Jason Miller

I have spent more weekends than I care to admit staring at the inside of arcade cabinets, tracing wires through a tangle of brittle insulation, corroded pins, and connectors labeled in a language I cannot read. When the original JAMMA harness rots out or a fight stick rebuild goes sideways, the right wiring loom and … Read more

I still remember the first Pac-Man board I tried to recap back in my early collecting days. I grabbed the cheapest pencil iron from the hardware store, dragged a blob of solder across twelve pads, and watched three traces lift right off the FR-4 substrate. That board went back in the closet, and I went … Read more

When my classic Donkey Kong cabinet started showing a scrambled screen last year, I grabbed my dad’s old analog multimeter and nearly fried a board trying to track down a faulty 5V rail. That frustrating weekend taught me something every arcade collector eventually learns: the right digital multimeter is the single most important tool in … Read more

I learned the hard way that a multimeter alone won’t save most arcade boards. After burning through three dead Pac-Man boards trying to diagnose a graphics glitch with voltage readings, I finally bought my first oscilloscope and watched the real problem jump off the screen. A noisy 5V rail, dropping to 4.6V under load, was … Read more

I learned this the hard way a few years ago when I tried to recap a Pac-Man board with a cheap bulb-style solder sucker. I lifted three pads on the first cap, and one of those pads took me four hours of trace repair work to bring back from the dead. That painful experience sent … Read more

I learned this the hard way after buying my first arcade cabinet. The joystick felt mushy, half the buttons stopped registering mid-game, and a coin mechanism refused to accept quarters. The boards looked fine. The wiring was intact. But the machine was barely playable. A quick forum dive led me to one piece of advice … Read more

I still remember feeding quarters into Pac-Man at our local pizza place in the late 80s, so when I started hunting for the best mini arcade machines under $50 to set on my desk, I bought way more than I needed to. After three months of testing, dropping them off shelves, and showing them off … Read more

I have spent the better part of two decades collecting arcade memorabilia, and I can tell you that mini arcade cabinets have completely changed how collectors like me showcase our hobby. Full-size upright cabinets are showstoppers, but they eat floor space and cost thousands to maintain. A well-chosen mini arcade cabinet gives you the same … Read more

Finding a gift that actually gets used is harder than it looks. Miniature claw machines solve that problem by bringing the excitement of an arcade right to a birthday party, office desk, or family game night. Our team tested eight of the most popular mini claw machines to see which ones deliver the best arcade … Read more

I remember walking into my first arcade at age eight, slamming quarters into a Pac-Man cabinet until my mom dragged me out by the collar. Decades later, I still get that same rush when I drop a coin into a tiny Super Mario Question Block sitting on my desk. That feeling is exactly why coin … Read more