I had one of these "consoles" when I was a kid. Before you even switched it on, I knew exactly what the sounds effects were going to be. The reminiscence is strong with this one!
Usually UA-cam "recommended" videos have little interest to me. However, they've come up trumps with this one. Absolutely loved that game as a youngster.Was beginning to think it was a figment of my imagination. Thank you so much for getting it wotking & bringing back great memories...👍
I love this channel so much. Your videos are so relaxing and entertaining at the same time. Easily one of my favorite channels of all time. Keep it up!
I loved this random video. I used to be an electronic technician until my industry died 20 years ago (board jockying, replace faulty parts with new instead of fixing) and seeing the tools and methods in use once more brought a tear to my eye.
Oh my god! The nostalgia factor 100% I remembered that game the second you showed it and the sound hit me as if I played it yesterday. I loved it although it's not a ps5
The start up sound and music are iconic. I remember them so well from my childhood. I inherited a few other machines like this from my much older brothers when I was a small child in the late 80s and early 90s. They've got to be kicking around somewhere in my childhood home.
I had one of these as a kid and another called one Star Force. Spent hours on them as kids. Nice repair. Mine still worked but just took them apart to give a nice clean/service and all good!
This video was randomly suggested to me. Old game consoles are always cool and I was not expecting a repair. What had me hooked for the entire video was the detail of your repair and generosity of your knowledge. Kudos to you and I have subscribed.
Give it time, continue releasing awesome content, and this channel will blow up. Thank you for taking the time to create this awesome material and sharing it with all of us. I don’t know if your familiar with “ASMR” but you have some great unintentional ASMR content which the unintentional ASMR is always the best!!!
You're a good man for keeping our nostalgia alive and well. I'll send you my two broken PS3 60GB. Fix 'em both and keep one of them and send me back the other.
@@StezStixFix I bought one of these a couple of weeks ago to fix on my channel too! It also came with a Grandstand Puckmonster for £24. I haven't got round to looking at them yet as I've been busy mainly fixing Milwaukee Cordless tools.
@@StezStixFix I commented on your video and then I received a comment from a suspicious, almost you name. Please check the reply to my comment as it looks dodgy and seems to be using your name as its name with a telegram at the end.
I am really glad to have found your channel. You have a great ability to make stuff I know nothing about, seem interesting and educational,in a good way. Your editing skills are very fun to see also. I was surprised you didn't have hundreds of thousands of subs. Your style reminded me a little of a fellow youtuber @Techmoan. I have followed him for years now. I love the old school gadgets. Your commentary even made my girlfriend giggle while sat at my side playing some crappy shovel ware game on her phone. Keep them coming,you have a gift my friend.
I have also heard graphite powder mixed with acetone and superglue. Im about to try this on my remove in the next couple days. The acetone helps with working time.
Was recommended this video few days ago by the algorhythm and have since watched dozens of your vids. Really loving them, and especially the more recent ones. Keep going Steve!
Still have mine after nearly 40 years and it always seems to work perfectly once those large batteries have been replaced.....those noise effects bought back memories👍👍🙂
I used to have one of these when I was a kid (and a Mario's cement factory tabletop)! Absolutely loved Firefox, the amount of colour and sound in it made it feel like something special compared to all the monochrome Game and Watch stuff.
Hello again. As a non-electronics or soldering person, can you please explain what tekno-sorcery is happening at 05:23, where a bit of what looks like KY Jelly and a soldering iron suddenly gets those manky old contacts looking like new again? Ta.
@@MrThunderwing The KY Jelly is soldering flux, which takes many forms but they all mainly prevent oxidation (ie corrosion) when hot metal is exposed to air, so instead of horrid burnt-looking solder joints you get those lovely shiny ones, with the solder obediently flowing where it's supposed to. And honestly, even though I've been using it for decades it does still sort of feel like a magic substance every time.
I specialize in "security technology applications". I am very interested in your "clandestine, battery insertion techniques". They appear to be "magical" in some respect and that knowledge would certainly benefit my industry... Love the vids man! Keep them coming!
for future reference Steve, for the carbon button pad, there's a trick to cleaning them to make better contact. you take a piece of paper and rub the carbon contact pad on the paper, you should see a small black streak where you rubbed it on the paper to know if you did it right. great video keep up the good work, I have been on a binge watch of your videos today trying to catch up, been too busy this semester with all my classes and my senior project class so I have not been watching, almost done though, one more final project then I am done and off to graduation.
