Just got Ms. Pac-Man in Pac-Man Cabinet

[1zzy]

We recently won a Ms. Pac-Man game that is in a Pac-Man Cabinet and I have a couple questions since I am really new to this:

1) The Ms. Pac-Man games works when I turned it on - that's a good thing, but the picture on the game might or might not have issues. When I first turned it on the screen was sorta bright yellow but after a few seconds went down to black background. I figure this might be because I just drove the thing home for about an hour today and it was in the high 40s. It looks to have the original monitor when I opened the back of the cabinet, but my main question is what do I need to look for in regards of any things to repair? What is a re-capped monitor and how does one do it / what does it cost if I need to do it?

2) Noticed that the very right side of the screen is a little wavy when it comes to the exit chutes on the maze. Is this normal? Is there a way to adjust it or is the monitor in need of repairs (see #1)?

3) Is there a manual on the upright version that someone can point me to so I can print it out?

4) The cabinet I have looks to be an original Pac-Man cabinet. The art is pretty good and is painted/silkscreened on the cabinet and has some blue speckle flakes all over the cabinet. Is this normal?

5) What other things do I need to do to get this machine in good shape? I looked at the boards inside briefly and they look a little dusty. Should I clean them or leave them alone. If I clean them, what do I use and how should I do it?

6) Last of the big questions I hope, I would like to add a few PCBs to this cabinet and be able to switch between them (Galiga, Frogger, etc.). Is there a way to hook this up and how would you rotate to a different board?

Thanks all. As I said, it's our first arcade game and we are pretty excited about having it.

Scott S.

[Thenasty]

I have Ms.Pac original Manual if interested.

[unix4hire]

Welcome to be board!

kick ass, you won it?  That is my first cabinet also, ms in a pac.  The blue specks are perfectly normal.  I wouldn't mess with the innards any if it's working, might risk messing something up.

You can download the manual at klov.com:

http://klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=8782
 

[markrvp]

Congratulations on your new machine!

[SuperGunGuru]

From what I've heard, the blue speckles on the cabinet were done on the later run cabinets. Mine is like that. Can anyone confirm this or does anyone have one without these speckles?

[Nailz]

From what I've heard, the blue speckles on the cabinet were done on the later run cabinets. Mine is like that. Can anyone confirm this or does anyone have one without these speckles?

Yup, mine was like that as well....

[clanggedin]

Sounds like the your monitor needs a cap kit if it is wavy on one of the sides. Cap Kits are fairly easy to do if you know how to solder.

[RayB]

I am really new to this

Then I suggest baby steps so you don't mess anything up. Sounds like you can play and enjoy the game at this time... so let's not break it. ;-)

1) The Ms. Pac-Man games works when I turned it on - that's a good thing, but the picture on the game might or might not have issues. When I first turned it on the screen was sorta bright yellow but after a few seconds went down to black background. I figure this might be because I just drove the thing home for about an hour today and it was in the high 40s.

You'll have to post photos for us to help. And then we'll probably suggest you start a thread in the Monitors area. ;-)

It looks to have the original monitor when I opened the back of the cabinet, but my main question is what do I need to look for in regards of any things to repair? What is a re-capped monitor and how does one do it / what does it cost if I need to do it?

At this point in time it may be over your head. First, monitors are high-voltage devices, even with the power off and cord disconnected. So don't go poking around there!

Second, there's nothing you can look at that will be an easy fix. Different monitor problems are caused by different things.

2) Noticed that the very right side of the screen is a little wavy when it comes to the exit chutes on the maze. Is this normal? Is there a way to adjust it or is the monitor in need of repairs (see #1)?

If the problem is just a slight wave in the screen, then maybe you can just leave it as is. But yes, a "cap kit" might fix it. "Capping" is when you take the circuit boards and replace every capacitor on them. That requires soldering skills. A kit varies in cost from about $10 to $28. You have to do it yourself. There are no commercial "services" out there to do it for you. (well, not really...)

5) What other things do I need to do to get this machine in good shape? I looked at the boards inside briefly and they look a little dusty. Should I clean them or leave them alone. If I clean them, what do I use and how should I do it?

What else? Well depends. Is anything broken? If so, fix it. If it's not broke, then don't fix it. Don't bother cleaning the boards at this point. You might cause the game to stop working. (Never know with newbies!

