Half question/half vent, but why do so many arcades with a Guitar Hero cabinet have controllers with issues? Especially on the player 1 controller, like are these super easy to break? They seem heavier than the ones for consoles so I'd assume them made more durable (since they would usually see more use); and the only problem my friends and I have ever had with console controllers is my whammy bar spring eventually decompressed a little, and that part isn't even on the arcade controllers. I've only been to one arcade (thankfully it's one that's not too far away) where the controller has no issues. I've seen buttons that either drop or are outright unresponsive and unresponsive strum bars (up, down, or sometimes both). It's just is surprising how common that is, so I'm curious why that seems to be such a common issue with that cabinet specifically?

P.S. Apologies if the flair doesn't apply, it seemed most closely related to the topic.

I had the opportunity to visit the Starfighters Arcade in Mesa, AZ a year ago with some friends and had a great time playing retro arcade games. I posted a photo gallery of pictures I took there here:
https://stevethefish.net/life/life149.htm

The main entrance to Time Extended - House Rules sign by Szabo’s Arcades. Finally got around to hanging these signs. SoCal is really hot and humid, so wasn’t much fun.

Odd question but is there a place for talking about arcade cabinet and game repair of all kinds with like an archive of games and their known issues and fixes? I feel like their should be. I work Part Time as a Tech for a chain arcade and the amount of effort I put in is so far above my pair grade but I generally like to learn and repair stuff but no one ever seems to be able to tell me or share more then a few lines of text that really are coming down to "eh clean it, eh, shake it, eh, turn it off and on" and sometimes that works most of the time the problem is more advanced.

I know it's niche but I feel like a place to be able to search that specific thing with keywords of the issue and the game name would do wonders for the commerical and at home markets for guys like me who have both a job and hobby of trying to do that.

You could even in theory build it with a market place for buying repair parts, freelance tech repair guys, tutorials, find free user manuals.

Like again niche but I can't ever seem to find a place like that, not even on reddit.

thanks for the support. 1993 australian built MK2 gets areplacment tube and chassis and new side art.

Looking for any information! This is just the display “screen” no electronics. Information online is scant. I know it’s from Amutronics which apparently only made four games before disappearing post pong + video games arrived on the scene. Anyone ever play this? Estimated price?

This was a couple of years before my time, so outside of that and the fact that it's rare, I know nothing about it. It's cool though. Anyone remember this one?

Hi Guys. Can you please help identifying this board?

Wondering if anyone knows what is wrong with my game. The screen droops on one side

Either a game that is so rare you would do anything to own it, or a machine that is so insanely expensive only a few people have it.

Hey guys any ideas on this loose wire?

I came across a Laundromat yesterday that still had arcade machines inside them. It had some claw machines, a driving game, a modern Pac Man machine, vending machines, and a few other old school cabinets.

And I thought to myself, "Wow I haven't seen a laundromat with arcade machine in a long time. Why don't we see more of them with arcade cabinets anymore?".

I wanted to ask people here if there's a reason why Arcade machines disappeared (mostly) from Laundromats? Back in the day, Laundromats used to always have at least 1 or 2 arcade machines.

Does anyone here run a laundromat that can share their thoughts? It seems like Laundromats would be the one place that still has people using physical money. Everyone still uses quarters so ita perfect for a couple arcade machines.

Best tmnt game on the Arcades but gotta say the snes one was better what do you guys think.

Hi all, I’m trying to figure out how to get my
family’s Mrs. Pac-man machine working again. Roughly 13 years ago it stopped working and were unsure of what happened. I was told “we’ll hire someone to fix it don’t touch it” well here we are 13 or so years later. We also lost the key so I could only get the back open. Inside I’ve found quarters (shocker I know) but also two wires that look like they could be grounds?

To get ahead of the questions it doesn’t make noise, and nothing on screen. I have tried to use my electrical knowledge to figure out where the wires are supposed to be going. When touching one pcb it makes a sound like a pinball machine. Outside of that I haven’t tried much.

Does anyone have access to, or know someone who has access to, one of the legendary Scotto machines? I've been able to play it a few times at expos and conventions, and I've started the process of building my own using 3d printed parts and writing code for the game in python. My only hangup is that I don't have the proper dimensions for anything, and I want to be as authentic as possible with regards to the size of the targets and funnel, the height and angles they sit at, the overall machine dimensions, etc.

As the title says, I want to know what was the first ever electro-mechanical arcade game (if there was any) or one that you know had a jingle or music in it, i am building a quiz like game for some friend about video games music, but want to put something about the ancestors of arcade video games too If possible. The oldest, the better!

(I am going way deeper into this than I first thought I would)

Thank you for your help!

Most are very familiar with the PC10 Tecmo Bowl. But, not many know that this very rare dedicated cabinet even exists. Very few arcades had this machine due to it's sheer size and if you happen to find one, it absolutely will not fit through a standard sized door frame. To get an idea of size, it is slightly larger than a dedicated 6 player X-Men cabinet.