...has been spared from the local landfill. My wife spotted this cabinet while we were driving around one Saturday:
It was sitting next to a warehouse, so I had to have a closer look. When we pulled up there was someone inside the building, so I went in and inquired about the cabinet.
"Excuse me sir, but is that your Pac Man outside?"
"No, it's yours."
"What?"
"I am supposed to dispose of that, but it is too big and heavy to fit in the dumpster, and I don't have a saw. Take the damn thing so I can go home."
"OK. Thanks!"
It was on my front porch in less than an hour. The cabinet was in very poor shape. Missing were the marquee, monitor, and PCB. It had been sitting outside in the rain. The wiring had all been cut out by local crackheads. Although the artwork appears intact in the photos, just brushing my hand across the sides would cause the paint to flake off, exposing bare plywood. It took about 5 minutes with a putty knife to completely remove all the paint from the cabinet. The original control panel and controls were there, although the artwork was in horrible shape. The cabinet was still solid, though, so I decided to use it for a cheap project. I had a nice 20" Sony color television that I picked up earlier this year at a yard sale for $25, I had a couple of those Jakks-Namco-Plug-n-Play-TV-game-things, of course I had some joysticks, buttons, wiring, switches, and all that stuff, and I even had some Galaxian t-molding, sideart, and a CPO lying around.
Amazingly, the television fit perfectly between the cabinet's existing monitor frame rails:
Oops! Did I install it upside down? No, that was intentional. I flipped the tube inside the TV case because the screen was centered better in the cabinet that way.
As usual, I got in a big ass hurry to get the project done and didn't take any photos during the build. Here is the somewhat finished cabinet:
Yes, the sideart is a little small, but I had it on hand. Free=good.
I really love this control panel. I reused the original panel by filling in the holes with fiberglass and drilling new ones. (the crappy green Happ stick has since been replaced with a red ball-top leaf switch stick):
I kept the cabinet's original incandescent lighting, and although this photos is crappy the marquee looks fantastic:
Another photo of the sideart (which was printed by mamemarquees.com, I use them for all my projects). This was originally intended for a smaller scale Midway cabinet:
I'm not a big fan of the Jakks Pacific games, but my kids are. They love the cabinet. Just turn it on and it is ready to play...no booting up, no config menus, no complicated control panel...
Also, the day I finished it, when my wife came home and saw it she said "wow, that's cool". I guess she has finally come to accept the fact that our dining room will always be furnished with at least two arcade games
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
Send this topic
Print
Topic: Midway Pac Man Cabinet #59510... (Read 4151 times)