[1zzy]

Thanks for all the replies. I printed out the manual and it at least tells me how to adjust the monitor and do some tests. For now I am not going to mess with the inner stuff till it stops working. Just thought I would ask if there were certain things that someone should do when getting a game. I have some photos of the inside, just need to transfer the files and then I can post them.

Also, if it is a pretty easy fix for those who know what they are doing, should this be done anyways or follow the "If it Ain't Broke - Don't Touch It Rule" for this too? Guess it doesn't hurt to ask if anyone is near Maryland that would be able to help do a re-cap for me when/if I need it? I have soldering skills, but I don't want to mess with the monitor and get shocked if I don't have too 

Nothing is broken on it. The marque is fine, the CPO doesn't look right (blue bkg w/dots on maze), but doesn't detract that much and cabinet is in good shape except for the bottom edges of it which show a little wear. The coin mechanisms work and I have a key for it. Sound is crisp. Just the game picture seems a little messed up, but not bad enough that it can't be played. So unless I am missing something else, I guess it will go in the basement right after Xmas so the wife can enjoy her present.

[BUCKETHEAD]

I have a earlier PAC-MAN and it does not have the blue Speckles on it.

I also have a later run empty PAC-MAN cabinet and it has the blue Speckles on it.

Also the 25 cent logo's on the Coin Door of the ealier run, Looks like the ones on

GALAXIAN cabinets.

The later run 25 cent logo's look more modern.

[1zzy]

Here are the pictures I promised:

[BUCKETHEAD]

That looks real sweet.

just needs a little TLC.

The inside looks MINT.  (No hack job!)

I suggest ....

#1  Round up a PAC-MAN marquee

#2 Get a new Original PAC-MAN control panel sticker

#3 Get that Monitor capped!

#4 Get that MULTI PAC kit

[1zzy]

Thanks.

I don''t know if I want to get another Marquee right this second, unless someone has one here for a good price along with the CP sticker.

[BUCKETHEAD]

$400 a very reasonable price.

[1zzy]

So I guess the real question is - should I change this machine totally over to a Pacman machine or just leave it alone for now. It looks like the only things I need to make it a complete Pacman are a marquee and a CPO. If I was to do that, I guess I could sell/trade the Ms. Pac-Man Marquee to cover the cost of the replacement one and just buy a CPO.

Someone wrote me offering to buy my original Ms. Pacman PCB and give me a discount on a MultiJAMMA PCB (that has Ms. Pacman, Frogger and a few others), but I am not sure what the ramications of doing that is. Wouldn't I have to buy a PAC to JAMMA card and change out the power supplies? In my minimal research, it appears that original PCBs also can handle the add-ons, but multi or bootlegs can't.  Is it worth while to change the PCBs out and make it JAMMA or does it take away from the value of the cabinet. Sorta brings up the question of restoring the cabinet or repainting it to something else. Lots of questions while we wait for our game as it is an Xmas present from my parents and my wife hasn't seen it yet.

[markrvp]

Yeah, you would need a new switching power supply and you would have to re-wire the cabinet with a Jamma harness.  It kind of defeats the purpose of buying a classic cabinet.  If it were me, I would restore it to look like an original Pacman and put in the Multipac board.

My suggestion to you if you want to play a lot of classic games is to build a MAME cabinet to go next to your Pacman cabinet.  You will get some experience and be able to play any game you want.  Then you can add more classic cabinets as opportunity/money permit.

[1zzy]

Sweet. Then I will work on switching out the marquee for a Pac-Man one (anyone got one to trade? sell?) and I need to buy a Pac-man CPO.

BTW - How hard is it to remove a CPO from the CP?

[DrumAnBass]

I just bought a non-working Jr. Pac-Man in a Super Pac-Man cabinet on eBay. I have been lurking on here for a long time, so happy to finally post! I am leaning towards Mame-ing it but keeping the original cab art and original parts for future restoration. It is missing the original control panel overlay and none of the guts have been tested. But the cabinet is in really great shape. Price was $65 and the seller was local and was nice enough to deliver it to me...! Here are the pix:

[RayB]

Drum: Restore it!

If you go ahead and MAME it, do us old collectors a favor: Don't cut new holes in the CP.

[fredster]

RayB, great suggestions!

You can buy new control panels can't you for a Ms Pac? One with the holes punched to your specs? Arcadecabinets.com?

Super Pacs are getting more rare. Lots of parts for them though. And cheap for now.

I saw one sell at the auction working last weekend for about $240.

Yes, you are supposed to have the blue speckles on the machine.

