Another stupid question...

Addicted2Cades

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I know I know... I'm always asking you professionals these dumb weird questions. Problem is I'm always trying to learn and figure things out and why something might be a certain way.

So here's my dumb question...

I have this bootleg pac-man board and the adapter is crazy looking. Can someone tell me what the purpose of this adapter is compared to the newer, pretty, sexy looking ones on ebay?

Thanks
 

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It is needed to work with the bootleg board.
 
All boards are not equal. Not knowing the pinout, it is best to keep what is working. That must have been working at some time and moving to something else is an unknown. It takes research to make a connector to work to play in a game it was not designed to originally work.
 
I'm not an expert on Pac bootlegs, but it looks like that board contains the AC to DC power supply that is normally part of a real Pac board, but wasn't part of whatever that underlying board is, which someone turned into a bootleg Pac. That board probably natively runs off of 5V DC, so there needs to be an adapter to convert the AC that the Pac cab provides, to the 5V that the bootleg board needs.

It looks like it was designed to work specifically with that board, so others on eBay may not work the same. (I don't know which ones you're referring to.)
 
What kind of power supply do you have in the cabinet? As Andrewb said, that adapter is converting AC to DC, but if you're using a switching power supply you do not need to do that. You would still need an adapter to convert the pinout from 44 to 36, which this adapter is also doing. That said, it looks like it has a 44 pin connector as well. There are some bootlegs that have different size connectors on the same board for different wiring harnesses. But you first need to understand what power supply is in there.
 
I know I know... I'm always asking you professionals these dumb weird questions. Problem is I'm always trying to learn and figure things out and why something might be a certain way.

So here's my dumb question...

I have this bootleg pac-man board and the adapter is crazy looking. Can someone tell me what the purpose of this adapter is compared to the newer, pretty, sexy looking ones on ebay?

Thanks

That's a Little Green Giant, converting the Pacman AC to DC for Falcon.
 
I think it's mostly been covered but just bring it home..

An original Pac-Man board has the AC/DC conversion on the main PCB, not on a separate PCB like many other games of the time (including other Midway games).

The Falcon bootleg doesn't have this AC/DC conversion and would be more at home in a generic cabinet with a switching power supply which supplies DC voltages directly.

The wacky adapter is essentially the AC/DC conversion section from the original Pac-Man PCB. So the adapter lets you plug the Falcon bootleg into an original Pac-man cabinet without having to do anything to the wiring or add in switching power supply.
 
All boards are not equal. Not knowing the pinout, it is best to keep what is working. That must have been working at some time and moving to something else is an unknown. It takes research to make a connector to work to play in a game it was not designed to originally work.
It still works. Monitor quit working. Seller said monitor just faded over time but finally just went blank. Board should still work because I can hear it play blind.
 
What kind of power supply do you have in the cabinet? As Andrewb said, that adapter is converting AC to DC, but if you're using a switching power supply you do not need to do that. You would still need an adapter to convert the pinout from 44 to 36, which this adapter is also doing. That said, it looks like it has a 44 pin connector as well. There are some bootlegs that have different size connectors on the same board for different wiring harnesses. But you first need to understand what power supply is in there.
It's running off an old 1st generation taito.
 
I think it's mostly been covered but just bring it home..

An original Pac-Man board has the AC/DC conversion on the main PCB, not on a separate PCB like many other games of the time (including other Midway games).

The Falcon bootleg doesn't have this AC/DC conversion and would be more at home in a generic cabinet with a switching power supply which supplies DC voltages directly.

The wacky adapter is essentially the AC/DC conversion section from the original Pac-Man PCB. So the adapter lets you plug the Falcon bootleg into an original Pac-man cabinet without having to do anything to the wiring or add in switching power supply.
Thanks for the lesson! I'm learning 😂🥴
 
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