PSA: fixed a 1980s arcade board with a paperclip and a prayer

Three years ago, a guy brought a broken Ms. Pac-Man board to my shop in St. Louis and I had no clue where to start. Last month, I pulled it out of storage and decided to give it one more shot. After tracing lines for a week, I found a cracked trace near the power input. I bridged it with a piece of a paperclip and some solder, and the thing actually booted. The look on the guy's face when I called him was worth all the headache. Anyone else had a crazy fix with junk parts that actually worked?

2 comments

2 Comments

allen.drew8d ago

Ever think about how many of these old boards are saved by pure stubbornness instead of skill? That paperclip fix is basically a time capsule repair, using the kind of hack a kid in 1985 would have done. It's cool that the simplest metal and some heat can bring a whole machine back to life.

the_julia7d ago

Right? Like half of these old things are held together with gum and hope. Good point, allen.drew, maybe skill is just stubbornness with a soldering iron.