I just dragged home another project, Firepower. It was very cheap, and very rough. It has lichens growing on too of the backbox and the whole thing smells like mushrooms. But the playfield is in pretty good shape, and it shows signs of life. The first thing I did was pull the boards out and clean them with spray eelectronics cleaner and a stiff bristle brush. Cleaned moles pins with magic eraser, replaced some blown fuses and put it all back together and powered it up. The MPU LEDs flashed and went out and not much else. I did get the credit/match display to show a number which could be advanced with the button inside the coin door. Then it all went downhill. I decided to reset some chips to see if I could get some more progress and not having the right tools I ended up breaking a pin off a ROM. Today I soldered the pin back on but the LEDs on the MPU still don't behave as they did before, nothing on the displays now. However, the sound now works! Sometimes when I hit the switch, I hear a related click and the "Firepower" speech and another sound plays. Pressing the test switch on the sound board plays a library of sounds.
One odd thing is I'm getting 40-42v at the 28v fuse on the power supply board and seeing 12v where I'd expect 5v according to the label near the board. I'd hate to plug a newly overhauled board set (or a brand new rottendog) in and fry it...I'm not an expert at all, not terribly comfortable with doing my own board repairs (but I am cheap enough to try) SO...
do I buy the $30 ROM set from K's Arcade and keep cleaning and wiggling connectors?
Send all three boards off to a pro? (Recommendations?)
Drop the 3 bills for a Rottendog?
Scrap it and sell off parts? Make a coffee table?
It shows just enough like to lure me in deeper...