thing has no odor. We lucked out. I noticed a lot of waviness and super white background on the monitor when the game plays. Something really didn't look right. The side art was also missing. I talked the guy down a few bucks and we loaded up the game and set out toward home.
The ride back was uneventful. We decided to stop at the last minute at the "America's Playable Arcade Museum" over in McLean Illinois. We stopped and played a few games, met the owner, showed him the game, and took a few pictures. The area open to the public is pretty small but it's clean and well done. The games he has out for display are in above average condition.
They have a nice little seating area if you want to hang out.
He has a great selection of popular pinball games in addition to the arcade games.
It's a pretty pleasant place to visit. He doesn't allow kids under 18 unless supervised by a parent or guardian.
We got back to home base and decided to unload the game. My nephew, who just got his learner's permit, really seemed to enjoy playing Popeye. We were hanging out playing the game until about 11 o'clock Saturday night and he randomly mentioned that he'd never seen the Blues Brothers movie. We couldn't allow that to stand so we ordered some pizza & wings and watched the extended R rated version together.
Remember that nasty wavy screen I mentioned earlier? I took a look around inside the game an immediately noticed a loose wire.
I plugged in this red guy:
And the picture immediately cleared up to THIS:
and THIS:
Now, I'm not going to go back and take a before picture on that display but let me tell you, it was pretty bad before. These two pictures are 100% better. That being said can anyone suggest what I should do as far as the monitor is concerned at this point? Should I adjust the b+ and do a full alignment then see how it looks? Does anyone know what the darkness on the left edges are from?
Anyhow here is the rest of the pictures. I pulled out the PCB and it looks like It's never been touched.
back:
and front butt of the board:
Last but not least here is the front of the game:
Bottom front:
And the coin mechs:
One final question I have about the mechs. He pointed out that they are brand new. He spent about $250 on them. Are the faces correct? Behind the door they're new and working.
Anyhow here is a link to the album:
http://imgur.com/a/vxgMv#0