You can program your own message into the display and leave it on, I am sure you will get more than $200 worth of satisfaction out of this over the next 10 years and that will be a lot more than you will get out of it as a non-functional unit
(copied from
http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_expert_advice_6/)
To change the greeting message on a Tascam DA-88:
1. Power On while holding Ffwd, Stop, and Play.
2. Press Stop before the word "TASCAM" begins scrolling. This will put the DA-88 into Test mode. "tESt" will appear in the time code display.
3. Press and hold the Up cursor, Down cursor, Display, and Remote keys (in that order). The letter A will appear in the time code display.
4. Press the Up or Down cursor key to select a character. Press the Display key to store the characters (you can store up to 30 characters).
5. Power Off then On to see the new greeting.
To restore the DA-88's original "TASCAM" greeting, follow the previous instructions and enter the word "TASCAM." Don't perform the initialization process on the DA-88, because that will also reset the drum use hours.-Courtesy Karl Moet, Tascam