Hello everyone!

[charlesapex]

Hi all,

New member here - thought I would say hello.

I used to have a modest collection of boards (mainly 90's stuff from my youth: Street Fighter II, Simpsons, Seibu Soccer etc.) but got rid of them years ago, along with different cabs I had owned etc. Being a dad to an 8 month old boy, I realised the importance of hanging on to my youth

I also have a huge collection of boxed Game Boy mulitcart games (Quite a few Game Gear bootlegs as well) that I could never get rid of, started collecting them around 1994 and still have virtually all of them, apart from a couple that I swapped in school, lost etc. Also a large collection of mega drive bootleg stuff.

I've got the box room upstairs to hoard all my gaming stuff and music equipment in, so next thing on the list is a supergun to hook up to my studio speakers and enjoy classic games again.

I work in the amusement industry and have done for years. I used to fix fruit machines, arcade games (newer stuff like Mario Kart etc.) and other things like pool tables, juke boxes, self service bookie machines etc. Then I went purely into arcade slot repair but now just do pubs again, so fruits, pool tables and jukeboxes. I have a gamesroom in the garage which currently houses 13 fruit machines so plenty to keep me occupied. I love the job, it's a doddle and love repairing machines.

Anyway, will speak to you all soon

Cheers

Charlie

charlesapex2020-06-26 23:21:19

 

[TheDaddy]

Welcome to ukvac Charlie.

You are in the right place by the sounds of things. I worked on casino equipment but got out of it a while back.

Dave.TheDaddy2020-06-26 23:22:41

 

[charlesapex]

I don't blame you Dave, casino's are totally different from the pub game and I didn't enjoy it a lot. Fixing machines in a shirt and tie is just wrong...

 

[TheDaddy]

Haha yeh , i worked back at hq so onsite engineers swapped out faulty parts and then sent them to us for repair. I did a lot of the note acceptors, main boards, psu's ect. I have been repairing for years done dvd players , stereos , fruties ect ect. Prob same as you. Anything with a plug and i will have a go.

Its the best feeling in the world when you fire something up you have brought back from the dead and it works.

Dave.

Dave.

 

[charlesapex]

I agree, it's a good feeling when you switch it on and it comes back to life - I'm just hoping there's enough work for us when the pubs open up again...

 

[TheDaddy]

I hope so mate , i am sure things will bounce back. I have a steady job now in software, very steady and 4 days a week.

Spend as much time repairing arcade pcb's as i can.

My favourite restore was an only fools ans horses fruity from 1992 , had a mare finding the dam stepper motors. I had to sell it and i wish i hadnt.

Dave.

 

[charlesapex]

I think that machine was a BFG if I remember? They fetch a good few hundred quid now as you'll probably know, along with the Dr Who machines.. Most of my machines are the early noughties period: Barcrest/Vivid, Extreme Gaming, BFG, Maygay etc. All working, except a new power supply needed for an Itialian Job 2 - IWO but reel lights intermittent. Don't think it's the Epoch board as flywired the new battery away from it and works fine apart from that. Need to have a fiddle with it, but too hot in there with all the machines on and this heat wave!

 

[qjuk]

Welcome to the forum Charlie.

I used to love playing the fruities too, my era was the mid 80’s, like Win-A-Gain, Spoof, Black Hole and Bank Raid. I also quite enjoyed the ‘newer’ stuff like Andy Capp, Road Hog, Viz, Rollercoaster, Monopoly 60th and the original Maygay Simpsons. I pretty much stopped playing them after the mid 90’s.

I remember the Only Fools and Horses machine too, it’s a great machine with some excellent voice samples. One recently sold on eBay for just over £400.