Found a HUO (Home Use Only) Ms. Pacman, but is it?

pacray

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The lady I bought this from claimed that her husband (no longer living) purchased this game new around 1982. The paint is bright, and the control panel is flawless, but the cabinet does have issues. Also, the manual is still in plastic on the back door, and the pack of leg levelers along with other cabinet hardware are still sitting at the bottom of the cabinet, unopened.

The coin counter reads 28905, but it was not set on freeplay, which is good I think as the burn on the screen is very minimal. The keys and locks appear to be original, so I am inclined to believe it is indeed a HUO.

I put it side by side with your typical trashed and faded Ms Pac I got from a restaurant that went out of business. There is a pretty big difference between the two.

What do you think?

http://picasaweb.google.com/tworay/HUOMsPacman#
 

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Anything is possible; but the only real doubt I would have would be the coin counter. Man 28K is an awful lot of plays for a home use, even over a 27 year period. It could still be legit, though.
 
without a sales slip or other paperwork to confirm, it's only a nice story which you can choose to believe or not.

otherwise, it's a pretty darn nice looking cabinet.
 
Please, put garfield on the left side and Kermit on the right side. Any other way looks odd to me :)
 
Who cares if it's HUO or not? Without verifiable proof, which almost no one has, it means nothing. I have a Joust that is is in comparable shape, original keys, manual in plastic bag, 14K plays on it, monitor and all the PCBs have the same serial number stickers on them, no screen burn, etc. It has 2 years of Tax stickers on it from Texas, so it was out in commercial use for sure.

That Pac is super extra awesome. Put it in a place of honor in your gameroom, and tell everyone you paid $130 for it. That'll get them way more than a HUO claim.
 
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That's the nicest Ms. Pac I've ever seen. I'm not sure if it's HUO, but it doesh't matter since it's in great shape.
 
HUO is fairly worthless as far as a term used to describe condition. I would say that is a very nice Ms. Pac, but as you point out there are minor issues. The pink looks a little faded to me too, but I could be wrong...
 
I think the HUO term is meaningless too, and i have a couple games that are "supposedly" HUO . I have a Pacman that came from the San Jose auction that is the cleanest unrestored Pac I have ever seen ( i'll post pics later, on lunch right now). It could be HUO for all I know. In the end it doesnt matter and all that does is the condition. That is one of the nicer Ms Pacs I have ever seen and about as good as it gets for an unrestored one. I just like saying clean original. Doesn't matter to me where the game was.
 
Really it doesn't matter - looks nice, so figure on paying what you will for that condition. I personally wouldn't add value to the machine unless they can document HUO, which considering the coin counter number, may or may not be; I guess it all depends how much the guy played the game over the 25 or so years he had it...
 
The coin counter is a red herring. My HUO Food Fight has only 167 on it, but since it's been on freeplay in people's homes it's entire life I'm sure it had thousands of actual "plays." Likewise, my friend's 4 year old daughter will come and drop quarters in my games for literally hours, but never actually play the games. If it bothers you, go invest $10 in a new one... then it will have zero. ;)
 
Anything is possible; but the only real doubt I would have would be the coin counter. Man 28K is an awful lot of plays for a home use, even over a 27 year period. It could still be legit, though.

Math was never my strong suit, but that only comes out to 2.8 plays a day, right? You may have had weekends (especially back in the 80s heyday) where they might have played it 100s of times on Fri/Sat/Sun.

Could be legit.
 
That looks pretty nice for a MsPac. The coin counter is really not a red herring, it strongly points to the game being on location for a year or two, which is consistent with the condition. Do you really think it's possible to get almost 30k plays in a home? "Anything is possible," but lets be realistic and use common sense. No way, even if someone LOVED that game for years, would it get that many plays.

It would have sat idle for the majority of the 25 years. 30k "coin trips" is not that unusual, but if someone had opened that door and flipped the switch with their finger 30k times, the paint would be worn off the door, the cables would have cracked, the switch would be bent up or replaced several times, the hinge worn out, etc.

You can't judge a HUO claim by the person's character, either. After 25 years, most people honestly don't remember if they bought the game new or not. All they know is they've had it a long time, so they think they bought it new. Unless they have the receipt inside the game showing it was purchased new, you can bet that most of these nice "HUO" games were just bought in the 80's and put in a home before getting too worn, or were put in storage by an op (in the case of the unusual titles, often which didn't earn and were pulled quickly anyway).

Wade
 
Great looking game. I take 'HUO' with a grain of salt. As long as the game looks good and plays well for its age, I really couldn't give a shit. Mine was in awesome shape with minimal fading on the sides close to the CP. Marquee light didn't work, but the marquee itself was flawless, the bezel was spotless and cpo looked new.

Just be glad to have a game that looks that nice, you should be happy.
 
I would say it probably is HUO.
The Mr&Ms Pacman pinball I just got for $100 is almost HUO. The guy bought it when it was 1 year old and had it since. I have no reason not to believe him judging by the condition of the machine.
 
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