Tranquility Base Arcade - Repair Station

Status upon arrival: DOA.

Repairs: The main fuse was replaced and the game started up but multiple problems were evident. The display was extremely dim so the chassis was rebuilt. Edge connector repaired. PCB appeared to have several problems. After diagnosis, multiple chips were replaced. Various solder joints repaired. Shifter rebuilt. Coin mechs rebuilt. Marquee ballast resistor and starter replaced. Game was cleaned inside and out. New locks installed. Game is now 100% functional.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: DOA.D

Repairs: The monitor, a Hitachi TV, was removed and examined. A blown capacitor was found and repaired. The TV was reassembled and reinstalled in the cabinet. The TV had a full raster but produced a white screen with or without the PCB connected. When checking the chips on the PCB they were found to have 0.4VDC instead of the expected 5VDC. The problem was found to be in the four diodes that comprised the bridge rectifier. All four diodes replaced. The PCB was again tested and now operated correctly. The game was disassembled, cleaned, reassembled and is now 100% functional.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: The game arrived in the Repair Station after being stored for nearly 25 years! D

Repairs: The game turned on but did nothing. All connections were thoroughly cleaned and tightened. The PCB was taken out and each socketed chip was carefully removed, cleaned and reseated. After reinstalling the PCB a complete but fuzzy picture could be seen. The trouble was found to be that both the smoked plexi and bezel were covered with a thick coat of grease! Once the buildup was removed the picture quality was excellent. The chassis was cleaned and a cap kit may be considered in the future.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: Functional but with problems.

Repairs: A cap kit as well as new pots were installed on the G07 monitor chassis. Cap kit installed on the PCB to correct intermittent sound problem. Speed chip added. Replaced 5F ROM and socket. Switcher power supply added. PCB edge connector replaced. Hardboard divider replaced. Joystick and centering grommet replaced. New power cord installed. Coin bucket and lid purchased. New locks installed and keychain made. Game is now 100% functional.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: The game blew a fuse immediately after being turned on.

Repairs: The power supply board was removed, tested and confirmed dead. A number of solder points on the molex connector were found to be cracked. All solder joints were reflowed and the board tested good with all voltages being within the specified range. Upon power up the game still blew a fuse. The reason for the blown fuse was eventually traced to two bad diodes on the daughter board. The diodes were replaced and the game stabilized, however what appeared to be a ROM error was now present. All the ROMs as well as the 8080 CPU were removed, cleaned and reseated. The game now booted up correctly and properly displayed all characters. The game coined up and played but had no sound. The sound problem was found to be a bad chip at H6. The chip was replaced and the sound returned. The game also had a display problem that was corrected by replacing a 33 Volt, 1 Watt Zener diode. la

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: DOA.

Repairs: Multiple broken solder joints were discovered on the power board molex connection. Once corrected the game fired up but showed a half screen of vertical lines.sTwo RAM chips were replaced. Game now played but lacked sound. Replacement of chips in the "game on" circuit as well as several chips on the sound board fixed the problem. Strobe light assembly was completely rebuilt. The coin door was rebuilt and the game is now 100% functional.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: DOA.

Repairs: The ZPU was heavily acid damaged. The acid was neutralized with a vinegar rinse. The reset circuit was repaired and corroded components were replaced. All the ROM were removed, cleaned and reseated. The BSC board was also acid damaged . All the RAM on the BSC as well as the sockets were replaced The interconnect cable were replaced. Since interconnect cables are no longer available, new ones were crafted by modifying a SCSI cable. Berzerk uses 16 4027 RAM chips on the VFB board. Since these are not readily available a known fix is to use eight 4116 RAM chips instead. The optical bat joystick was rebuilt. The final repair was to obtain a replacement for the on-board battery. It was found that a 3.6 volt cordless phone battery works quite well. The battery leads were attached to the ZPU and the battery was remote located to the bottom of the cabinet. After many years of service the batteries died and were replaced with NVRAM.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: The game turned on but multiple problems are evident.

Repairs: Replaced a capacitor on the 4600 chassis which fixed a blinking monitor problem. Replaced a blown capacitor on the Audio Amp board that brought the speech back. Replaced three RAM chips on the RAM board and two chips on the Pattern board. Reflowed many cold solder joints on the power board, PCB and monitor chassis.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: DOA.

Repairs: Two traces on the PCB were badly burned. The damaged areas were cut out and replaced with copper tape. The bridge rectifier had two bad diodes. The diodes were removed and replaced. A cap kit was done on the Motorola XM 701 chassis. The picture tube appeared dim so a B & K 467 rejuvenator was used to tune and adjust the tube. The joysticks were rebuilt.dThe game was disassembled, cleaned, reassembled and is now 100% functional.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: The game turned on and could be played but did not function properly.

Repairs: The shaft of the crocodile had snapped in two rendering him non-functional. A new shaft was manufactured and installed. The leapers had fallen off their mounts and were lying in the bottom of the cabinet. They were repaired and remounted. The game was converted from Free Play to Coin Play. Everything was cleaned and adjusted.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: The game turned on and could be played but did not function properly.

Repairs: The game arrived with stripped gear boxes, missing flashing goal lights, missing coin mechs, missing locks and in need of an overall restoration. The Super Chexx logos were replaced with new old stock ones from ICE. The missing USA logo on the base was located and installed. Original goal light stands were found after a lengthy search and new goal assemblies were made to get this feature working again. The dome was polished out with Novus 2 and Plexus.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: Working.