I remember this game, I found it in a charity shop as a little girl for something like 50p or £1 in the early 90s, had loads of fun with it 😁 I wonder where my one is…
Hey Steve! I've been watching a lot of your videos since I found you on YT last week. Pretty cool indeed. It would be very satisfying if you start giving proper bubble baths to all your retro equipment after you fix it to remove all that dust and grime. Keep up the good work! Cheers froms Dominican Republic
Same, my brother got this for Christmas one year and we were glued to it. I still remember Christmas Day playing it to death and getting the dreaded call from mum, your dinner is ready. We carried on playing till mum came and took it off us lol, having to eat Christmas dinner before we could play again was a pain I won't forget!
I had this game as a kid (mid 80's). The music tracks were a mix of Thunderbirds and Star Wars amongst others. Standard Eveready batteries only lasted about 10 or 20 games so I ended up with the AC transformer. I bought this game on eBay about 15 years ago for nostalgia. Also bought the Astro Wars predecessor which I first saw at a school camp in '84. Happy memories!
You remind me of my dad when we were kids in the 80s, very handy with a soldering iron! We kids were always breaking these games (Frogger, Astrowars etc) and he'd have to take them apart and re-solder joysticks & buttons and glue bits back together.
for contacts like that you might like to try conductive paint for restoring keyboard contacts, it's very effective and has less issues of it potentially falling off like the copper tape (it will eventually 'wear out' again but how much use are these things going to get now tbh xD )
True, but I bet the rubber plastic button is also getting perished. Sometimes you can't get the conductive paint to stick on when they are perished. Only way foward is to glue a tiny bit of alu foil. Superglue should not be used in electronics as it will leave a white coating from fumes over the pcb and eventually corrode it, its like battery or capacitor leakage but white.
Those soldering money shots always seem to relax me...you are highly entertaining, too! Very well shot repair videos with the right amount of humor. I'm really enjoying your channel!
Similar thing with TV remotes - the carbon pad for the "standby" button is always the one that wears out. Trouble is, of course, that the entire keypad is molded from one lump of rubber. If all else fails, I find that a tiny bit of kitkat wrapper superglued to the pad will restore function. Kitkat wrappers seem to work especially well because they're super-thin tinfoil.
I would have epoxyed the PCB back together and then just used two small pieces of component lead (leftover trimmings from resistors/ capacitors/ diodes). I have fixed very large cracks with tens of traces like that and it gives a good result. I love the green enamel you added afterward I will have to order some of that.
Interesting choice of music for someone fixing electric stuff indeed... :) And I liked the seemingly casual way of putting a cat in this vid (which made me click thrice on the like button tbh). Merci Monsieur :)
That startup music was absolutely Thunderbirds. Then there was some Ride of The Valkyries, and some Jerusalem to finish. A resistor across one of the wires to the speaker will lower the noise a bit. Clip a few various values to find a happy one.
I once owned one of these & had hours of entertainment. I remember there were 3 levels of play from easy, medium & hard. Managed to complete the whole stages on levels easy & medium many times but the hard only a few :)
You can normally run a rubber over the rubber pad to bring it back to life. Thunderbirds and Star Wars tunes in the game how did they get away with that?
Ooh, I didn't think of that, I'll give that a go on the next one, thanks for the tip! 👍 I know, I think there are some other ripped off tunes in there too! 😳
Did you win? Yes you did, can I fix it ? Yes you can, well I'm gone. Tip! to make the carbon pads conductive #awesome brother Steve! Pencil clean/white paper Rub the pencil on the paper make a lot of thick dust, then rub the non working pad on that. Put it in the game/machine/console etc.. hey presto button works! 🤓👍🏻
I once bought a lot of two 'untested' oscilloscopes for around £11 plus P&P from ebay and one actually did work, and lasted for years before it went! That was years ago on 'the old' ebay though, you know the one whare normal people used it to get rid of their old junk for a few quide! Who else still remembers that ebay!?
