Joust, didn't think I would ever own this one. A classic game and fun to play with 2 players. I thought the price range on this beauty would keep me away.
So here I am cruising through Craiglist around 4PM one day, and I come across this add: "Joust arcade game - $100: this is a full size Joust arcade game
(you'll need a dolly and a truck to move) it needs some work on the electronics (not currently working)". Thats it. No other description, no pictures, no
nothing else. I check the time on the posting. It was posted only 15 minutes prior to me reading it. I email the guy my phone number hoping he is reading
his email sometime soon. Within 30 minutes, he calls. "Yeah its still available". I told him I would be there in 1 hour, sight unseen. So here I am driving
to pick this thing up, and my vehicle breaks down. Yes.... my ride to the arcade, and my pickup vehicle, are now stranded on the side of the highway. I keep
thinking to myself "I have to beat someone else to this one". My brother-in-law comes to pick me up in his truck within 30 minutes, and we are happily on our
way to get this thing. So I get there and this guy shows me the arcade. What's this?!??! The cabinet was in pristine condition! I would easily give it an A-
on looks, with the only points being taken off for a few nicks in the side art. So now I'm thinking, I don't care what is wrong with this thing, $100 for a
near perfect cabinet was worth it all by itself.
I get this arcade home, and start the testing process. First I check the kill switches. Nope, not the problem.
Next I start checking voltages on the power supply. No +5V. Bingo! I check the fuses. Not blown, power supply is bad. Now these things have a linear power supply
which tend to go nuclear, so instead of rebuilding it I decided to swap it out with a spare switching power supply I had. It took me about 2 hours to customize a
power harness. I fire it up, hoping the boards were still OK and the monitor wasn't too bad. I run around to the front, and Hal-le-lu-jah! It's alive! Better yet,
the monitor has perfect brightness and color. Now the final cleanup on this machine: I take out the bezel and windex 25 years of tobacco smoke off of the inside. I
didn't think it was possible for the monitor to look even better, but it does! Also, every little light bulb was burned out. Easy to replace, just annoying. Why
don't people replace these? They look so much better all lit up. Anyways that's it! For $100, a pristine Joust, fixed and fully
functional.
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