Last week I purchased a set of Randy Fromm’s School of Arcade Repair DVDs from a fellow member of Digital Press (FABombJoy). I currently own almost 20 arcade games (photo gallery) and at least half of them are showing signs of wear. My biggest fear has been messing with arcade monitors, which is unfortunately what most of my games need work on. Since videogame monitors sit at the top of the cabinet they are subjected to the most heat, which tends to wear out the small paper capacitors. Monitors also use the most power (they can hold 20,000 volts or more), as opposed to things like the actual game PCB (printed circuit board) which runs off of only 5 volts.

If nothing else, the DVDs have given me a big boost in self-confidence. Tonight I’ve been out in the arcade with a voltmeter, trying to track down what’s wrong with the dead monitor in my Mortal Kombat machine. Before watching the DVDs I was scared to death to stick my hand anywhere near the monitor (or even inside the machine while it was turned on). Now I at least have a general understanding of what’s going on inside there. I knew in general what was going on, but not to the level Fromm shows in his DVDs.

While the DVDs are pretty expensive (I got a great deal at $160), they’re worth their weight in gold. I have checked locally before and to get a monitor “cappedâ€? most people charge $100-$150, and that’s with me delivering it to them and picking it up. After watching the videos, I can do it myself for $10. I guess I’m just a little excited about the whole prospect of being able to fix my own machines. I don’t have any aspirations of fixing anyone else’s machines or going into business or anything like that, but it would be nice to be able to at least breath a little life back into some of my own cabs.