It finally happened! I got my first machine!

benkeezer

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My patience has paid off. I picked up my Pacman today.

A few weeks ago I was walking through the lobby of one our dorms (I work in IT at one of our local colleges) and I spot a lonely little Pacman all by himself. Of course, I wander over plug him in and switch him on. Powers up and...gibberish on the screen. So I start thinking, maybe this could be my first! I was holding out for a working machine but let's see what happens. I contacted the person in charge of the dorms and asked what they were going to do with their broken Pacman. I was honest and told them I didn't know much about repairing games but would like to give it a try. So, 3 weeks later I get an email that says go ahead and pick him up!

So, today the wife, our seven year old son and I make the 10 minute drive to my work and load up my new Pacman. Glad I brought the hand truck. I'll have to get an appliance truck if I'm going to keep doing this.

Now he is sitting on my front porch waiting for me to tackle whatever issues he has. My son and I can't wait. Thanks to everyone who gave me leads on games. Keep them coming!
 
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congrats on your entry into this great and very annoying hobby at times.....lol. the pac looks pretty decent overall. shouldn't be to bad to get it runnin again. pretty easy to get another working boardset either here or fee-bay..... or have that 1 fixed.
 
Very cool! Like somebody told me when I picked up my first game (Frogger), you will never forget the moment. Pac-Man is also a great classic to start off with. Everyone's familiar with it and it's no doubt a sweet game.
 
Great score. Congrats.

As for the gibberish, check the voltages going into the board. Get the manual from http://www.crazykong.com and that'll tell you want wires to check. Also remember those boards take AC in and then it's rectified and cut to DC on the board, so make sure you're multimeter is set to AC. If you can get your hands on an old PC powersupply (you work in IT... don't tell me you don't have an ATX powersupply laying around!), you can double check to make sure it's getting the correct voltage by just running +5VDC, +12VDC, and GND directly to the board. I tried to find the link to that mod, but I couldn't find it... try to use the original PS if you can and if not I'll just take a picture of my board and it'll show you where to run the wires.

Check to make sure all the socketed chips are seated properly too... just give them all a good push back into the socket to make sure they're in there good... support them from behind.

Check, and clean if needed, the edge connector. Make sure it's on there good and getting good, clean, contact with the pads.

Also... post a pick of the gibberish you're getting on the screen. It MIGHT not be a board issue... the monitor just might need to the tweaked. :)

Anywho, there's a LOT of PacMan information out there, so having a slightly non-working Pac is a great project for learning some troubleshooting with these guys.
 
Good suggestions from Succi, just to add on-

Check those little 284 and 285 boards sitting up off the main board, they tend to get loose and their sockets are crap- especially if they're the original light brown versions.

Also check the fuse holders in the base of the cabinet; they're light guage brass and corrode and crack easily.

If you have static gibberish on screen, replace the 2114 RAM for starters along with the Z80. Not usually one to throw parts at something, but those are two very common failures that are cheap and easy enough without spending a lot of time.
 
I'll have to get an

heh. get used to that. 3 years from now, itll be unbelievable how much your pile has grown.

what i do to EVERY, new to me, PAC MAN is, i start my troubleshooting by replacing the fuse holders there in the back by the transformers. i do this even if the game works. its a trouble spot thats needs the attention. they are cheap and weaken over time and dont grip the fuse as tightly as they did when they were new.

if i even *think* the connector is a problem, i replace that too. if you take the connector off and look closely at the pins. what you are looking for is any oxidation and the spacing of the pin gripper. if some have bigger spacing than others then they need new pins. again they get weak over time and dont grip as tightly impeding electron flow for proper game operation.
 
Congrats on the score! How much money was in the coin bucket??
 
Congrats on the pickup!!! And welcome to your next addiction. :p Symptoms include checking newsgroups compulsively, long trips for broken busted games, an empty bank account, and a wife left to 'put up' with all your ill behavior! :D
 
It finally happened! I got my first machine!

Congrats Ben!

Now that you are on a roll I think your second game should be a Tron!

See you tomorrow.
 
Way to go! Pacman was my first, as well. I just managed to bring my Pac back to life after a recent setback, and it was displaying garbage, too. My machine's problem had to do with the Z80 daughterboard's connection to the main board... one of the legs had broken off of the brown socket. I fixed it with a quick order of two sockets from Bob Roberts (they're on his dollar page).

While I was waiting, I thought I'd get fancy and clean out/rebuild the power supply resting on the bottom of the machine. I got it all nicely cleaned and shiny, only to find that once I had finished, my Pac had no life. I replaced all the fuses and both the fuse blocks, and it lives once again. Fuse blocks can be found at Radio Shack for next to nothing.

I hope your Pac lives once again, too. Congratulations on the new addition.
 
i foind a 4 place fiseblock at orieleys auto parts for $2 !!! nice and heavy duty too!!!! Theyre in the electrical isle along with autp bulps, wiring, switches, etc...

so needless to say i bought a couple...

so nexttime your at orieleys go arcad epart shopping while your at it lol
 
congrats man, that's a nice pac. my first game was a pac as well, one of the games i first played back in the day. the art that's on there looks pretty clean!! you should try to strip the yellow painted on the front edges of the side and see what's under there.
 
Congrats on getting your cherry popped! My first was a beat up Phoenix that I over paid for. But I quickly sold it for the same amount I purchased it for and wound up buying an awesome looking phoenix!

You will never forget that moment. You better hope the disease does not spread though. Now I have about 30 cabs in total and 3 pins. Help! <gulp>
 
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