Ms Pacman / 60-in-1 Advice needed

Guru-420

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I have a friend that is looking to buy a Ms Pacman and have it changed over into a 60-in-1. I will be helping him with this, and need some quick advice.

If you HAD to convert a Ms Pacman into a 60-in-1 (I know, it hurts to even type that), how many buttons would you install to get the best gameplay setup out of the 60-in-1 board? I was considering 1 4-way or 8-way joystick (Suggest a joystick?), 1/2 player start buttons, and then how many action buttons (1 or 2)?
 
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I would just buy a Ms pac to jamma harness and add a power supply to run the board . That way you dont have to hack anything and if you want to convert it back its all there. You can easily play all the games with only the two buttons . There are a few that use three but you can change the settings for those games to play with two. Just my opinion. Hope ths helps
 
The 4-way joystick already on it is fine, 2 buttons. Turn off all the following titles because they won't play right with the 4-way stick.

1942
1943
Arkanoid
Centipede
Galaga 3
Gyruss
Juno First
Millipede
Scramble
Super Breakout
Super Cobra
Time Pilot
Xevious
Zaxxon
Gunsmoke
1943 Kai
Congo Bongo (4-way but needs a qbert joystick).

Be sure and enable the speed up dip switch on the speed up pac versions or else they will all be slow.

That leaves you with a 43 in one, but that 43 in one is far better than the stock 60 in 1 because it all works right. Particularly since most of the audio problems people complain about are also on that list of titles I just advised you turn off.
 
I would reccomend getting a repro CP or Arcadeshop's CP and applying a custom CPO.
Definitely go for the Pac to Jamma harness, but I'm not sure where to get them since Lizard Lick closed.

A top switchable stick like the Omni Stick Prodigy or Mag Stick (with better switches like Sanwa) would work.
 
The 4-way joystick already on it is fine, 2 buttons. Turn off all the following titles because they won't play right with the 4-way stick.

1942
1943
Arkanoid
Centipede
Galaga 3
Gyruss
Juno First
Millipede
Scramble
Super Breakout
Super Cobra
Time Pilot
Xevious
Zaxxon
Gunsmoke
1943 Kai
Congo Bongo (4-way but needs a qbert joystick).

Be sure and enable the speed up dip switch on the speed up pac versions or else they will all be slow.

That leaves you with a 43 in one, but that 43 in one is far better than the stock 60 in 1 because it all works right. Particularly since most of the audio problems people complain about are also on that list of titles I just advised you turn off.

Amazing info as usual.. Thanks! So I will need a 4-way joystick, 2 buttons and P1/P2 Start buttons. (He wants a fully restored machine with a 60-in-1...)
 
I hope nobody shoot's me for showing this picture here.

0516121532a.jpg


This is the Ms. Pac / 60-in-1 that I have given to my mother. It was a mothers day gift. I do have the original control panel/joystick/pbc and I didn't hack any of the original wiring at all to install this. I just simply used a jamma harness (should of done the converter deal) and power supply to run everything.

I would go with a 4 way joystick. The current 8 way one that is on here just SUCKS! So much so, that my mother and one of her friends had said the joystick was out of whack. I just haven't gotten around to ordering a 4 way yet.

I did get away with the 2 button setup, and 2 players also. I forget where I got the control panel offhand but they did have a 3 button / trackball option also.

Simple enough to take all that out and turn it back into Ms. Pac without much effort.

Original CRT is still in there even with some Ms. Pac burn. Not too noticable but can be seen playing certain games.

Before anyone starts knocking me down for the bat type joystick, at the time I had already put enough into the arcade and didn't have the extra cash to buy a ball top. The Ms. Pac didn't line up with that control panel so I had to use my spare joystick for it.
 
I hope nobody shoot's me for showing this picture here.

0516121532a.jpg


This is the Ms. Pac / 60-in-1 that I have given to my mother. It was a mothers day gift. I do have the original control panel/joystick/pbc and I didn't hack any of the original wiring at all to install this. I just simply used a jamma harness (should of done the converter deal) and power supply to run everything.

I would go with a 4 way joystick. The current 8 way one that is on here just SUCKS! So much so, that my mother and one of her friends had said the joystick was out of whack. I just haven't gotten around to ordering a 4 way yet.

