Retro Megabit

After writing my last post it reminded me of another time I got Sega bush-whacked. Back in Junior High I borrowed Global Defense from a school mate. I was curious about the games two player mode where one player controls the flight of the satellite and the other fires the guns. It sounded cool… but the game was not very good and I returned it. A day or so later Adam came back to me and said Global Defense was broken and he wanted me to pay him $50 for it. It sucked but I believed him when he said I returned it broken. I had no idea how I might have wrecked the game.

So I paid (mom paid) and I kept the game. A year or so later I was curious and thought maybe I could fix it. So I opened it up and what I found really surprised me. The circuit board was burnt. There was a circle burned into the PCB and one of the traces was cut. It looked as if it was done with a lighter held to it. So it clicked at that moment and I realized that Adam had destroyed it because he also didn’t like the game. What a dick.

Anyways, it was done and I wasn’t going to the same school anymore… I had to let it go. But I was still curious about trying to fix it. I took my dad’s soldering iron and some copper (he always had stuff like this about) and I cut a thin strip long enough to stretch  across the burn mark and reconnect the path from where it looked like it use to be. This bit of copper was a straight line and about an inch long. It took a while because I didn’t know how to solder but I got it done. I closed up the cart and tried it out. I almost fell over when it started working! It was a great feeling bring that thing back from the grave. However, I still don’t like the game. I considered checking to see if I still have this copy but I counted and I have 15 copies of Global Defense and I’m not yet ready to open them all 🙂