Midway Omega Race
It all started when I went to a family friend's house to assist with a small renovation project. We were picking up some parts in his workshop when I saw the Omega Race sitting in the corner. Curious about the machine, I asked my father about it. Come to find out, my father's cousin owned an arcade. The machine had been in service there until it stopped working and was deemed unfixable. He then gave the machine to my father and uncle who, lacking a place to put it, struck a deal with the family friend. Whoever fixed the machine first would be able to keep it. So there it sat for around 20 years until I drug it over to my uncle's garage and began work on it.
Shortly after opening the machine up, I noticed the damage to the motherboard. As it turns out, the machine used a NiCad battery mounted at the top of the motherboard to save high scores. When the battery would leak, it would essentially destroy the board. As luck would have it, I found a person selling a board (untested but in mint condition, missing the battery).
While waiting for the board to come in, I cleaned up the machine and plugged it in, only to have one of the monitor control boards catch on fire. Seeing as how I had little experience with arcade machines at the time (this one was my first), I had my uncle take the machine to a local arcade repair shop. The repair man installed the new motherboard and managed to find a new/old stock board to replace the one that caught on fire.
This particular machine currently resides in my uncle's media room. It needs a few bulbs here and there, but recently suffered from a board failure. Hopefully one of my friends will be able to track down the failed components and bring it back to life.
I have another machine that is in similar condition hiding out in the garage. This machine was purchased as functional on an auction site but was found to have numerous issues due to acid damage. If this board cannot be repaired, I may look in to some emulation options. After all, I really like this game.