It's so funny the difference between "untested" when I order something from the US versus Japan. When I order stuff from Japan untested, half the time it works fine. I like to pronounce it multimeter myself.
True, in most of the world "untested" means not working but i won't say, I have a lot of stuff labeled "junk" from japan that worked perfectly, in one shop they even tested the "junk" labeled item in front of me, of course it worked.
instead of going thru all that trouble to repair the broken trace, it would have been easier and more effective to run a wire between the two solder joints that you were putting the meter on. I know it's less elegant!
The sounds brought it back for me. I remember my parents would make me take it outside to play but you couldn't see the screen outside.. And it wasn't necessarily even fun; it was just more fun than doing nothing.
NEVER POWER UP ANYTHING THAT RATTLES. And I'd never power up anything like that till I popped it open anyway. Who knows what kind of gunk, corrosion and jury rigged crap you may find in it. But that's just me ☺️
@@StezStixFix Aaaa. Screw Those Clowns. If they want to pay for it. Then they have a say 😏 Just take it apart off camera before you start. Just put a little piece of plastic back in when you're done. People are pretty slow these days. They'll believe Anything. 😂🤣😂 😳 ✌️
Interesting little tunes on there - the startup tune is from Thunderbirds, then there's the bit of Star Wars, then a little bit of Holst - gameplay seems like it is a bit Star Wars inspired, but the styling of the name Firefox on the box and the game is quite similar to the text on the movie poster for the 1982 Clint Eastwood film of the same name. What an interesting mishmash!
I just discover yoyr channel. Your videoes are so satisfying and i learn alot from them. Amazing job with the editing and all. I am a DIY guy but have stayed away from small electric so many years. Greetings from Norway and you have got a new subscriber
That sound as it boots up.... Happy, happy memories. Probably not for my parents or grandparents tho. I remember getting it on Christmas as a kid and few hours later being told to take it and go sit in the car to play it...
Great job Steve what a cheesy retro game back from the 80's Nice and loud and clunky controls lol i find your channel very satisfying when you repair something and it works!!!!
Great fix! This was a neat piece to see you work on, Steve. The music you commented on was definitely Star Wars, and then the other one the game played was part of “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.”
The start of the game (when you turn it on) was the theme song from Thunderbirds (The old Gerry Anderson Supermarionet show). It's so funny that they took so many well known melodies in the game.
Dude your channel is blowing up!! So happy for you man!!! I literally died when i head your Holy hand grenade option on patreon. Absolutely hilarious. It is but a flesh wound! *literally no arms or legs*
Thanks for the tip!, I have copper tape and i have a stereo remote with a few flaky buttons. Like you, I knew they were carbonised but had no idea how to repair, copper tape is so obvious now!
I have one of these somewhere. No idea whether it works, where I got it from, or why UA-cam recommended this video to me, but I'll have to look for it and test it out.
😂 yeah, UA-cam seem to have gone on a random recommendation spree this weekend. Not that I'm complaining! Hope you can find your Firefox, I reckon there are loads of these things sat in attics! 👍
Wow I had that game one Christmas many many moons ago , if I remember correctly it plays part of the Star Wars theme when completed. Great upload 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻
I made a conductive rubber contact pad once with a little RTV mixed with a lot of dry graphite lock lubricant. After it cured, I cut it smooth on 6 sizes to fit the original pad. It worked. I got about 15k Ohms that went down to about 5k Ohms under pressure.
I had one of these "consoles" when I was a kid. Before you even switched it on, I knew exactly what the sounds effects were going to be. The reminiscence is strong with this one!
I had firefox too. kept me amused for hours
Yeah I had a Firefox played it forever back in the day!!!
When I finished it, I thought I had broken it. That level end tune was repeated about 30 times. Da da dada da da diddle diddle daaaaaaaaaa.
me too
Me too!
Untested always seems to mean, it was tested and didn't work, and they're afraid to indicate as such for fear of devaluing the item. its annoying.
One could understand it if it had a 63 pin rhombus shaped power plug with 15 different voltages, but a few C cells, come on
@@bsdjunkie1805 Exactly, lmao! lol
Such a small lie is why we all get sick grow old and die Genesis 3:4 ►
I don't think he was surprised.
