Just got a free Ms Pacman! Woot!

[markronz]

A friend of mine's mom just gave me their old Ms Pacman machine from their basement!  It's in pretty good shape actually.  Currently it doesn't work however, but did a few years ago.  Nothing occurred in between that would explain why it broke.  It sat in the basement untouched during that time.   So I am hoping it will be something I am able to figure out, but I guess we'll see.    Despite having built two MAME arcade machines, I don't really know much about real arcade machines.   So fixing it up will certainly be a learning experience.  Here's a few pictures of it.
















And you can go on over to my official restoration log to see more pictures, and track my progress if you'd like.

First things first, never messed with an arcade monitor before.  I'm told they can be quite dangerous.  Can someone tell me which part of it that I should NOT touch? Below is a picture of the back of the monitor.


Thanks!

[Nephasth]

Congrats!

I wonder what that extra button is for on the CP? Credit button maybe? Is a different game is inside maybe?

[thatpurplestuff]

Congrats!

I wonder what that extra button is for on the CP? Credit button maybe? Is a different game is inside maybe?

I was wondering the same thing... I would guess credit button but who knows.

I'm jealous markronz... that's a nice looking machine!  Good luck with getting it running.

[markronz]

It was a friend's mom who gave the cabinet to me.  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to really talk to my friend about it much yet, only her Mom who didn't know much.  But I do know that it is a Ms Pacman in there.   And it's been in there basement for at least 15 years, because that's the first time I went over there.

The extra button appears to have the word "zoom" written on it (very slightly, almost unreadable).    My suspicion is that someone installed that cheat chip into it at some point.   I don't know a lot about this stuff yet, but I have read things about some sort of chip that will allow you to cheat and speed up Ms Pacman so she moves quicker.  Since it doesn't work yet, I haven't been able to confirm, but that's my guess so far as to what the button does!

[DaOld Man]

What a stroke of luck!
Is there a switch inside the cab? Make sure it is turned on.
Someone gave me a "Lucky 8 Lines" once that didnt work.
I found the label on the power switch was on backwards. Off was really On.
Turned it on and everything worked, but the monitor had serious screen burn.
And speaking of the monitor, you can discharge it, check out the monitor forum for how to do that.
As far as touching things, I wouldnt touch anything unless you know for sure it is not live.

[jennifer]

    Omg AWSOME...And free too, It may not be monitor, if it is usually it will still play blind, (no picture)... I would power it up and take a look at that power supply too, Dont forget to pull to door service interlock while to back is open or you will get no power...A closeup of the board would be cool...
Omg Awsome!!

[markronz]

Yeah, I am able to turn it on.  The marquee and coin door lights come on.  The monitor comes on too, but it just shows a blank gray screen.  Looks like this:


There are no sounds either, so I can't play it blind or anything.   I also checked the fuse holders and those look ok, and none of the fuses appear to be burned out.    So I'm not sure where to start looking just yet.   Since it all fires up, seems like I need to start at the board, but I don't know enough about it just yet to know what to try.

There are more pics, of the PCB and everything else on my website:
http://www.markronsman.com/MsPacman/Ms_Pacman_Restoration.htm

But here are a few more links to the pics.  I think you should be able to click on them and it should take you to a higher res photo is you wanted to see bigger pics.

[jennifer]

   They were pretty notorious for burning the edge connectors on the boards That big one on top in particular, Wiggle it a bit it may pop on...I like to put a mirror in front of the cab while doing this so I can see the screen,  At her age though, a cap kit isn't going to hurt it.

[markronz]

   They were pretty notorious for burning the edge connectors on the boards That big one on top in particular, Wiggle it a bit it may pop on...I like to put a mirror in front of the cab while doing this so I can see the screen,  At her age though, a cap kit isn't going to hurt it.

Unfortunately no dice so far.   I disconnected that part up at the top and reconnected to make sure it sat in there securely and it did.  I had the machine off though. Seems like I shouldn't be touching that stuff in there when the machine is on, is that a correct assumption?

Anyway, I think I will try to replace the fuses, even though they look ok, just to be safe.

[jennifer]

    No, the machine needs to be on...Dont worry your dealing with low voltages, Dont remove it, but kinda wiggle tap it...A bad ground is usually the culprit here...This will flicker the pic on and off if thats the trouble.

[Malenko]

When I got my Ms.Pac , it was the fuses at the bottom.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,121331.msg1286989.html

The 7amp fuses to be specific

[Well Fed Games]

Wow, that is a beautiful machine, even the boards look clean!

[zanna5910]

A friend of mine's mom just gave me their old Ms Pacman machine from their basement!  It's in pretty good shape actually. 

Thanks!

Not Fair!   

Congrats, pretty sweet pickup.  Now if I could only find someone needing to get rid of one (or a pinball) that would be awesome!

[markronz]

Well, replaced the fuses.  Still no dice.  Guess its back to the drawing board.

