That brought back so many memories for me, as I remember my oldest brother getting this for his birthday. I initially thought it might be modded for use on a 12V caravan supply, or motorhome, but looking on Google they are flat 2 pin plugs not round. Really strange! Interesting video Roger and great fault finding 👍👍
Thanks Vince... my initial thoughts were a bench power supply but then I thought someone with a bench supply would realise the importance of positive/negative polarity and would have a soldering iron. Interesting little find. Glad it brought back good memories. As ever Enormous thanks for your support!
Thanks Jason, I'm flattered and very grateful for your views and comments. I have to admit the channel has been slow growing perhaps because it takes me a while to get each video our or perhaps for other reasons, but I'm thrilled to have you along. Thanks so much for your feedback.
Thanks Mark, glad you were reacquainted. You don't see those grey ones often. I love this little game its my favourite LED game and really quite pailful to the arcade given the tech. Glad you enjoyed the vid and thanks so much for your comment.
Thanks MrVectrexUK. I was a bit saddened I damaged the PCB when I removed the IC so had to put the link in, but I suppose these things happen. But as you say it was a horrid mode so its better now. Thank you so much for your kind comments and support.
Wow, that was a surprise. Maybe this will be the start of a new craze for 'Plugged' items on Ebay. I sold my Entex Space Invader a couple of years ago but I still have a Merlin I could plug ;-) Well done for all your hard work in making this interesting video.
Hi Lawrie, I did actually spot another plugged game on ebay but it was plugged to a dc supply thankfully. I wanted a merlin SO much as a kid. I'll stick to conventional AA power though. Thanks so much for your comments. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Hi Roger great video as ever. First time I have ever seen a Booby Trapped Device on You Tube, are you sure that seller wasn't trying to take you out 🤣 keep up the great work. Mick 👍👏🍻
LOL, I am sure there are a few people out there who could have it in for me. I dread to think what would happen if it had fallen into the wrong hands. Anyway all's well that ends well. Thanks so much for your comment. Glad you enjoyed the video. Roger
Come on, own up... This was 8 year old Roger's first ever Retro Tech Repair which you got down from your loft 😁 Wow it's scary to think what may or may not have happened when this was plugged in. As usual, great persistence in finding a solution to ending up with a working game, it cleaned up nicely too, great stuff 👍 Thanks for the upload, always entertaining.
... and thank you for your comments, I always look forward to you commenting. Sadly in 1982 when the game launched I was quite a bit older than 8 although had I been the one to mod it, it might have been something I was stupid enough to do. I was temped to plug it in and see what happened but I could have made things worse so decided not to bother. Anyway thanks again for your comments. As always very much appreciate the feedback. Thank you
Great video! In passing, you referenced another tutorial regarding key pressing, which one is that? I am trying to repair my black Entex Space Invaders from childhood and need some advice regarding the buttons; the rubbery material underlying the 'left' and 'right' movement buttons has disintigrated, such that they cannot be pressed and pop back up--hope that makes sense.
Hi Thanks for your question. I know exactly what you mean. It's been a while and I can't remember exactly which vid I was talking about, but unfortunately it dealt mainly with dirty pads not disintegration of the rubber. I haven't seen that myself. I have no experience of it, but wonder if a cheap old keyboard might yield some rubbery bits you could use. I collect them from things I fail to repair and reuse if I can. I have seen buttons where the carbon has worn off the rubber pads and these can be fixed with copper tape or conductive paint, but I haven't tacked a total rubber failure. Thanks for your question. Sorry that I can't help
LOL Maybe I'll do a face reveal if I ever make it to 10k subs or something. I usually go to some effort to edit out by baldy head (I mean that's not why people watch now is it?) But I was in a bit of s hurry to get this one out. Glad you enjoyed the vid. Thanks so much for your comments
Huh that is crazy! I would love to see how to do a safe AC power mod for tablets and phones. I have a few (very, very old) HTC Universal Windows Mobile devices that will not power on without the battery when plugged into USB. Also it would be nice to repurpose old phones without worrying about the battery aging.
Mad isn't it? Great suggestion, a couple of people asked for the same. Maybe I should do something like that on a future vid. Thanks for the comments and ideas.
@@peterbardason5703 Yes Peter, its just over 3 weeks. I struggle to get more than 1 video out a month. I work full time and have another part-time job so I don't have as much time as I would like. Thanks for sticking with us.
***TIP*** 🐨 Should you ever come across donor Chip swapping, it's a good idea to source some IC socket Strips, I stress Socket Strips, because IC's have various widths and Pins per side, and with the IC Socket Strips you can cut the amount of pins required to length, Now to solder in the pins it is important to have the IC plugged into the two strips as you solder the first four pins at each corner, once the corners are soldered in, remove the IC to avoid heat damage and complete soldering in the rest of the IC socket pins, once done, Plug the IC in and hope the extra height doesn't interfere via the extra height from the installed IC Socket.. Good Luck.. Oh and APU I dropped a 👉👍👈
Thanks so much for your detailed comments and Great tip. I do have some sockets but don't have strips and will get some following this. Thanks also for your support to the channel. Much appreciated.