It's hilarious "Not tested as no game cartridge" then later in the listing "See my other listings for games for this system
I had this game as a boy on the 80’s. So cool to have such a powerful flashback seeing it working again. Well done Steve. Great.
Same!
Me too!
@@attentionaddicts ☝
Me too mate.
Usually UA-cam "recommended" videos have little interest to me. However, they've come up trumps with this one. Absolutely loved that game as a youngster.Was beginning to think it was a figment of my imagination. Thank you so much for getting it wotking & bringing back great memories...👍
I love this channel so much. Your videos are so relaxing and entertaining at the same time. Easily one of my favorite channels of all time. Keep it up!
Hey, thanks let do! I really appreciate that, and I'm glad you like the channel! 👍😍
Wonderful to see this! Firefox was one of the only games I completed as a kid. Over and over again. My poor parents. 😆
I had it aged 3 or 4. I loved the music! Bits of Planet suite and stuff.
Thanks for the copper tape tip. My old DVD remote had a faulty on/off button but this has brought it back to life 👍
If you have no copper tape handy, just rub the button with a pencil. The graphite does the same job.
@Mark Mowadeeb there's a conductive paint that works VERY well if all of these attempts fail
That tape will loose its stickiness and fall off at some point.
I've used glued on aluminum foil for the same purpose to fix the worn out buttons on a remote
I am in awe of people like you who have the patience to fix these things , it looks great fun, I mean the fixing , not the game 👍👍
I loved this random video. I used to be an electronic technician until my industry died 20 years ago (board jockying, replace faulty parts with new instead of fixing) and seeing the tools and methods in use once more brought a tear to my eye.
Oh my god! The nostalgia factor 100% I remembered that game the second you showed it and the sound hit me as if I played it yesterday. I loved it although it's not a ps5
The start up sound and music are iconic. I remember them so well from my childhood. I inherited a few other machines like this from my much older brothers when I was a small child in the late 80s and early 90s. They've got to be kicking around somewhere in my childhood home.
startup sound is the Thunderbirds theme :)
the other one sounds like the Wilhelm Tell Ouverture
@@remko2Ride of The Valkyries and a little Jerusalem at the end.
@@Vamptonius
Ride of the Valkaries, spot on, AKA The Dambuster's theme tune.
I had one of these as a kid and another called one Star Force. Spent hours on them as kids. Nice repair. Mine still worked but just took them apart to give a nice clean/service and all good!
I really love your style, dry humour and no hype.
Thanks James, really appreciate that 👍
This kind of content is so addictive. Really love having this playing on one of my screens while I work. Lovely
Never had this one, but I do remember having 'Grandstand Astro Wars'. I think my brother still has it in the original box.
This video was randomly suggested to me. Old game consoles are always cool and I was not expecting a repair. What had me hooked for the entire video was the detail of your repair and generosity of your knowledge. Kudos to you and I have subscribed.
If you like this sort of thing. I've recently repaired quite a few of these types of games.
Give it time, continue releasing awesome content, and this channel will blow up. Thank you for taking the time to create this awesome material and sharing it with all of us. I don’t know if your familiar with “ASMR” but you have some great unintentional ASMR content which the unintentional ASMR is always the best!!!
Thanks Bultron, I love a bit of accidental ASMR! Thank you 👍
Did it blow up ? because I just saw this randomly !?
@@NerdGlassGamingPA 🤯
You're a good man for keeping our nostalgia alive and well. I'll send you my two broken PS3 60GB. Fix 'em both and keep one of them and send me back the other.
Nicely done Steve and Dave 👍
Thanks Vince! 😁
@@StezStixFix I bought one of these a couple of weeks ago to fix on my channel too! It also came with a Grandstand Puckmonster for £24. I haven't got round to looking at them yet as I've been busy mainly fixing Milwaukee Cordless tools.
@@StezStixFix I commented on your video and then I received a comment from a suspicious, almost you name.
Please check the reply to my comment as it looks dodgy and seems to be using your name as its name with a telegram at the end.
@@bobhopemaryjane2 I got it also. Not sure what they are trying to accomplish. They said I won a gaming device. They misspelled "divice".
