Well, what a whirlwind of a weekend at TPF. Got a new personal high score of 3,654,454, and got my initials on 2 of the 3 TNAs at the show.
Saturday afternoon as I was walking into the show, Spooky calls and asks if I can bring the game to TPF for their team to look at. I dreaded getting it downstairs and hauling it to the show, so asked if they'd come to the house 20 min away and work on it. No go. I agreed to bring it up on the condition that if they couldn't fix it, they would take it back to WI themselves. So I brought it up. 3 hours later of their entire staff working on the game, I have a functioning TNA finally after 4 months. They said there was a short on the 5v line, likely due to a faulty ribbon cable? I don't know all the details. I stayed out of the pinball operating room aka back dock and let them work while we hit the show floor one last time. Both driver boards dead, basically replaced all boards and ribbons, etc.
Talked to Scott on Saturday. He's awesome as always. Was great to meet him in person. Wish I had already had the game fixed because I would have bothered him for an autograph haha. Maybe I can convince him to let me mail him a plastic or something...
It's definitely such an amazing game and the only one I would ever consider putting up with this much BS for. Sad it took a chargeback for this to happen, but I'm glad it worked out in the end. Luke and his crew were very helpful. Really nice guys.