Just bought this...

[Jimmy Jingles]

Picked this cab up from a daycare that is closing. Looks to be an original Pac-Man cabinet that at one point was converted to a Ms. Pac-Man. I snapped the attached pics but I have not yet brought it home. Also was not able to power it up. The lady stated that "it powers on, but there is no picture". Will check the boards, monitor, etc when I get it back to my garage. Whatever, it only cost me $50!

Thinking of restoring it as a Galaga. I am a total noob and this will be my first attempt. Any thoughts/advice?


Thanks!

[Spyridon]

Looks to be an original Pac-Man cabinet that at one point was converted to a Ms. Pac-Man... I am a total noob... 

Well, considering that you are a total noob, you did a good job recognizing this as a Pac converted to Ms. Pac and not a Ms. Pac with a Pac-man control panel

+1 on the noob scale

Thinking of restoring it as a Galaga.

-1 on the noob scale  (shouldn't it be newb?)

You can go to Galaga, but the cab isn't correct.  Galaga and Ms. Pacman had (almost) identical cabs.  Pac-man and Galaxian shared the same cab.

Why not go pac-man?


EDIT:  Nice price and Welcome!

[Jimmy Jingles]

Yeah...I know Galaga would not be 100% in this cab.

I have just have always been a huge Galaga fan, and I figured this would be close enough.  Not looking to resale or anything, this is just for me.

Still a bad idea though, huh?

Crap! What to do...

[Spyridon]

Yeah...I know Galaga would not be 100% in this cab.

I have just have always been a huge Galaga fan, and I figured this would be close enough.  Not looking to resale or anything, this is just for me.

Still a bad idea though, huh?

Crap! What to do...

If that is what you want go for it.  Won't be an exact restoration, but since the cab has already been converted it's not like you are destroying a dedicated machine.

[King Nerd]

Man, I'd kill for an original Pac-Man, but money just seems to hate me.
Beautiful find, better price.

Personally, I'd go Pac-man, just because I like it and we're the same age (1980 baby!), but I don't think you'd have to hand over your Arcade Owner's badge for makin' your Pac into a Galaga. 

[Jimmy Jingles]

The more research I do think I will go ahead and restore it to it's original glory. An original Pac is not as common and I really dig the yellow color. Thanks for you responses!

Now, let me run something else by you guys...

What do you think about me sticking a 60-in-1 iCade Classic Arcade Multigame JAMMA PCB in there along with a PCB to Pacman cabinet adapter? I could wire the P1 and P2 buttons to be fire/secondary so the control panel could stay original (no extra buttons).

Is this considered sin?

[SirPeale]

I'd personally go with the original board, but with one of the multi-kits out there.  Mark Spaeths kit is pretty cool. 

There are too many of the xx-in-1 conversions out there, and they're all flawed.  If all you want to do is play games I guess it's okay, but I prefer it the way they're supposed to be.

[WunderCade]

Huh, something tells me this guy isn't as newb as he's letting on. A 60-1? That's actually what I was  going to suggest since you want Galaga soo badly.

[MaineEvent]

I have an icade 60 in 1 and it's the greatest! I can play 60 classic arcade games in the my 1 bedroom apartment!  It might not get you street cred for having a restored Pac-Man cab... but it's definately worth it.

[CheffoJeffo]

I have a gutted Pac cab currently awaiting stripping and bondo. I also have a spare 48-in-1 and JAMMA harness sitting on my workbench.

I keep flip-flopping on whether I should take the easy out or go original.

On the plus side for going 48-in-1 is the fact that I also have a set of misprinted PAC artwork (ghost is purple instead of blue ... my kids think it looks better, I think it has character, so I think we're going to go with it), so it's not going to be a balls-to-the-wall restoration anyway (I don't love the Pac enough for that) and, should I desire to sell it, the 48-in-1 will likely be worth more.

Meh ... enough of me babbling ... I think that all of the options presented are decent.

But, definitely be sure to check the wiki.