Most aren't set up to even begin to work on an original Gott. System 1 MPU. Its not like you can find the spider chips off ebay from China like you can a 6821 or even 6532. Some of them contain custom program, all contain multiple functions. The only source for replacements is to pull them off questionable boards (which more than likely are toast themselves). They are not socketed and can't really be (Sockets were actually made at one time but no longer available and just introduce another time bomb for later). Two of the chips are paired together and if you change one, you may have to change the other with a matching partner. Unsoldering and resoldering and then doing it again and again on multiple spider chips is time consuming and risk damaging the board further.
Working boards with minor IC damage are still worth fixing. But putting a guarantee on the work is risky at best.
Back in the day, I had one known good board that was socketed and a good set of ICs on stand by. I used this to test chips I pulled from questionable boards. Bench time was worth about $35-$45/Hour. Then, System 1 games became worthless and it just wasn't worth the time, period. Now, bench time is worth $75-$100/Hour and its just not really cost effective to work on it for someone else that may end up frying it again or complain about its flakey-ness.
Certainly, with decent soldering/desoldering skills, it is worth saving for just the reasons you state (some titles aren't worth the extra cost of a new board). If you start with one known good board. You can depopulate it of the spider chips and install open face inline sockets and build your own spider chip sockets. But they have to be the wide open single swipe type since the legs are very delicate and you pretty much have to push each pin in gradually as you seat the chip. Then you could test and probably save a few decent boards.
Lake Forest, CA
Split
Ajax, ON
