Just some tips if you want to repair/clean handhelds:

Opening the game
Gadgets from the eighties are wonderful to open and repair. A few things to pay attention to:
- Never use electric screwdrivers. The plastic is very sensitive so use a manual screwdriver all the time. Screws go easy in when closing the game. If they don't screw in easy, stop, rewind and try again. If you have to work hard, you loosen the fit. Only the last turn you should feel it tightens.
- Check the screws. Most companies where smart enough to use the same screws throughout the whole game, but sometimes there are length differences. Very bad to crack your shell because of this!
- Pay attention to button, joystick assemblies. They are often a stack of plastic parts and sometimes a spring. Putting the game together is best done upside-down so all buttons stay in place.

Hard to open games
Most games are easy to open. 2 exceptions so far:
Coleco tabletops and Entex tabletops.
- The problem with the Coleco is 2 screws are under the CP overlay. You can pull it up carefully, but don't do this too often. I found a solution to make opening the next time easier. If you have it appart, you will see 2 clips at the back of the bottom part. They have a extension on the inside that is not really needed, and if you file it of, you can open the game over and over again while leaving the CPO in place. The part you file off is invisible from the outside.
- The Entex tabletops have screws under the marquee. Same story: don't open unless absolute necessary. You can get it off in neat condition, but don't repeat too often!

No Sound
A common problem is these game have lost their sound. 99% chance the contact to the disc-speaker is loose. They are really hard to solder back onto the ceramic, so best option is to buy a new one. All I repaired were 27mm, even today a common size. You can order them here:
http://nl.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=238-022
You have to get it out of its shell, but that is easy.

Nothing works at all
Most of the time this is just a problem in the internal power cables or battery contacts. Check the electric paths on conductance and if you get power behind the power switch, most of the time the game will work again.
If it is still dead, the problem can be that someone used a wrong AC adapter. This usually blows any of the transistors just after the power switch.

Control malfunction
Most of the time this means dirt under the button contacts. Open the game, remove the rubber strips with contact points, and clean both sides: the PCB contact and the black thingie in the rubber.

Dirt
- Use a soft cloth with water to clean the plastic.
- Use a toothbrush for cleaning ridges and embossed letters. Best is the softer pink or blue tip on modern dual action ones. If you manage to get parts completely loose, do the toothbrush part under a running water tap.
- Take apart for best cleaning
- Yellowing can be removed with Retrobright, but I have not tried it myself
- Use your luxury-bathrobe for polishing screens. I found this the best solution! A bathrobe makes very nice shine, yet it does not damage screen print on the transparent parts.
- Sometimes the joystick has a little screw in to hold the ball on top. Mostly it is rusty. Often it can be exchanged with a shiny screw that holds the PCB inside.

Piet Hein Eek, Dutch famous scrapwood-designer, opened a gigantic workshop/mall at the Dutch Design Week this week. Next to his own work, he displays and sells all stuff he likes to have in his shop. Within a room with weird stuff, I ran into this robot:


Anybody know what game is in this funky cabinet?

I have read the Coleco repair pages here:
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Coleco/ColecoRepair/index.html
But I have a question to you electronic wizkids out here.

The unit I bought does not power on.
This is what I checked:
- I have a Gakken unit (which has a power plug instead of the Coleco branded ones), so I connected 6V mini-mini jack (2.5mm, 6.3 V tip).
- When the switch is off, I measure +6.3V between the red wire-solder point on the PCB and the black one (seems totally logical).
- When the switch is on, I measure +1.5V on the switched pin from the on/off switch. That feels weird, I think it should still be 6.3V.

What can this mean?

Just received a new catch from Marktplaats:
Coleco Donkey Kong.

I was in great doubt whether to buy a Coleco or not. Plastically they are not the greatest. A bit cranky and not the best injection mould designers who worked on this series.
I'm also not a big fan of these stickery models. Most have nice print on the plastic, these Coleco's have paper stickers on the plastic. Add a bad battery compartment cover design to this, and you can imagine why most of these Coleco's look so beaten up. Mine was no exception. Battery cover missing, and most stickers peel off.

But game-wise they are very well made. I opened the unit for cleaning, and you see these Coleco's have the largest VFD displays ever made for these type of games. With a red and a purple overlay, this screen simulates 4 colours. Mario is made of yellow and red, princess and donkey are purple, and the scoring is blueish green.

Also the unit seemed DOA. It was totally down, so mostly that means power problems. These Coleco's were hacked quite often, as they had no DC power in like most other handhelds. So mine had an amateur power port added in the back. It turned out to be bad solder work was the cause of the malfunction. I removed the plug, resoldered the battery cables and now it runs great again. Sound is quite decent, as they put a plastic cone on the usual piezo tweeter.

I did some cleaning (mostly sticky tape residue to keep the batteries in place), and now the unit is pretty much OK. Unfortunately, the dumb one who used the sticky tape put it over the side art, so you see a band running over it. Luckily this unit has no glue-rot, as many Coleco's have. This means the print on the stickers is complete and in the right colour, so I can trace it for replacement stickers. The bezel and control panel covers are laminated stickers, and are in great condition. Only small problem on the bezel is that some metal pin bumped into the bezel "glass" a few times. Hope I can use some plexy-polish to lessen the effect.

Thing to do now is to trace the side and marquee art and try to create nice replacement stickers.

Here's one pic to start with (I had no camera around with the first stage of restoration )

Does anybody know if you can use an old B&W tv that only has an antenna on top to display the image of an old console with COAX output?

Mention the size of your Elephant level ball (that's the one that's on the save-game info as well).
Mention the number of roses (to give you a nickname: 0-10000 is "Lazy Roller", 10000-100000, "Serious Roller", 100000 and higher "Rubber Band Cheater", 1 million :"Totally Wacko")

Mine elephant ball is 3168m.
My nick is "Rubber Band Cheater".

Today I received the first kids-portable phone from 1978. The Parker Merlin.


One problem though: The first puzzle game is the battery compartment. Does anybody know how to open it? I don't want to break it.