Its very cool that you’re both able to Shazam the batteries in and un-Shazam them out! Very impressed! 🙏🏾
I am really glad to have found your channel. You have a great ability to make stuff I know nothing about, seem interesting and educational,in a good way. Your editing skills are very fun to see also. I was surprised you didn't have hundreds of thousands of subs. Your style reminded me a little of a fellow youtuber @Techmoan. I have followed him for years now. I love the old school gadgets. Your commentary even made my girlfriend giggle while sat at my side playing some crappy shovel ware game on her phone. Keep them coming,you have a gift my friend.
for the carbon-rubber buttons you can use silver conductive paint, it works wonders, a bit tricky to apply tho
I have also heard graphite powder mixed with acetone and superglue. Im about to try this on my remove in the next couple days. The acetone helps with working time.
Was recommended this video few days ago by the algorhythm and have since watched dozens of your vids. Really loving them, and especially the more recent ones. Keep going Steve!
Good fix Steve. I didn't know you could get replacement traces, but they seem more fiddly then just using the enamelled wire.
Thanks Ned! Yeah, definitely fiddly-er! I just wanted to try one out, but I think they'd be better served on a ripped pad on a HDMI port or similar! 👍
Still have mine after nearly 40 years and it always seems to work perfectly once those large batteries have been replaced.....those noise effects bought back memories👍👍🙂
I used to have one of these when I was a kid (and a Mario's cement factory tabletop)! Absolutely loved Firefox, the amount of colour and sound in it made it feel like something special compared to all the monochrome Game and Watch stuff.
Hello again. As a non-electronics or soldering person, can you please explain what tekno-sorcery is happening at 05:23, where a bit of what looks like KY Jelly and a soldering iron suddenly gets those manky old contacts looking like new again? Ta.
@@MrThunderwing The KY Jelly is soldering flux, which takes many forms but they all mainly prevent oxidation (ie corrosion) when hot metal is exposed to air, so instead of horrid burnt-looking solder joints you get those lovely shiny ones, with the solder obediently flowing where it's supposed to. And honestly, even though I've been using it for decades it does still sort of feel like a magic substance every time.
@@davidf2281 Nice one, good to know, cheers!
I specialize in "security technology applications". I am very interested in your "clandestine, battery insertion techniques". They appear to be "magical" in some respect and that knowledge would certainly benefit my industry...
Love the vids man! Keep them coming!
Your videos get better each time. I glad I found your channel.
Thanks EaziG! Much appreciated! 👍
I have this Firefox F-7 game since my childhood and it´s still working. :) Now I´m 46 years old and this video made me play it again.
Great repair Dave, yes I know it's you that does all the work for no reward, Voice Over Steve told me.
🤣🤣 he actually contributed in this one! 😁
wow i had one of these. must of been around '83 ? all those sounds are flooding back into my brain ! thanks for the trip down memory lane dude !
for future reference Steve, for the carbon button pad, there's a trick to cleaning them to make better contact. you take a piece of paper and rub the carbon contact pad on the paper, you should see a small black streak where you rubbed it on the paper to know if you did it right. great video keep up the good work, I have been on a binge watch of your videos today trying to catch up, been too busy this semester with all my classes and my senior project class so I have not been watching, almost done though, one more final project then I am done and off to graduation.
You can then use a graphite pencil and put the graphite from the pencil onto the underside of the contact.
Still have my one in box with all the instructions and leaflets, not played it for ages but loved this when I was younger.
I remember this game, I found it in a charity shop as a little girl for something like 50p or £1 in the early 90s, had loads of fun with it 😁 I wonder where my one is…
New to this channel, needless to say hooked. Interesting, informative, straight to the point, no in your face background music. I'm all in brother
Thanks Matt! Really appreciate that 👍
Hey Steve! I've been watching a lot of your videos since I found you on YT last week. Pretty cool indeed. It would be very satisfying if you start giving proper bubble baths to all your retro equipment after you fix it to remove all that dust and grime. Keep up the good work! Cheers froms Dominican Republic
I remember playing this light up game under the bed in the dark for the best effects back in the 80s lol.
