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UPDATE - TURNING BAD! found orig. side art under paint - now what?
APFelon:
I have had four Pac-Man machines come through my door in the last year. Each time I was optomistic about salvaging the sideart under the formica/paint, and each time I was sorely disappointed.
Unless you feel like dropping a bundle on stencils, a bezel, a PCB, a CP, a marquee, various paints and spending a whole lot of time working on the cab just to return it to it's "former glory", I'd say MAME it. It is also very unlikely, unless you restore a lot Pac-Man machines, that you would ever turn profit should you decide to sell it.
I went through this (the politics of MAMEing a Pac machine) on this forum a year or so ago. Some will say go for it, some will wring their hands and lament the passing of a Pac machine into MAMEland. Ultimately, it's up to you and how you want to spend your time and money.
APf
SirPeale:
I will say that Pac-Man cabinets are extremely common. If you Mame it, just don't bolt a four player CP on to it.
megashock5:
My plan is for a 2-player panel - so not original by any means, but not an enormous 4-player one either.
The problem with making it a 'real' Pac-Man machine (like I mentioned before) is that I don't have the mother board, the marquee, the bezel or the control panel for it. This had a Galaga 3 board and marquee and some generic control panel overlay with mismatched fire buttons. So, I don't have the stuff to do it. Beyond that, I don't know *how* to do it. It took me a couple of months to work up the nerve to take the monitor out because I was afraid I was going to shock myself.
So what I want is a 2-player MAME machine with a regular monitor so I can play old console games as well. I have the old vertical monitor, and I think it works, but it doesn't really fit what I want to do and I have no idea how to wire this old stuff.
I guess my choices are - go ahead with my plan or see if anyone is interested in buying this to restore it the right way and build my own from scratch.
APFelon:
I'd be interested in buying or trading for the monitor chassis if you feel like shipping it to Minnesota. (the chassis is the circuitry on the monitor--- essentially everything but the tube). Let me know if you want or are looking for or if you are interested at all.
And as for offending the purists- sounds like your plan for the cabinet is a nice clean design. I wouldn't worry about it. ;)
APf
megashock5:
AP,
Is the tube just the very back piece? Sorry, I don't know much about this stuff.
As far as my plan - while I am looking to have two 8-way sticks, one 4-way, trackball and spinner, I am going to do everything I can to make this look nice and tasteful.
I'm a designer for a living (unfortunately, not a craftsman) and I really do care what it ends up looking like. But I don't have any idea how to correctly restore something like this to it's original state, and I want a machine that plays a lot of games.
If there is anyone out there who is really interested in returning this thing to it's 'former glory' I'd be willing to sell it to someone who would do right by it and use the money to build my own cabinet.