Grandstand – Kevin Keegan’s Match of the Day game

Here’s what the listing stated:

***NOT WORKING***

Spares or repairs

Fair overall condition some cosmetic damage as expected for a 56 year old item

Very rare well worth restoration if you know how

EBay

This guy sells retro games on EBay at exceptionally inflated, ridiculous prices. I suspect he doesn’t get involved with repair or renovation as he had this one advertised at over £30GBP but when I put in a cheeky bid for £12GBP he bit my hand off… I wasn’t expecting that! The usual mistakes in the listing such as stating it’s 56 years old when its actually 46, and stating it’s Very rare – it’s not, there were a few hundred thousand churned out and to be honest and they come up quite often on the sale sites. But I do agree it’s worth restoring and will pair up nicely with another retro football game from 1979 that i repaired a few months ago Bambino kick the goal football game. And what makes this unit even more appealing is that it is complete with both of its battery covers – now that is rare!

This game was made by Grandstand in 1979. Here’s the original advert that appeared on UK TV promoting the game back in the late 70’s.

This particular unit is listed as Not working, it looks filthy from what I can see, but having experience with these games in the past the biggest issue is age related problems such as old components, track decay and battery corrosion. No doubt the first thing I will do will be to dismantle it, give it a thorough inspection and then a good cleanup both inside and out. And then we can look at the issues around why it’s not operating.

Assessment:

The unit has arrived today and it sure is filthy cosmetically. Like someone who has grown up throughout those 46 years it has its scars. It looks as if it has been placed against something hot, and shows a burn mark up one side.

I have put batteries in and the good news is that there is life of sorts. By that I mean there is a distorted noise from the speaker and a flash of life on the screen and then it dies. Wiggle the start button and there are more flashes of life but that’s it. No other buttons seem to be working. I’m not tempting fate but this could be a case of the unit being just as filthy inside as well as out. But knowing my luck this will not be the case. Let’s have a look inside.

Repair:

First of all we need to get the unit open, remove the circuit board and get the thing clean. So let’s do that.

As you can see in the pictures above, the inside hid a lot of accumulated dirt and grime, there were even dead bugs inside. Everything that could be washed was taken to the kitchen given a good soak, brush and rinse.

Whilst I’m waiting for everything to dry my attention turns to the board. A quick inspection reveals that all tracks are in a fair condition and we don’t need to rescue anything there. The buttons on either end have been taken apart and all cleaned with IPA, I’ve also used the same method to clean the switches and the board and after checking continuity all contacts are working as they should.

Now everything is clean, I resolder the battery contacts, check the buttons and all appears well, I attach my bench power supply, give it 6v, turn on the switch and we have life. No intermittent issues and a very loud sounding speaker. I turn this off and look at getting it all reassembled.

Unit now fully assembled, it is looking a whole lot healthier and apart from its burn scar is looking pretty good.

And when turned on it’s working just as well as it did back in 1979.

Result:

Sometimes these units just need some care and attention, and as I stated at the beginning all this really needed was a deep clean and service. Not a thing wrong with the electrical circuits apart from contamination on the contacts and switches.

I’m now in possession of a lovely example of 70’s technology with slight battle scars. It’s had a tough life but now it has had a new lease of life and is good to go for many more years yet. It will take a place in my “Retirement home” collection of old discarded retro game units.

As always, it’s a win as we have prevented another unit being heaved into landfill.

Job done.

Thanks for passing by, it’s always appreciated.