[SavannahLion]

The three (or sans 3 prong) plug was super common "back in the day". Many houses (or businesses too I guess) from that era do not have three prong sockets. So... since ground is pretty much required on these cabs (or certain appliances), what people had to do was do what you see there or use adapters (see picture below). Of course, for the whole thing to work, the box also had to be properly grounded which wasn't always the case. My suggestion is flat out replace the plug and, possibly, the cable. I would do the cable as well. Those old power wiring tend to crack and crumble exposing the wires inside. I'd rather have a working cab with a non-original power cable than a pile of ashes and embers.

http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/pacfix.html has a plethora of information on Pac-Man repair
So does http://www.arcadegameover.com/board_repair.html

Don't be in too much of a rush to fix it. Patience is a virtue.

Have you downloaded the schematics for it yet? You can check the wiring against the schematics and see if they're correct.

Do you have a multi-meter? Those are a big help as they'll help you spot wonky voltages.

Did you actually pull the harness off and visually inspect the edge card or the harness pins? IIRC, doesn't Pac have some bizarre power requirements? Higher than +5v line that tended to burn out the traces? A common hack was to bypass that part of the circuitry. I don't see such a thing but then I'm not in a Pac-Man mindset. Don't quote me, I have my Pac-Man schematics on a different computer and this is just from memory. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[rCadeGaming]

Free!?  Uhhhh... way too nice.  I'm jealous.  Serious screen burn-in, but it probably won't bother you when you're actually playing it since you'll be sticking with that game.

[Malenko]

do you have access to another pacman machine? put your board in their machine and see if it works might save you some headache. I do agree with the voltmeter suggestion, if you have cabs you need a good one of those.

[markronz]

Got it working!   

Got a top over on KLOV to straight up remove the RF board that is between the large connector at the top and the main PCB board.    It's circled in the attached picture.    From what I read I should "remove that board, snap it in half, and throw it away".  lol   So evidently that board isn't very important.  The only thing that is connected to it is the yellow ground wire that goes around the game.  So I plan to definitely look around some more and make sure there's nothing I need to do in place of that board.

But the main point is, I took that board out and boom!  It all works!   That zoom button is pretty crazy too.   Makes the hole game, ghosts included speed up like crazy!

[RandyT]

If I were to guess, which I am,  it looks like that board is some sort of signal conditioning circuit to cut down on RF emissions and the like.  Probably something the FCC made them add on before they could distribute it.  If it doesn't cause interference with neighboring equipment, you shouldn't have to be concerned about it.

Congrats on the very nice freebie and getting it working!

[markronz]

This is the explanation I got from a member over at KLOV on the board. 

The only reason the filterboard is there is because in the 80's, the FCC thought that these video games were emitting signals that would mess with radio transmissions on airplanes and such. Since then the general population has finally come to their senses. Your Pac-Man game will not crash planes.

The ground strap can be tucked out of the way - your pcb is getting ground through the power supply wiring anyway.

So you're right Randy!   Now lets just hope no planes crash into my house. 

[Ginsu Victim]

Just saw this on the news. Such a tragedy...

[markronz]

Lol too funny.  Haven't seen anything on the local news yet here in Green Bay, WI.  So I think I'm ok! 

[markronz]

My restoration of this machine is done. Just wanted to share a few pictures.   There are a lot more pictures and details of the restoration on  my website located here but it probably isn't anything you guys haven't seen or done yourself before.  But still the finished product looks great.  I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

I lucked out and found a local KLOV member who hooked me up with a no burn in replacement monitor!  Thanks again Rich!    You can see below the monitor is in perfect shape.


Here you can see my refinished coin door.  This was what I spent the most time on:


Here you can see the before and after shots.


Here is just a shot with the lights off, to show you everything all lit up.   I installed some new lit up player buttons, and fixed the lighting to the Zoom button as well.


I only found one other picture online of a Zoom button on a Ms Pacman machine.   The picture had a official looking logo on it.  I don't know if that came stock with the hack kit, or what.  But I figured it was better than what my button currently had (which was just the word "Zoom" written on it in ink.  So I decided to use that picture for my button as well.


Here's the right side of the machine. I just touched up the scratches as much as I could. Not too shabby at all.


Here's the left.


Here's that beautiful control panel


Here's the front of the machine.  The front is what I am most proud of.  All the artwork restoration and the coin door revamp really makes this thing look brand new.   I repainted all the pink on the front, traced all the black lines over again, and touched up the many damaged blue parts as well.


And here she is all done!

[rCadeGaming]

Outstanding!! 

[markronz]

Outstanding!! 

Thanks!!

[paigeoliver]

Just one note to everyone, don't throw away the filter boards. They are useful if you want to make wiring adapters for a test setup. I just used one to make a Defender to Jamma (power and video only) adapter.

[Dekieon]

I heard that those zoom buttons damage the ms. pac-man timing circuitry or something like that. Any truth to this?

[markronz]

This would be the first I've heard of it.  I've only owned the game for a short period of time but I haven't noticed anything weird with the game.  Works perfectly from everything I can tell.  My friend owned the machine and had it in their basement since the late 1980's and they're never has any issues with it. 

All the same, I don't find the button particularly useful, so I don't personally use it much.  But I didn't see much point in removing it either.

[twistedsistem]

What isn't broke doesn't need fixed

[Malenko]

the zoom hack wont ruin your board. I would get a new CPO and just hide the button inside, the button being there looks weird, but hey, I got my own MsPac so whatever floats your boat.

[griffindodd]

Wow congrats on a great hook-up and a nice economical restoration, she looks wonderful!