Red is red. Same value, so no worries. Get another. I'm surprised that battery powered machine had blown LED. When they die, tend to short out. Check by resistance.

And resistor too.

Cheers,

I think the same.

However, I vaguely remember that LED technology changed over years.

The green LEDs of today aren't the same green LEDs from the 70s anymore.

Back then, a green LED was a yellow-green-ish LED, really.

LEDs were also more dim, more spotty looking (glowing spot in the center).

So I think that the chemicals/crystals have changed since.

Nowadays LEDs are much more bright and balanced in general.

That being said, the red LED is THE standard LED.
It's highly unlikely that electrical characteristics have changed much over time.

And even if the values were off, you would notice it visually through the brightness.

For a few seconds, an LED can run out of spec without taking damage.
A slightly off current-limiting resistor is not nearly as bad as none.

Edit: Here's a video by YT user Fran about the first LEDs. Very interesting.
Reminds me of dad's old parts collection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yusrrOPM43o

I replaced all the LED's with red ones and it's working great and close to the original ones but I couldn't use clear LED's they were too bright, even clear low brightness were blinding. If anyone wants to make a buck there are faulty ones on ebay for about $30 and one that's working for about $600 but I doubt someone will buy one for $600 most of the faulty ones will be corroded battery terminals you could get one going and sell for $150 to $200 as some have original box and manual in good condition

Jo22 wrote on 2023-01-04, 07:50:

Edit: Here's a video by YT user Fran about the first LEDs. Very interesting.
Reminds me of dad's old parts collection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yusrrOPM43o

Fran's LED video is really great to watch I've subscribed to her channel I bet she's got heaps of good content if your into ASMR she has a relaxing voice

Too bright can be fixed by trial adjustable pot then use new resistors.

I'm curious about this game machine, how is it played? I remember seeing these on tv ads years ago when I was a child.

Cheers,

pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-01-06, 00:50:

Too bright can be fixed by trial adjustable pot then use new resistors.

I'm curious about this game machine, how is it played? I remember seeing these on tv ads years ago when I was a child.

Cheers,

It has 6 games, tick tak toe you can play against the computer or "merlin" you have to press the Comp Turn button after you make a move but this is good when you want to cheat as merlin doesn't have programming to know when you make a move, so you can literally put three in a row and win before he makes his first move

Another is to get a complete square without a red one in the middle, each button changes other spots and is fun till you work out the pattern

Blackjack is another but I haven't played this one much

A music one where merlin will remember upto 48 notes pressed and then play it back, merlin has 48 bytes of ram

Echo which is similar to Simon you get to select how many sounds you have to remember upto 9

And last is mindbender you select how many digits for a number that merlin makes you guess what number it is if you select 2 digits and one of your numbers from a guess is in the game he will tell you but two digits is very easy it's hard at 9 digits

The sounds made remind me of some Atari 2600 games, my sister had a merlin when she was a kid so as a late Xmas pressie she's getting this, the pcb is just 11 LEDs, 1 electrolytic cap, 1 ceramic cap, an ic, some resistors and a touch sensitive plastic film for button presses like some keyboards, the ic chip must be the CPU with ram and program

Much appreciated.

Cheers,

I fixed something like this before. You've got to pick the right LED that works with your game. With a 560 Ohm resistor (probably what yours is because of its colours) and the 9V from the batteries, a regular red LED that needs 20mA should be good. Your 20mA LEDs might be just what you need.

I found this easy guide on a website while fixing my stuff. It made things simple to understand and helped me pick the right LED without messing up my device. You can see here if you want more clear steps on how to do it.