✌️❤️🇳🇿
Same, my brother got this for Christmas one year and we were glued to it. I still remember Christmas Day playing it to death and getting the dreaded call from mum, your dinner is ready. We carried on playing till mum came and took it off us lol, having to eat Christmas dinner before we could play again was a pain I won't forget!
I had this game as a kid (mid 80's). The music tracks were a mix of Thunderbirds and Star Wars amongst others. Standard Eveready batteries only lasted about 10 or 20 games so I ended up with the AC transformer.
I bought this game on eBay about 15 years ago for nostalgia. Also bought the Astro Wars predecessor which I first saw at a school camp in '84.
Happy memories!
thanks for the confirmation, the startup was so short i wasn't 100% it was Thunderbirds
And Holst's Jupiter from The Planets, a suite everyone should hear at least once in their lives 🤘
It’s the theme from the A team isn’t it?
superb. Still got mine from 1985 in its box in the parents loft. Still works.
Love these old machines amazing how things have changed
Yeah, things have definitely impoved in the technology department! 😁
@@StezStixFix Indeed. They certainly didn't have robotic cleaning cloth's back in the 80's like you use in this clip :)
You remind me of my dad when we were kids in the 80s, very handy with a soldering iron! We kids were always breaking these games (Frogger, Astrowars etc) and he'd have to take them apart and re-solder joysticks & buttons and glue bits back together.
for contacts like that you might like to try conductive paint for restoring keyboard contacts, it's very effective and has less issues of it potentially falling off like the copper tape (it will eventually 'wear out' again but how much use are these things going to get now tbh xD )
Good shout, thanks Sparks, I'll try thst next time! 👍
+1 this. Was just about to comment the same thing. It’s really good stuff. I’ve repaired ancient TV remotes back to perfect working order with it.
True, but I bet the rubber plastic button is also getting perished. Sometimes you can't get the conductive paint to stick on when they are perished. Only way foward is to glue a tiny bit of alu foil.
Superglue should not be used in electronics as it will leave a white coating from fumes over the pcb and eventually corrode it, its like battery or capacitor leakage but white.
I used a "soft" pencil year ago, but that was also temporary
Those soldering money shots always seem to relax me...you are highly entertaining, too! Very well shot repair videos with the right amount of humor. I'm really enjoying your channel!
Thanks Septer! 🤩
Similar thing with TV remotes - the carbon pad for the "standby" button is always the one that wears out.
Trouble is, of course, that the entire keypad is molded from one lump of rubber.
If all else fails, I find that a tiny bit of kitkat wrapper superglued to the pad will restore function.
Kitkat wrappers seem to work especially well because they're super-thin tinfoil.
I know there used to be kits where you could get electrically conductive paint to redo the backs of buttons that wore out.
I use a paint on carbon to fix rubber pads that works. Eg: remote controls . After a few months if may need recoating, depending on the use.
I would have epoxyed the PCB back together and then just used two small pieces of component lead (leftover trimmings from resistors/ capacitors/ diodes). I have fixed very large cracks with tens of traces like that and it gives a good result. I love the green enamel you added afterward I will have to order some of that.
Thanks Simon, I'll give that a go next time 👍
Interesting choice of music for someone fixing electric stuff indeed... :) And I liked the seemingly casual way of putting a cat in this vid (which made me click thrice on the like button tbh). Merci Monsieur :)
😁 merci beacoup Esseferio!
Alu foil or copper tape is perfect for those worn out carbon pads. Ive done it many times with my C64 controllers.
That startup music was absolutely Thunderbirds. Then there was some Ride of The Valkyries, and some Jerusalem to finish.
A resistor across one of the wires to the speaker will lower the noise a bit. Clip a few various values to find a happy one.
For those pads you can rub on some powdered lead from a pencil. Has saved me many tv remote controls 👍
Thanks for the tip! Someone else mentioned this too, so I'm definitely gonna give it a try on my next one! 👍
I once owned one of these & had hours of entertainment. I remember there were 3 levels of play from easy, medium & hard. Managed to complete the whole stages on levels easy & medium many times but the hard only a few :)
You can normally run a rubber over the rubber pad to bring it back to life. Thunderbirds and Star Wars tunes in the game how did they get away with that?
