It actually started Tuesday night. There was a CraigsList ad for a free Ms Pacman. No way! Fired off an email expecting nothing and got a reply. "My wife posted this without my knowledge...". Ruh Roh Raggy, rubble!
Not wanting to get shot as part of a domestic dispute over a family heirloom, I quickly emailed back for them to please keep me in mind when they came to a mutual decision to send Ms. P. packing.
10 minutes later another email. "How soon can you come get it out of the garage?". I emailed back that it was too late to get my buddies truck and I was stuck in meetings until Friday. The usual kiss of death on free stuff. Next email, "sounds good, what time?". This never, ever, ever happens. So we set a time and I got their address. This morning, I borrowed the truck and we (my buddy had to work, but his wife decided to ride shotgun) headed out to find Ms. P.
When we got there, the couple was very nice. The story was that the guy's father had run a bunch of 7-11's and had saved some video games, Ms. P. being one of them. A couple of years ago he went into an apartment and stored it at their house. By then it was not working. They had someone out to get an estimate on fixing it. The estimate was high so out in the garage it sat. Fast forward to this morning. we stopped in, they showed us the game. Talked a little about it and then helped load it up.
I unloaded it a little while ago. Took some pictures and couldn't leave well enough alone. I drilled the lock out and this is what I saw:
Everything was there and looked in good shape. The outside needs some cosmetics, but it has never been flooded, so the cabinet is solid. Just needs new levelers (and I was going to order some anyway).
The marquee is the best I have seen in a long time. The colors are still bright.
The front panel had dehydrated Slurpy on it and the side art needs some work, but it is not too bad.
The bezel is shot though. (Lower left corner is peeling big time). And the control panel needs to be stripped and repainted with a new overlay. But the joystick works great.
After checking out, I did what any of you would have done. Multimeter in hand, I found two dead fuses. A couple quick replacements later, I plugged in in fully expecting nothing. About 20 seconds later a loud noise. Still nothing on the screen. Another 10 seconds and I was ready to power it down. Wait, something just moved on the screen.
Slowly the picture began to form. I ticked the coin wire and got the coin up noise. No way. Pushed the start putton and the music sprang to life.
An honest to god 2 fuse fix on a free Ms Pacman.
I'm buying lottery ticket for tonight...
ken
Not wanting to get shot as part of a domestic dispute over a family heirloom, I quickly emailed back for them to please keep me in mind when they came to a mutual decision to send Ms. P. packing.
10 minutes later another email. "How soon can you come get it out of the garage?". I emailed back that it was too late to get my buddies truck and I was stuck in meetings until Friday. The usual kiss of death on free stuff. Next email, "sounds good, what time?". This never, ever, ever happens. So we set a time and I got their address. This morning, I borrowed the truck and we (my buddy had to work, but his wife decided to ride shotgun) headed out to find Ms. P.
When we got there, the couple was very nice. The story was that the guy's father had run a bunch of 7-11's and had saved some video games, Ms. P. being one of them. A couple of years ago he went into an apartment and stored it at their house. By then it was not working. They had someone out to get an estimate on fixing it. The estimate was high so out in the garage it sat. Fast forward to this morning. we stopped in, they showed us the game. Talked a little about it and then helped load it up.
I unloaded it a little while ago. Took some pictures and couldn't leave well enough alone. I drilled the lock out and this is what I saw:
Everything was there and looked in good shape. The outside needs some cosmetics, but it has never been flooded, so the cabinet is solid. Just needs new levelers (and I was going to order some anyway).
The marquee is the best I have seen in a long time. The colors are still bright.
The front panel had dehydrated Slurpy on it and the side art needs some work, but it is not too bad.
The bezel is shot though. (Lower left corner is peeling big time). And the control panel needs to be stripped and repainted with a new overlay. But the joystick works great.
After checking out, I did what any of you would have done. Multimeter in hand, I found two dead fuses. A couple quick replacements later, I plugged in in fully expecting nothing. About 20 seconds later a loud noise. Still nothing on the screen. Another 10 seconds and I was ready to power it down. Wait, something just moved on the screen.
Slowly the picture began to form. I ticked the coin wire and got the coin up noise. No way. Pushed the start putton and the music sprang to life.
An honest to god 2 fuse fix on a free Ms Pacman.
I'm buying lottery ticket for tonight...
ken