Thanks DaveDarko Maybe I did .... although I was tempted to see what would have happened if I plugged it in! Thanks for your comments much appreciated.
Thanks Retro Tech Guardian, they certainly could have. No polarity indication or reverse polarity protection on the board though, so perhaps it only lasted long enough for the 50/50 odds of misconnection to play out! Thanks so much for you comment. Much appreciated
Hi Brian I use a window cleaner spray like "windowlene" or "windex", whatever brand they have at the shop when I run out and then clean with a tooth brush. Sometimes I finish off with a household spray furniture polish. Hope that's useful. Thanks so much for your question.
Great Minds think alike. I had thought that too, although the plug was marked 250 VAC and when I tried it with my bench supply and the spacing between pins was way off and the pins themselves thicker than normal banana plugs. I should have shown it in the video really. Thanks so much for your comment though, I like your thinking and appreciate your feedback.
Nice video, would be nice if you could illustrate what needed to be done to make it pluggable. I was thinking: you could add a usb plug on it and find a charger with the same voltage and amps to make it pluggable. Also as a side note, your voice over is lower volume then your other voice, which makes it I have to change my volume while watching the video.
Thanks Mitchel, I think USB would have been a bit low at 5v, but a 9v AC/DC regulated supply would probably have worked. Re the audio I will be more careful next time. Thanks for the feedback!
Wow... I could've saved so much money on Game Gear batteries if I'd thought of this... Also, just be thankful that whoever did that didn't also decide to mod his wife's "personal massage"... I hope.
Sure The Retro Speculative. It was. I think it did nothing much! The idea is to restore the lost oils from the plastics of the discoloured game (kind of like automotive black plastic colour restorer) but its didn't work well. I might try baby oil if I had to try it again. I just happened to have olive oil that day... I don't have much use for baby oil. LOL
@@RetroTechRepair Thanks for the reply! I thought that's what it was for. Shame it wasn't too effective. I've used Vaseline before with varying levels of success, but I'm impatient and don't let it sit long enough! Baby oil would be interesting to try. Given the principal, I wonder how effective non-synthetic engine oil might be 🤔
I was expecting to see a badly wired, PCB power supply inside for the 9v DC, not just wires wrapped around the battery contacts. Insane that someone would do that 🙄
HI Matty, I know crazy isn't it? Somebody had suggested it might fit a bench power supply but it didn't fit in mine, but it fitted many AC sources well! maybe somebody thinks UK mains is 9v DC! who knows. Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the comment.
Yikes, looks like it did get plugged in, strange it didn’t seem to have gone bang. No soot, no exploded parts. Looks like they changed things around quite a bit. I had a similar with,y locomotive alarm clock. I found it at a thrift store and got sound but nothing more than clicking as the blob on a board was faulty. It did seem to behave correctly but only one bit of the digital recording of train sounds was reaching the speaker. I found the Hong Kong manufacturer who put me in contact with the Australian distributor. They supplied a new sound board and I figured out the alarm input was now low to activists instead of high to activate. I swapped the alarm and lights wires at the battery and voila! Train sounds. Then there’s my model car radio. A model of a ‘28 Lincoln, the radio was always distorted and recently died with no local oscillator. It was missing the steering wheel but otherwise in pretty good shape. Then a Rollys Royce Phantom Coupe appeared at a local op shop. It was in poor shape, finished corroded, wheels missing, lights missing, steering wheel rolling around inside. I soon had the radio swapped over and glued the steering wheel into the Lincoln. Almost complete now, the Rolls and the dead radio are in a drawer in case anything else shows up.
Yeah I wonder if they ever did plug it in? Nice repair on the clock and the model car radio, sounds like you went to a lot of effort for both. Very interesting. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and your detailed comment. Super Interesting and very much appreciated
I got Grandstand BMX Flyer from ebay. The screen doesnt light up but the game sounds ok and it does the right things when you press the buttons. Any ideas ?
I haven't yet repaired a BMX flyer they use a high voltage florescent tube to back light an LCD, my guess is that the LCD is working but the tube isn't. Unfortunately I don't know how to fix it
Hi, I thought that too, but I tried it in mine and it didn't fit, the spacing between the pins was off. With no polarity protection or indication on the plug I think it would have been a short lived success. I probably should have put that in the vid really. Thanks for you comment! Very much appreciated!
Same, but I really don't think that anyone techy enough to have a bench power supply is dumb enough to try something like this, especially on a child's toy. At least, I hope not...
Trust me you don’t need 250 V to damage that circuit board which is designated for 9 V 120 V could do far more damage if a heavy voltage such as that was used you would see the damage straight away on those components
Why would you do that? Just, why? That is so very dangerous and really a very stupid thing to do. I imagine if you plugged that into a mains power point, the game would go bang, flash, and probably catch fire or do something else really horrible. Does the game actually have an AC adaptor input on it? I've never tried to repair anything before, but even I wouldn't do that. What was the person thinking? Who would do something so stupid?
Couldn't agree more! Crazy. The game itself doesn't have an DC jack so presumably someone improvised (badly) . I think you are right there would have been a lot of damage if the game had been plugged into the mains. Thanks for you comments and welcome to the channel. Great to have you along
