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Arcade monitor question.
Question from Jake: Hi, First off, I’d like to save that I love your YouTube videos and have watched several of them. They are very helpful and informative. I bought my first machine a few months ago and the videos helped me understand some issues I was having with some of my control buttons. However, now I have a much larger issue. I purchased a second machine today and it ended up getting damaged in transit back to my house. I didn’t know anything was wrong until I turned it on and didn’t get a picture and heard a loud clicking noise. I opened up the back of the unit and found that the glass base of the monitor where it connects to the wiring harness(?) had shattered. The unit is a 4-player TMNT machine and from what I’ve been able to figure out via Google that the monitor is a Wells Gardener K7000 25″ monitor, but I’m not sure. I am hoping you could answer some questions for me. I am also attaching some pictures to this email in case my descriptions of things don’t make sense. I would like to know if:
1) Do they still make and/or sell these monitors anywhere?
2) If they are out of production, is there a modern equivalent that is a drop-in replacement?
3) Can you tell from the photos if I need a whole complete new monitor, or is it possible to just replace that little tip that attaches to the harness?
Any help with this matter would be very much appreciated. I got this game for my son’s upcoming birthday party as he is going through his Ninja Turtles phase at the moment and thought he would really enjoy this, and now it’s broken which sucks. Thanks.
1 answer
Response from Jonathan: Jake,
First off, thank you for the kind words about our videos. I’m glad that you enjoyed them. I’m sorry to hear that your arcade game got damaged in transit. Hopefully we can help you get it up and running. Now to your questions…
1) Do they still make and/or sell these monitors anywhere?
2) If they are out of production, is there a modern equivalent that is a drop-in replacement?
I’m actually going to cover your first 2 questions with this response. Unfortunately CRT monitors (or tube monitors as we like to call them) are not really in production anymore as they are being replaced with LCD monitors. Yes, you can get a modern equivalent LCD as a drop-in replacement for your current monitor (which BTW does look like a Wells Gardner K7000) but it is quite expensive. They usually run around the $400-$600 range just to give you an idea. Even though CRT monitors are being phased out, you can buy a new one from guys like Michael at ArcadeMonitor.com but it’s going to run you around the same price.
Now, they do make a converter board that will allow you to use an off-the-shelf TV or computer monitor with an arcade board if you wanted to go this route. Yes, this is cheaper but keep in mind that consumer TVs and computer monitors were not made for arcade games so you will have to turn on the monitor to play the game along with some other annoyances.
3) Can you tell from the photos if I need a whole complete new monitor, or is it possible to just replace that little tip that attaches to the harness?
Well, if the last response was the bad news then this response is the good news. No, you can’t replace just that little tip that attaches to the harness BUT you can just replace the tube since you already have a monitor chassis. There is a web site that lists some compatible TV tubes that would work with your monitor chassis. All you need to do is find one of these TVs that has the same yoke readings and neck size (perhaps at a local pawn shop, on Craigslist, garage sales, etc.), swap this tube with the tube currently in your arcade cabinet and you should be in business. Here’s the link to the site with the tube compatibility list: http://junknet.net/donor-tvs
Hope that helps. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
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