Mario Bros. (1983 Nintendo)
Click on Marquee for KLOV listing.
The Story: As popular as the original arcade game was and still is today, most people associate "Mario Bros." with "Super Mario Bros." and get the 2 confused. The original arcade game had the unfortunate luck of being released in the same year as the infamous video game crash, and Super Mario Bros. (ported to both NES and the Vs. arcade system) played a huge role in bringing the industry back from the dead. While I love SMB as much as any other dedicated gamer out there, I always wanted an original Mario Bros. arcade game, even though I had never played one and had only seen it maybe once or twice in the past. I can play SMB on my NES anytime, and while the NES also has a port of the original MB, it simply can't hold a candle to the arcade game.
The Score: I found this one lurking on Craigslist in Saint Charles with a retail $400 price tag. It was in a converted DK cabinet (not an original "widebody") but that didn’t bother me, it’s still a Nintendo cabinet with full artwork. I learned that the seller is actually a reseller/operator and he was firm on price. Oh well, I really wanted the game and it looked to be in very nice shape with only minor wear on the CPO. I make the hour long drive and was pointed to a nice game that sounded like crap (wow, nice of him to mention that). I quickly point that out and he agrees to knock $100 off the price. Hey, at least he apologized and made it right, that says something. The cabinet and artwork is in very nice shape, decent picture, and the side art looks like it’s brand new. I felt pretty good about the deal and brought home another toy.
The Service: After digging inside, I found the original speaker was disconnected and the speaker wires going to a smaller speaker mounted elsewhere inside the cabinet. I remove it and discover it actually had a wadded up rag "taped" to it. After removing that and wiring up the original speaker, I got sound that was unbelievably loud and distorted (now I know why someone made that "contraption"). The culprit was bad caps in the audio PCB, which is also linked with the monitor. I sent the audio PCB and monitor chassis to a forum member for repair and new caps (this was before I started working on monitors myself). When he sent it back I was greeted with nothing but a solid line going up and down the monitor, how wonderful. Apparently it got "wounded" in shipping, but he patched it up for me and sent it back, and now it’s working all the way, looking good and sounding good. A broken marquee light was replaced. The only other thing I had to do was replace the homebrew "free play" switch with a proper coin mechanism that I pieced together. I had to order a few parts from the original manufacturer. I also added a high score save kit, which also saves the freeplay setting without having to use those pesky alkaline batteries.
The Score: I found this one lurking on Craigslist in Saint Charles with a retail $400 price tag. It was in a converted DK cabinet (not an original "widebody") but that didn’t bother me, it’s still a Nintendo cabinet with full artwork. I learned that the seller is actually a reseller/operator and he was firm on price. Oh well, I really wanted the game and it looked to be in very nice shape with only minor wear on the CPO. I make the hour long drive and was pointed to a nice game that sounded like crap (wow, nice of him to mention that). I quickly point that out and he agrees to knock $100 off the price. Hey, at least he apologized and made it right, that says something. The cabinet and artwork is in very nice shape, decent picture, and the side art looks like it’s brand new. I felt pretty good about the deal and brought home another toy.
The Service: After digging inside, I found the original speaker was disconnected and the speaker wires going to a smaller speaker mounted elsewhere inside the cabinet. I remove it and discover it actually had a wadded up rag "taped" to it. After removing that and wiring up the original speaker, I got sound that was unbelievably loud and distorted (now I know why someone made that "contraption"). The culprit was bad caps in the audio PCB, which is also linked with the monitor. I sent the audio PCB and monitor chassis to a forum member for repair and new caps (this was before I started working on monitors myself). When he sent it back I was greeted with nothing but a solid line going up and down the monitor, how wonderful. Apparently it got "wounded" in shipping, but he patched it up for me and sent it back, and now it’s working all the way, looking good and sounding good. A broken marquee light was replaced. The only other thing I had to do was replace the homebrew "free play" switch with a proper coin mechanism that I pieced together. I had to order a few parts from the original manufacturer. I also added a high score save kit, which also saves the freeplay setting without having to use those pesky alkaline batteries.
