Coleco Pacman Tabletop Restore

[DeLuSioNal29]

I have a ton of projects on my plate, so I figured I'd knock this one out since it seemed to be the easiest of the bunch.  As a kid, I never owned one of these, but I remember friends having one and it was awesome.


I have two Coleco Pacman Tabletop games I am restoring.  The first I snagged on eBay several years ago for $20 (working).  And then another one on Craigslist recently for $20 as well (working, but not as in good condition as the first).  They mostly needed cosmetic work since the stickers were in bad shape.








The CP stickers were in good condition, but were faded:


The joysticks and screws needed cleaning:



The bezel and display were in good shape, but on the second one it was slightly rubbed off:



There was a great guide here that helped show how to take it apart:
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Coleco/ColecoRepair/index.html

At first everything looked pretty normal.  But on the second unit I realized that someone had spilled soda on it.  It still worked but there was crap all over the PCB.  I'm kind of torn on what I should do here.  Should I give it a bath in simple green and alcohol?  Or should I leave it as is?  Thoughts?





Anyway, I got down to business and used Goo Gone to remove all of the stickers.  Gave all the plastic parts a bath and they came out looking new:




I found a guy on e-bay that reproduces the artwork and had him make me two sets.



He actually gave me two variations of the CP for each set (4 pieces total).  I'm going to stick to the original.  Here they are side by side:


On a side note, I saw this online and instantly nixed it.  I wanted everything to look original:


They guy even supplied me with the battery cover stickers!


That's it for now.  I still need to decide what to do about that second PCB.

DeLuSioNaL29

[DeLuSioNal29]

Placed stickers on and re-assembling the unit.

[DeLuSioNal29]

One of Two completed!

[Spyridon]

Great project.  I haven't seen anyone restore one of these before.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Thanks!  Can't wait until my 7 year old sees it this weekend. It's always been off limits to him due to the frailness of the stickers, but now that I've gone through it and applied the new artwork - it's practically bulletproof.
Here's a before and after shot.



D

[DeLuSioNal29]

Update:  I ended up scrubbing down the board that had the soda spilled on it.  Turned out it was 30 year old soy sauce.  Blech!  After the PCB was cleaned up I re-soldered on the power wires and speaker wires.  Re-flowed a few connections and still works fine.

I also chose to use the alternate artwork on the second machine.  That way I can tell them apart.  I still have the original artwork minty fresh if I decide to swap it out.

Here's a pic of the competed machines:



D

[Cobolisdead]

Nice job! 

[bertodrink1]

Wow looks great I got a few of these that I have tucked away because of the condition of the stickers also. I didn't know there were reproduction art work for these but I also wasn't looking.
After you got the stickers off what did u give them a bath in to get them so clean? 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[DeLuSioNal29]

I used Goo Gone to get the stickers and the residual glue off, then I wiped them down with Simple Green.  Finally, I used rubbing alcohol to make the stickers adhere better.  This prevents them from peeling.

D

[tomstewdevine]

Nice work, looks like a fun little project.

[bertodrink1]

Ok I'll try that. I dug mine out they are all pretty rough except for the Zaxxon that one is in great shape. My Donkey Kong's are in real bad shape one is turning yellow I bought another one and it was great then got in a car accident and it was in the trunk and broke some of the back.
I did see the guy selling the decals on eBay only thing is they are not cut out. Shouldn't be to much of a problem except for the holes for the controls and fire/jump buttons. Did you have to cut yours out also. I was thinking maybe a wood dowel from home depot and a razor knife maybe that's seems like it would be the hardest part to get them to line up perfectly. 
I never really even played my Galaxian I got it off of eBay back in early 2000 and it came in French i think so it was always in a box. I'm going to need another DK also at least a nice blue top for one, I saw one on eBay and when I came back to it already sold this morning. I'll have to keep on looking for a parts one with a nice blue top.

[SlammedNiss]

How expensive was the artwork? I have an old PacMan tabletop I've been considering replacing the artwork on and didn't know if I should do it myself and just buy it already done.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Did you have to cut yours out also? I was thinking maybe a wood dowel from home depot and a razor knife maybe that's seems like it would be the hardest part to get them to line up perfectly.

I used an X-Acto knife and cut out the white spot on top of a piece of cardboard before I removed the backing.  You just need to be extra careful and precise.  After doing them I realized there may be an easier way though:  I could have stuck them onto the CP first and then used the existing holes to cut out the white part with an X-Acto knife using the edged of the plastic as a guide.

D

[DeLuSioNal29]

How expensive was the artwork? I have an old PacMan tabletop I've been considering replacing the artwork on and didn't know if I should do it myself and just buy it already done.

They were $17 a set plus $7 shipping.  Since I ordered 2 sets, I saved on shipping.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-decals-for-vintage-electronic-coleco-tabletop-mini-arcade-donkey-kong-/171917551421?hash=item280715a73d:g:htQAAOSw9N1ViuVy

D

[SlammedNiss]

How expensive was the artwork? I have an old PacMan tabletop I've been considering replacing the artwork on and didn't know if I should do it myself and just buy it already done.

They were $17 a set plus $7 shipping.  Since I ordered 2 sets, I saved on shipping.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-decals-for-vintage-electronic-coleco-tabletop-mini-arcade-donkey-kong-/171917551421?hash=item280715a73d:g:htQAAOSw9N1ViuVy

D

Wow, really? Maybe I should start making them then. Mine would even have the holes cut out.