No, I wouldn't change it to jamma if you don't have to.  To the pure collector, I think it makes a difference. It does to me anyway.

If the cab is in good shape, has the original power supply and hasn't been cut or torn on the sides, I'd say restore it.  However, if it's been hacked up and cut up and it doesn't have say 70% of the original brackets, markings, etc. To me it's a candidate for Mame or conversion.

Pac are usually in pretty good shape.  But Stargates, well, they are converted to junk everywhere.

[1zzy]

Looking at my third picture where I show the motherboard, I just noticed something - I have a red button on the PCB - is that a reset switch? I also noticed that besides the board looking clean, that the daughter card looks out of place especially with the one dangling with the ribbon cable. Is this a real Ms. Pac-Man or is it something else?  I unfortunately don't have the game to look at right this second because it is now underwraps until Xmas, but it has made me think with looking at all the 16in1/Super ABC possibilities...

That would be great if I held 1 and 2 player and a menu popped up 

[1zzy]

Sounds like the your monitor needs a cap kit if it is wavy on one of the sides. Cap Kits are fairly easy to do if you know how to solder.

Is there directions for the DIY somewhere on replacing the capacitors? I have done a little soldering, and my father has done tons, but I would like some directions to make sure I don't electric myself or something even if the machine is unplugged.

[RayB]

You have to discharge the monitor. A couple times. Then remove the circuit boards so you can work on them.

Regarding your board, look for writing anywhere that says "Midway" or "Namco". Chances are yours is a Pacman with the MsPac hack added to it.

It concerns me that card is just dangling there.

[1zzy]

So it is pretty easy to discharge a monitor then and work on the circuit boards? I saw a cap kit for $10 I think online, guess it would be a good investment. Since the monitor doesn't have any burn-in, once I cap it the colors should be nice and bright again?

Also if this machine is a hack, wouldn't the card not even be present? I am not sure since I just opened the back and shot two quick pictures, but maybe the card came loose in driving it home. I did lay the machine on it's back in the truck bed - was that a dumb thing to do since I have to drive it from there to my house around Xmas time? I can't really drive with it upright because I have a little Ford Ranger with some strap downs, but I would be concerned with the cabinet flipping over since the only strap point I would have is the bed sides.

Finally, what do I look for in a hacked vs. original? I saw an image I think of some resistor soldiered in a couple of spots... would the multipac even work on my machine then? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Specifically if there is pictures of hacked boards, a regular pacman board and a regular ms. pacman board.

Thanks again all - I am learning so much.

[RayB]

So it is pretty easy to discharge a monitor then and work on the circuit boards?

Discharging is "easy" but you need to follow the directions carefully since the voltage is enough to seriously harm you if you get zapped.

I saw a cap kit for $10 I think online, guess it would be a good investment. Since the monitor doesn't have any burn-in, once I cap it the colors should be nice and bright again?

In theory.

Also if this machine is a hack, wouldn't the card not even be present?

Oh you mean if your board was a bootleg then it wouldn't have the daughter card? Mmm probably. I dunno.

I did lay the machine on it's back in the truck bed - was that a dumb thing to do since I have to drive it from there to my house around Xmas time?

No, it's common to transport them on their backs. But usually you have to make sure stuff inside is all secured. Loose parts can bounce around and cause damage or get stuck in the electrical areas. You wouldn't want a loose bolt getting wedged in yoru monitor guts and you not noticing. That happened to someone here withhis Die Hard game.

[markrvp]

Your PCB appears to be an original.

[Dav]

Looking at my third picture where I show the motherboard, I just noticed something - I have a red button on the PCB - is that a reset switch? I also noticed that besides the board looking clean, that the daughter card looks out of place especially with the one dangling with the ribbon cable. Is this a real Ms. Pac-Man or is it something else?  I unfortunately don't have the game to look at right this second because it is now underwraps until Xmas, but it has made me think with looking at all the 16in1/Super ABC possibilities...

That would be great if I held 1 and 2 player and a menu popped up 

Yes, pac boards have a red reset button on them.  Your daughter board is indeed a bootleg.  Take a look at mowermans pacfile page for the real one.  It has 4 small ttl chips on it.  Yours looks to have just one.   Check out the 96in1 multipac it will plug right in and play games like pengo and space invaders  that you won't get on other kits, it's probably cheaper than the other kits too.

[markrvp]

Here's a picture of the Midway MsPacman daughtercard.

