PLAY METER: A few years ago when the indus
the switchover from electro-mechanical to solid
technology, there was a general overall panic on
part of the operators. AQParently the operatOT
adapted or at least survived this technological r l"w-.ntlll>
but is he where he should be today?
FROMM: Many of the operators have made
tr{tnsition by hiring people who are informed
educated and have the ability to repair these games_
really have no idea what the percentage is , bu
the operators now have their own electronics man.
that c;.ertainly helps out.
But the problem comes for the guys who are out
in the field. I'm finding that a Jot of the guys in the'-"""' ........ ~
still not real sure what they're doing. Many of them
spend too much time looking for the problem and 11e11
find it, o r they'll spend a lot of time finding the p,rr>:..,P,r-o
but are limited to pulling out the logic board and takn:
- 19~
back-to the shop. So, generally speaking, the sta e
industry is such that we could still use so
upgrading-for the guys out in the field.
Many operators still depend too heavily on
distributors for replacement boards and exchanges
things like that. But that's getting a lot better than -
in 1976. The reason is many operators have m~
find at least one person who knows what he's doing..
naturally, some of the routes out there are huge,
there are a lot of service guys out there who need
What I mean is that if you may have a crew of, sa •
guys, only two of them may be really sharp; five o
may have a pretty good idea what's going on, and three
them are merely board swappers and mechani1cal-ft:ne
guys. So you really have all levels of ability within a
as far as repairability.
··
P.LA Y METER: Dismissing personnel for a min
today's operators properly equipped?
t's still a problem. Many operators are
have to pay a man a little more , especially if
o lure the same people to their job market
cr:~"lri5"' will go to other industries where they can
extra incentives as built-in gymnasiums and all
big incentive is that I can't think of any
~sbess. thi!! is more fun to work in. And I think we draw
o this business, although we may end up
;ei;!E:g s~mv ess, because what we do is so unique and
This business gives the technician so much
s what attracted me. A lot of technicians
a career as an amusement device technician
being a bench technician at some factory
e unique challenge of this industry.
e.
FROMM: I'm finding that people in this business terd
want to spend a lot more money on repair eq1·u ii
- xnen:
than they need. Quite frankly, I teach my course and
all my repair centered around the use of a
-
multimeter, which is a $45 piece of test equipmen
logic probe, which could run anywhere from $40 to
And I feel that's enough test equipment to do almost
game repairs. Sure, it's nice to have an oscilloscope.
that can run you around $1000. And, for many of
operators who have them, these oscilloscopes just -
the shelves gathering dust. Very little use is made
them.
Now, if you plan to do a whole lot of very irr ense
electonic repair, and you have someone who is capable,
it might not be a bad idea to have an oscilloscope_ '
what I'm saying to you, is that I don't have one, and I
fix 95 percent of everything I come up against.-
oscilloscope is a real nice thing to have. Don't ge
wrong. And there are problems where you would need
an oscilloscope to repair. But, with the repair
electronic games, the problems are so straightforwan:.
and are so easy to diagnose that it's just not necessary o
have that capital outlay. You really don't need things e
that. You don't need a transistor checker. You do ·-
need a frequency counter. You don't, need a capacito
meter because they just are not necessary to do effective
repair.
It's not that important to have all this equipmen -
your shop. What I feel is more important is the
technician's knowledge of how the games work. That
help you fix games a lot more than an expensive piece of
equipment.
14
METER: So we are back to the subject of service
.............. ,,...._ W hen this· industry underwent the
.:a::i::::drJS:ical metamorphosis, there were many who
not compete for the type of people it took
- these games. Has this changed? Can this
i::r'~:-:-~-. compete now for the type of people needed to
d look for, to be quite honest with you, is
is right out of high school or else right out
;::!<""~"""""'..,......, training or still in electronics training in
- !'aY yo u can mold them to do exactly what
to do. You don't have to worry about
9J21::5:'lg - volved in other · areas of electronics that
b:!Ol-eticallv interesting but which don't mean a
're 'fi xing games.
· W hat are your feelings
s service schools?
the manufacturers do an excellent job
etailed descriptions of their particular
re to be commended for all the effort
time and everything else they've put into
program . And yo u can always get
.:::d:::::i::::l.':l;;;:l;:i;; 1"--:n:nn"'tio n fro m them by making a toll-free
ey'll answer your questions and send
schematics as you' need. Their teaching
good. What they teach in their schools
:s•:;e:::;c:e:;!!;E!Id and specific about how their games work.
- a problem; and that is, while they do an
PLAY METER, August 1, 1981