Ooh, I didn't think of that, I'll give that a go on the next one, thanks for the tip! 👍 I know, I think there are some other ripped off tunes in there too! 😳
Lovely to see your subscribers increasing! 10k here we come! ❤️❤️
Thanks Ian, hopefully soon! 👍
Hi, I’m new to your channel. Really enjoyed this whole process! What kind of flux are you using when cleaning the solder?
I asked the same question. No answer yet
I love the accessibility of old (non-micro) electronics... just dive in and solve it yourself - lovely.
Did you win? Yes you did, can I fix it ? Yes you can, well I'm gone. Tip! to make the carbon pads conductive #awesome brother Steve! Pencil clean/white paper
Rub the pencil on the paper make a lot of thick dust, then rub the non working pad on that. Put it in the game/machine/console etc.. hey presto button works! 🤓👍🏻
😁 Ah-ha! Thanks brother Steve, an excellent tip! I'll definitely try that next time. Much appreciated, as always! 👍
You can buy carbon pencil sticks as well.
@@jekylthorn8969 True! good call.
Wow! Loads of memories flashing back watching this. Awesome sound effects.
I once bought a lot of two 'untested' oscilloscopes for around £11 plus P&P from ebay and one actually did work, and lasted for years before it went!
That was years ago on 'the old' ebay though, you know the one whare normal people used it to get rid of their old junk for a few quide!
Who else still remembers that ebay!?
😁 I remember it well, Garry! It used to be a fun place to buy and sell!
Great video! 😊
I definitely heard the Star Wars music, but then at the end I was pleasantly surprised to hear what sounded like Holst’s “Jupiter” 😮👏👏👏
It's so funny the difference between "untested" when I order something from the US versus Japan. When I order stuff from Japan untested, half the time it works fine.
I like to pronounce it multimeter myself.
😁 yeah, most Japanese things are sold as "junk" without necessarily being tested.
True, in most of the world "untested" means not working but i won't say, I have a lot of stuff labeled "junk" from japan that worked perfectly, in one shop they even tested the "junk" labeled item in front of me, of course it worked.
@@StezStixFix In Japan auctions 'Junk' basically just means old!
Noticed the cat touching store at the end ? 😅 by the way great repair as always 😎
Thanks KoSlow! Yeah, the scratchy-bitey cat made a cameo appearance! I forgot to close the door 😁
As for the button repair..I've used a pencil to draw on the carbon pad....works a treat !
instead of going thru all that trouble to repair the broken trace, it would have been easier and more effective to run a wire between the two solder joints that you were putting the meter on. I know it's less elegant!
Thanks Albert, yeah it would probably be more effective but I do like practicing the little trace repairs! 😬
Them pcb's boards are quite fragile and crumbly.
But then he couldn't use the traces he got from off of China 😆
The sounds brought it back for me. I remember my parents would make me take it outside to play but you couldn't see the screen outside.. And it wasn't necessarily even fun; it was just more fun than doing nothing.
Hehe, another great one!, but this game seemed better unrepaired:-)
😁 you're not wrong there, Willy! 🤣
Had this as a kid and just hearing the startup music brought back so many memories, thanks.
I pity the parent that gave that game to their child on Christmas morning
Still got mine from back when i was a kid, been in the original box in my closet for proberly 30 years or something, still works :)
I always assume "untested" is code for "does not work" .
8:18 12:23 The Thunderbirds theme on device startup/boot is a nice touch indeed!
NEVER POWER UP ANYTHING THAT RATTLES.
And I'd never power up anything like that till I popped it open anyway. Who knows what kind of gunk, corrosion and jury rigged crap you may find in it.
But that's just me ☺️
Yeah, that's definitely good advice. But if I don't try it, I get "you didn't try to power it up, it probably already worked" comments! 🤣
@@StezStixFix
Aaaa. Screw Those Clowns.
If they want to pay for it. Then they have a say 😏
Just take it apart off camera before you start. Just put a little piece of plastic back in when you're done.
People are pretty slow these days. They'll believe Anything. 😂🤣😂 😳 ✌️
@@StezStixFix
And don't worry.