Repairs: The game arrived at Tranquility Base Arcade in excellent working condition but over time an intermittent steering problem developed with player two - the black car. Close inspection of the opto encoder PCB revealed several cracked solder joints. The original solder was removed and fresh new solder was applied. The opto encoder PCB was reinstalled and tested.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: DOA.

Repairs: Power supply was rebuilt. The CPU had a shorted capacitor as well as a bad chip. The CMOS and battery circuits were dead due to a corroded battery holder. The battery holder was removed and a lithium ion battery conversion kit was installed. Numerous cracked solder joints were repaired on every board along with the monitor chassis. The ROM board interconnect cable was replaced due to brittleness and intermittent signal activity. The game had no sound and was fixed by replacing the CPU chip on the sound board. The blackness adjustment pot on the monitor was replaced. The coin door lamps were replaced and the coin mechanisms were rebuilt. After many years of service the lithium ion battery died and was replaced with NVRAM.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: Working.

Repairs: The game arrived at Tranquility Base Arcade in excellent working condition but was in need of a cosmetic restoration. The foot pedal assembly was disassembled and the metal parts were first sandblasted and then powder coated. The mat which was in good condition but extremely filthy was brought back to life with a heavy dose of Armor All. The T-Molding as well as the bezel were replaced. The cabinet was vacuumed and cleaned and any scratches or imperfections were touched up.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: DOA.

Repairs: The power supply board was removed and rebuilt. Testing the monitor revealed that it blew the fuse in F2 immediately upon power up. Further analysis indicated that the transformer on the chassis was shorted. Another transformer was located tested and installed. The PCB was put back in the game and tested. The game now came on and but displayed a screen full of garbage. Replacing a faulty 7486 at A4 on the mother board along with a bad C1 on daughter board got the game to properly boot. Several resistors as well as all the opto-isolators were replaced. The game played correctly but lacked sound. Several capacitors along with the amplifier were replaced on the sound board. A faulty 74174 at F5 was replaced on the daughter board and the game now has sound.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: DOA.

Repairs: The power supply brick was removed and rebuilt. Testing the monitor revealed horizontal and vertical collapse. The solder from the header pins on the chassis was removed and replaced. All four power transistors on the monitor frame were replaced. A cap kit was also done. The monitor was reinstalled and now tested good. The bifurcated crimp pins for the 5 volt power line were replaced in the edge connector molex. To avoid future repairs the SENSE mod was done on the power supply board.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: The game turned on but did not function properly.

Repairs: The game played fine but did not save high scores. The High Score Memory Circuit was rebuilt. This entailed a new EAROM, 555 timer at A11, 74LS32 at A4, 74LS374 at H4 as well as various capacitors and diodes. The trackball was rebuilt. A cap kit was installed on the K4600 monitor chassis. The front of the game appeared to be horribly scratched but this turned out to be a poor paint job that was easily removed. The game is now 100% functional.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: The game turned on but did not function properly.

Repairs: The game played fine but had some graphic glitches. The sockets for ROM's 4M and 4N were replaced. An unwanted credit button was removed and the coin switches were properly wired. A switcher was removed and the original power supply was rebuilt. New cables were made and installed. The Sanyo 20EZ monitor was also recapped. A back door lock was acquired and installed. The game is now 100% functional.

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Prognosis: Released to the Arcade!

Status upon arrival: The game turned on but did not function properly.

Repairs: The original cassette deck was missing so an MP3 player was installed in its place. A custom wiring harness was fabricated. A new control panel overlay was installed. The coin meter had been disconnected so the wires had to be traced. The original wiring and molex were found shoved in the game so they were reinstalled and the coin meter functioned as it should. The PCB was repaired and the monitor was rebuilt. A new ballast and starter for the marquee were also installed.

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Prognosis: The game has been completely restored but there is currently no room in the Arcade.

Status upon arrival: DOA.

Repairs: The sync signal was absent on the mother board. Replacing a 7402 at D6 restored the signal. Powering up the game revealed no sound and a RAM error. The LM1877 amplifier was replaced. Two RAM chips were also replaced and the game was now 100% functional. Cap kit installed in monitor. The CPO was replaced and the game was cleaned inside and out. New locks installed.

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Prognosis: Minor tweaks remain before being released to the Arcade.

Status upon arrival: The game powers up but has no picture or sound.

Repairs: The monitor, a 12" black and white Hiatachi TV, showed a white screen (raster) but no picture. The molex connector from the PCB to the TV was cleaned, as was the connection to the start button. The PCB was checked and all voltages were confirmed as correct. Two blown fuses replaced. Fuse block cleaned. Edge connector cleaned. TV image was restored but found to be stretched side to side making most of the paddles invisible. TV disassembled and chassis removed for inspection. Blown capacitor found and repaired as well as multiple cold and cracked solder joints. Potentiometers cleaned to reduce "paddle shake."

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Prognosis: A few minor tweaks are needed before the game is released to the Arcade.

Status upon arrival: Functional but with joystick and monitor problem.

Repairs: Joystick was rebuilt. Game was cleaned inside and out. The monitor had a "blinking" problem that was fixed by replacing the capacitor located at C621. A cap kit was installed. The monitor was also degaussed to improve the color. An original GamePlan coin box was located and installed.

Prognosis: The game has been completely restored but there is currently no room in the Arcade.

Status upon arrival: PCB problem.

Repairs: Replaced several chips on the PCB. The game works fine in One Player mode but does not work correctly in Two Player mode.

Prognosis: Game still has a PCB problem.