[BUCKETHEAD]

Check out the 96in1 multipac it will plug right in and play games like pengo and space invaders  that you won't get on other kits, it's probably cheaper than the other kits too.

Where can you get ahold of one of these?

[1zzy]

Yeah - tell me about it. I was almost ready to buy the 16in1. Let me know please

[Dav]

http://home.everestkc.net/mdoyle/multipac.htm

You can do google searches on rgvac if you want more details, or talk to mike.  Or you might check if misfit mame runs it yet, not sure. 

Last time I talked to mike he said he was starting to run low, as he had some large orders.

[1zzy]

So I gotta ask, is there pictures / review of the games on this board anywhere? Not sure what a lot of those titles are. Thanks.

[RayB]

Izzy, back in the day hackers would take the original pacman data, make changes to it, then burn new chips with the changes and sell it as a "new version" of pacman so operators could keep making money off the same machine. Or sometimes they'd make an entire bootleg board and sell those (illegal of course).

The multi-pac has a range of these hacks all on one board. Piranha for example changes the graphics so you control a fish and there is no maze! Ms Pacman was originally a hack, but it was so well made that Midway bought it and released it as a full fledged sequel. There's a version where the dots are replaced with hearts. I've also heard of one where pac is changed to Popeye's head, and the power pellets are cans of spinach.

[fredster]

There's a lot of bootleg pacs.  But the bootlegs won't work unless you rewire the cab.

I think you can still find the pacman multigame boards here and there.

Here's the bible of all pacman, the most complete reference on the net - http://users.erols.com/mowerman/pacfile.htm

Mowerman knows all, praise him.

[Dav]

So I gotta ask, is there pictures / review of the games on this board anywhere? Not sure what a lot of those titles are. Thanks.

Afaik just on rgvac:

if you search for 96 in 1 you'll get a ton of hits, here's a couple.

Link

Link

Most of those listed games are new mazes for pacman made for this kit so you won't recognize them.  A lot of them are in mame though, like Mr TNT, Eyes, Pengo, Piranha,  I believe Catepillar has been replaced by a hacked super pacman version.

Possibly the best feature is having a top ten name list for the hi scores in pacman, ms pacman and pacman plus.

[1zzy]

Didn't see Screen shots of all the games on the page for the 96in1 and I emailed Mike asking him about it and got no response.

I think for now the game can stay the way it is. I mean if you are only going to get 6 unique games out of it and only two of them might be played I don't think it would really be worth it. Space Invaders sounds interesting and so does Pengo, but I wonder what they actually look like playing through the 96in1.

Update for my machine (although we don't get it for another 19 days): I bought a new CPO and used Pac-Man marquee to restore the machine to it's original configuration. Since I don't have access to the machine yet and I am sitting at work, does anyone have links for the following:

How to Remove/Replace a CPO (need to get the crappy one off)
How to Replace a Marquee
How to Re-cap a monitor (or if anyone lives near Mt. Airy, MD and has experience to help do it sometime PM me please)

Thanks again all. This is truly a great group that I hope I can contribute to more in the future as I grow into the hobby.

Scott S.

[paigeoliver]

You won't need any instructions on replacing the marquee, the bracket on top unscrews and the marquee slides out.

There are a half dozen webpages out there detailing how to do cap kits, but basically, unsolder old cap, solder in new cap, cut off the extra length of the cap legs.

Pac overlays are pretty easy to get off. Basically scrape the old one off, put a new coat of black paint on the bare panel, give it a day or 3 to dry, and then put the new overlay sticker on.

[1zzy]

Thanks for the info. Going to try and fill in the little marks in the marquee using watered down enamel. Should work - if not I can always wash it off.

So I assume removing the CP isn't too complicated? Not having that machine in front of me makes it hard to determine right this second. Is there anything you need to look out for when removing it (ie. hidden clips, things you must disconnect first, etc.)

[paigeoliver]

Thanks for the info. Going to try and fill in the little marks in the marquee using watered down enamel. Should work - if not I can always wash it off.

So I assume removing the CP isn't too complicated? Not having that machine in front of me makes it hard to determine right this second. Is there anything you need to look out for when removing it (ie. hidden clips, things you must disconnect first, etc.)

I am going from memory here, but Pac-Man should have a pair of latches that can be reached from inside the coin door. If it still won't come off then look for a nut in the middle towards the glass.

[markrvp]

Come on, 1zzy.  Tell us how it went on Christmas morning.