I won't tell anyone I told you that 🙄😏 Enjoy ☺️
Interesting little tunes on there - the startup tune is from Thunderbirds, then there's the bit of Star Wars, then a little bit of Holst - gameplay seems like it is a bit Star Wars inspired, but the styling of the name Firefox on the box and the game is quite similar to the text on the movie poster for the 1982 Clint Eastwood film of the same name. What an interesting mishmash!
Amazing, I used to have one of these. Hearing those sounds took me right back. Great job repairing it.
Your editing skills are pretty good (almost like watching a electronic/game version of aging wheels), the outro of the video is hilarious.
Subbed.
Thanks Madmax! Much appreciated! 👍
Amazing how much better the connections looked after the reflow.
Yeah, they looked better than factory! 😁
I just discover yoyr channel. Your videoes are so satisfying and i learn alot from them. Amazing job with the editing and all. I am a DIY guy but have stayed away from small electric so many years. Greetings from Norway and you have got a new subscriber
Nice repair mate. I think you'll be at 100k subs in no time. Brilliant content.
Thanks Barry, really appreciate that! 👍
@@StezStixFix Congrats on the 100k, well deserved.
That sound as it boots up....
Happy, happy memories.
Probably not for my parents or grandparents tho.
I remember getting it on Christmas as a kid and few hours later being told to take it and go sit in the car to play it...
@StezStixFixtelegram love to, but wouldn't know how to.
The auditory memories this evokes. Spent a lot of time playing this as a child.
I had one of those bad boys when I was little.....
I'm 47 now.... Thanks for the reminder?!
May I please know what was the brand/type of the liquid (flux?) that you poured at 5:19 ?
Taking photos is such a simple tip so you don’t forget where things go thanks my man 👍
there is no greater pride than having something last a long time because you took care of it, but you take it to another level.!!!
Great job Steve what a cheesy retro game back from the 80's Nice and loud and clunky controls lol i find your channel very satisfying when you repair something and it works!!!!
Great fix! This was a neat piece to see you work on, Steve. The music you commented on was definitely Star Wars, and then the other one the game played was part of “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.”
The start of the game (when you turn it on) was the theme song from Thunderbirds (The old Gerry Anderson Supermarionet show). It's so funny that they took so many well known melodies in the game.
I had the Scramble version of this as a boy. Good memories, thank you.
I had this for Xmas 1982 great game still at my sisters house and still works
Oh the memories of playing this as a child!!..this and Bigtrak were my faves.
Dude your channel is blowing up!! So happy for you man!!! I literally died when i head your Holy hand grenade option on patreon. Absolutely hilarious. It is but a flesh wound! *literally no arms or legs*
Hello. I usually repair the black pads painting over It with graphite with a pencil. It will work fine.
To cut sound volume a folded Kleenex between the speaker and case works fairly well. (did it with a football 2 back in the day)
This video popped up on my feed and brought back loads of memories! I had that game, hearing those sounds was awesome! Great fix too!
You are so engaging and pleasant to watch. I enjoy watching your expertise in action
13:06 that song is Jupiter, from the symphony The Planets, by Holst!
Thanks for the tip!, I have copper tape and i have a stereo remote with a few flaky buttons. Like you, I knew they were carbonised but had no idea how to repair, copper tape is so obvious now!
I have one of these somewhere. No idea whether it works, where I got it from, or why UA-cam recommended this video to me, but I'll have to look for it and test it out.
😂 yeah, UA-cam seem to have gone on a random recommendation spree this weekend. Not that I'm complaining! Hope you can find your Firefox, I reckon there are loads of these things sat in attics! 👍
I had one similar to this as a kid and completely forgot about it until I watched this video. Thanks!
We had one of these in our house growing up. But it was branded a different name, Epoch Galaga X6.
Wow I had that game one Christmas many many moons ago , if I remember correctly it plays part of the Star Wars theme when completed. Great upload 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻
I made a conductive rubber contact pad once with a little RTV mixed with a lot of dry graphite lock lubricant. After it cured, I cut it smooth on 6 sizes to fit the original pad. It worked. I got about 15k Ohms that went down to about 5k Ohms under pressure.
I know NOTHING about electronics (I can barely change a plug) but I found this fascinating! Really enjoyed this thank you. 👍