Response from Jonathan: Neil,

Unfortunately we have not released any videos that focus specifically on vector games and monitors but that might be something we try to cover in the future. I don’t know of anything that would be the arcade equivalent of This Old Pinball but if you’re looking for more details on vector arcade game repair you might check out Randy Fromm and his books and videos. He has more of a classroom teaching style than our videos but he definitely knows his stuff.

Yes, it is a good idea to discharge any tube based monitors including vectors as they can hold a lot of voltage. We would usually recommend using the screwdriver discharging trick that we discuss in our videos; however, vector monitors sometimes have a diode on the anode wire that will blow if you take this approach. Our friend John at flippers.com has some instructions on his site that discuss how to properly discharge these monitors. Here’s a link: http://www.flippers.com/vid-tips.html#discharge

Of course, please let us know if you have any specific questions and we’ll try to help you out. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.