MIDWAY Coin Door Revisions

Phetishboy

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While trying to figure out which Midway coin door of mine I should refinish and use on my Pac restoration, I started to realize how many different versions Bally Midway progressively used over the years. Does anyone have a chronological Midway coin door revision pictorial complete with all amalgams and missing links? So far I have noted the following:

The earliest Video game doors were grey and had a button between the chrome/polished metal coin inserts. These doors came with a slam switch and the early Pyramid coin badge. There were no illuminated coin lights.

Next generation were the same, except the button hole was plugged with a metal blank.

Next generation were the same, except they were painted black and the button hole was plugged with a metal blank.

The following generation was the same as the previous, except the button hole was now gone and they started to add 12V bulbs behind the plexi coin mini marquees.

After that, the door basically stayed the same, as did the chrome coin inserts, but the coin badge changed to the style with the stylized Exploding Video Monitor with the "Fun is our Business" slogan.

Now sometime after this version the coin badge changed to a different slogan (anyone know what the second slogan was?), and cheap plastic coin inserts replaced the polished metal ones. The finish also changed from a sparse splatter texture to a dense and even rough rhino-lining type texture. Amidst and during all those changes, the plexi coin marquees changed fonts, added or lost the cents sign, added or lost the word 'cents', and some I've seen even had "1 Quarter" written on them.

If there isn't a pictorial coin door guide for Midway machines, there should be. I just wanna know which coin door would be right on a Pacman.
 
I don't have any timeline pics, but I do agree that it would be nice to have.

The following generation was the same as the previous, except the button hole was now gone and they started to add 12V bulbs behind the plexi coin mini marquees.

I believe that this is the correct door for Pacman. However, I have seen them with both style logos:
midway-logo-plate.jpg

midway-logo-plate1.jpg
 
This is an interesting topic. Anyone know if specific versions were used on each game, or did they just use whatever was laying around?

Edit: I'm interested in Galaga specifically.
 
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Actually, the earliest Midway coin door was painted brown and had a chrome start pushbutton between the coin entry plates. This was used on the Midway electromechanical arcade/novelty machines around 1968 or 1969.

Later came the same thing, but with a red plastic start pushbutton with white lettered "START" embossed in it.

Then came the gray colored doors.

The door was actually manufactured by Coin Mechanisms, Inc for Midway. Then later Happ Controls took over the Midway door manufacturing. Last time the door was shown was Happ's 1994 catalog.
 
It does look like a slug on both those in the flyer. I would be surprised if they used three different combos of door throughout the run of Pacman.

Black door, hole plug, old Midway coin door logo
Black door, no hole, old Midway coin door logo
Black door, no hole, new Midway coin door logo
 
Damn You Tom Bombaci! Now you see the scope of what I am dealing with. Which combination of features is right? Looks like the flyer is where I'll start.

Haven't we seen other issues where things in the flyer are different from what actually was produced and sold though? I can't think of any examples right now of course, but the flyers were usually made pretty early on.
 
You have to remember that Pacman had a very large and lengthy production run. When the run started (and when the advertizing flyers were printed) they had the door with the hole plug. Towards the end of the run they were using doors that no longer had the hole in it.

Midway decided that since the start buttons were now on the control panel, the hole in the coin door was no longer needed and changed their equipment to no longer make that hole in the doors.
 
Haven't we seen other issues where things in the flyer are different from what actually was produced and sold though? I can't think of any examples right now of course, but the flyers were usually made pretty early on.

But see, to me, the plugged button hole seemed right, as Pacman came out in 1980. When Galaxian came out, in 1979, it had the grey coin door with the plugged button hole. Seemed natural that they would have just painted those same coin doors black for Pacman early on.
 
You have to remember that Pacman had a very large and lengthy production run. When the run started (and when the advertizing flyers were printed) they had the door with the hole plug. Towards the end of the run they were using doors that no longer had the hole in it.

Midway decided that since the start buttons were now on the control panel, the hole in the coin door was no longer needed and changed their equipment to no longer make that hole in the doors.

So it would be a serial number thing then. Low number, early run, plugged button hole.
 
But see, to me, the plugged button hole seemed right, as Pacman came out in 1980. When Galaxian came out, in 1979, it had the grey coin door with the plugged button hole. Seemed natural that they would have just painted those same coin doors black for Pacman early on.


Edit: ^^^ Damn you


Then just put whichever one you want in there?
 
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