Ok, so this past spring, I was offered this:
Now, I'm not one to say no to a project, even when it's free, but I decided to pass.
You can see from this photo why it was leaning like that (it's not the photo angle) - the bottom and back panel was totally rotted away. In fact, look how thick and fuzzy the lower left side was:
I really didn't have room for it, and I had just finished my
Macross project, so I was ready to take a break. My buddy Jawhn was going to toss it in the dumpster, but wanted to see if I wanted it first. I told him thanks but no thanks. I didn't need a dedicated Galaga, nor did I have the $$$ to replace all the art, buy a Marquee and Bezel, and so on...
A few days later, on Easter Sunday, I was visiting with my family, talking about ZapCon and Macross. My sister mentioned to me that she'd love a Ms. Pac-Man. This wasn't the first time that she said that, so I've always wanted to get her something. I remember the cabinet, and I also recalled that Galaga and Ms. Pac were the same cab. When I got home, I texted Jawhn about the cab. He hadn't tossed it yet (trash pickup was the next day), so I went on Easter Sunday to pick it up. My sister's birthday is in May, so I talked to my brother-in-law about it. He was on board, so I got to work.
I brought it home and looked at it. The bottom was fully rotted, swollen up to almost 4 inches in some parts. It was clear I was going to have to not only replace the missing parts but also rebuild some of the damaged areas. That's OK, though- I had done something similar with my second MAME cab.
After stripping off the side art, I hacked off 5 inches from the front, 7 inches off the right side, and OVER a FOOT on the left side, sanding the sides down after each cut. I left the t-molding on because the edges were all swollen and fuzzy, and keeping the t-molding ON allowed me to use the orbital sander to get it where I needed it to be. Usually, I pull all the t-molding off first thing, so chalk this one up as a learning experience.
I carefully measured, made new sides, and used a dowel bit and dowels, along with a ton of wood glue, to secure the new sides. I built a new bottom and back, installed wheels, and when it was all dry, I propped it on its side. Stabillity had been achieved. Now it was looking like a Midway cabinet! You can see the seam in this photo...
.and once I used some Bondo glaze and primer, now you don't! Light fixture installed.
At this point, I brought it in the house to paint as well as install the internals. I got a free 19" Dell CRT from a buddy of mine that I decased and installed. I also did a test fit of the metal parts that I ordered from TwistedQuarter.
Now, as far as the theme goes, I really liked WellFedGames'
Mr. + Ms. Pac-Man theme that he did a little while back. He's a good dude and posted the artwork that he used, so I contacted him as a courtesy to let him know that I was going to use it as well as tweak it a bit. He gave me his blessing.
I had two big changes from the original. On his side art, he used ghosts on each side. I knew my sister was a big fan of Mrs. Pac, so I replaced the ghosts with Pac-Man on one side, Ms. Pac on the other. I used the assets from the marquee for consistency. The other change was with the paint scheme. He did Pac-Man yellow on the front, Ms. Pac blue on the sides. I went with black on the front and Ms. Pac blue on the sides because I thought it might blend nicely, plus I did it as a shoutout to the Galaga origins of the cab. The blue paint I got was the good stuff from Sherwin-Williams (I got the color match off KLOV). I ordered pink buttons from Paradise, pink t-molding off eBay, and got some bronze plexi from Home Depot. I was lucky enough to have an extra coin door lying around that fit a Midway cab, so I popped that in.
A friend of mine who prints vinyl made the side art prints for me. Right side
Left side
Here it is, in it's new home.
The only thing it's missing is the CP overlay, which I am printing up. My wife was kind of leery giving it to her, thinking she might not want something so big, but she didn't realize that my sister and I lived for going to Peter Piper Pizza and playing games as kids. Honestly, my sister LOVED it. I took it to her last weekend, and she just about died. Her husband and daughter were hooked as well (I even added a few games at his request). By the end of the night, the conversation started to shift on what the NEXT cab in their collection was going to be.
Just some vitals, it's running a P4, MAME .145, AtomicFE front end. I bought a Happ Reunion stick and a cheap JAMMA harness to hack off eBay, buttons from Paradise, and a KADE for the controls (have I told you how much I love the KADE???
) . I have it set to boot directly into 25pacman, which is the Pac-Man/Ms. Pac/Galaga ROM. I figure they can turn it on and let guests play. Hitting P1 + P2 exits MAME, and hitting P1 + B1 adds credits (the coin door DOES work, though). In AtomicFE there is a list of all the 4-Way, 0-2 button vertical games for them to choose from. I also have HBMAME running the Donkey Kong Pauline ROM as well as some Ms. Pac-Man hacks I thought she'd like.
Thanks to my homies Nephasth, Malenko & HaRuMaN for the feedback along the way, and to WellFedGames for his artwork and ideas. I hope my cab does his concept justice.