Quoted from DakotaMike:Yeah, I mean a totally completely dead game could just be a blown line fuse by the power switch. Easy and quick to change, and that could get you more info. I think they're usually an 8a slow blo.
Otherwise, the power supply could be totally fried. But I'd be doubtful that it would be totally gone to the point where nothing lights up or happens on a power-up. If it is just the line fuse, then that's a very quick, easy and cheap fix.
Even power supply boards aren't too expensive in the grand scheme, at least for most games. But you can't really diagnose much when the game is totally dead like that. Short of just checking fuses and looking for obvious damage.
Offer-wise, I say $1000 to $1500 is fair. I think Batman Forever's average-price is like $2500, so that gives you $1000+ of wiggle room in case you need to buy new boards or displays, and your time of course is worth something. And who knows might not be very much wrong with it. That's probably what I would do.
My brother had this game for about 6 years, so speaking from a little experience here. In my (and my brother's) opinion the game is great, a rare case of Sega actually punching as high as B/W.
Agree 100% with this advice, probably the best given thus far.
My brother's machine once went "dead"; upon power-up the only thing that turned on was the uncontrolled GI, everything else was dead as a doornail. The culprit turned out to be a bad (visibly leaking) 10mf/16v (if I recall correctly) stabilizing capacitor connected to the voltage regulator IC. (Narrowed down to power supply board by realizing that the only fault which would likely cause these symptoms would have been a dead 5v logic supply.) Apparently this is a fairly common failure in this game (the IC is also a common failure point), but fortunately the PCBs in this game are of high quality and tolerate desoldering/resoldering very well.
If this game could be bought for $1500 or so, I don't think you would lose money even if you are not able to fix it yourself given that it is in otherwise good condition, and if the "fix" is as simple as it was with my brother's game then you can feel a nice sense of satisfaction at getting a screaming good deal on a fun game!