I did get away with the 2 button setup, and 2 players also. I forget where I got the control panel offhand but they did have a 3 button / trackball option also.

Simple enough to take all that out and turn it back into Ms. Pac without much effort.

Original CRT is still in there even with some Ms. Pac burn. Not too noticable but can be seen playing certain games.

Before anyone starts knocking me down for the bat type joystick, at the time I had already put enough into the arcade and didn't have the extra cash to buy a ball top. The Ms. Pac didn't line up with that control panel so I had to use my spare joystick for it.

If that front art is original, that is pretty dang spiffy. No to very little fade and no lock bar holes. Bonus.
 
If that front art is original, that is pretty dang spiffy. No to very little fade and no lock bar holes. Bonus.

When I bought this the guy had told me it was hand painted by someone who took their time with it. Along with the front art the side art is just as nice. I didn't see any needs to do any touch ups just yet. Since it's not being showcased out in the living room (damn shame too). The no lock bar part, is a miracle (or fixed before being painted) since this was a machine out on a route at one point in time. Sticker from route was I believe '07?

Back on topic thou.. Anyways Guru, I hope the picture at least gives you an idea of the final product, thou there are different control panels and other setups to use. This one was convenient for me.
 
The 4-way joystick already on it is fine, 2 buttons. Turn off all the following titles because they won't play right with the 4-way stick.

1942
1943
Arkanoid
Centipede
Galaga 3
Gyruss
Juno First
Millipede
Scramble
Super Breakout
Super Cobra
Time Pilot
Xevious
Zaxxon
Gunsmoke
1943 Kai
Congo Bongo (4-way but needs a qbert joystick).

Be sure and enable the speed up dip switch on the speed up pac versions or else they will all be slow.

That leaves you with a 43 in one, but that 43 in one is far better than the stock 60 in 1 because it all works right. Particularly since most of the audio problems people complain about are also on that list of titles I just advised you turn off.

Don't shut them off. They don't play exact, but you can adjust and get some enjoyment out of them. Unless you're an expert anyway, most people won't notice much difference in how far they get through the game.

I can get about the same distance through Scramble with a 4-way as I can with an 8-way, so it doesn't kill me...
 
I completely disagree with modessitt on the turning off games issue. You can either have 43 games and have 100 percent of them play correctly and the person playing can have a good experience 100 percent of the time. Or you can bump the game total by 17 titles that won't really control properly and now the player can have a subpar experience 28 percent of the time, but they won't really even understand why. Games that don't control properly bring the whole thing down.

Us experts will know why, and can probably just build a second 60 in 1 for the 8-way titles, etc. But Aunt Clarice doesn't know 8-way from 4-way, she just knows that "half the games on that thing don't work right".
 
Auntie Clarice only plays Pac-Man and Frogger. She'll never play Xevious and would never notice.

But towards your point, I've been to customer's houses and seen these internet cabs with games shut off based on the available controls (one even had 53 turned off due to no buttons) and every time I mention all the other games that are turned off (and why), they always have me turn them on - sometimes adding buttons to make them more playable. They all tell me that the seller never mentioned all the games they've been missing out on. Seems they'd rather have it all accessible and choose not to play, than to have the choice taken away without their knowledge...
 
not really getting into a heated discussion on this one, but scramble is unplayable in 4 way mode. If I gave it a little thought several others as well.

using a switchable joystick from 4-8way from the top of the control panel is the way to go.

One of these may be suitable. :)

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=239518
 
Yes, but they are making that decision not realizing that they are enabling junk and bringing their whole machine down several notches.

The fact is, we wouldn't disrespect the 60 in 1 so much if those seventeen 8-way and analog games weren't on the board. Heck, we would probably think the 43 in 1 was the best thing that ever happened to the hobby, better than a Jrok board even because all the games used the same controls. If they had split the 60 in 1 into a 4-way 43 in 1, an 8-way 12 in 1 and an analog 4 in 1 then we would buy and respect every last one of those boards.

I once saw a Dig Dug machine at superauctions with the entire mame gamelist installed and no extra controls installed, just a single 4-way stick and one button and someone paid like $800 for it and 95 percent of the games couldn't be played right.

From that day forward I turned off, disabled or didn't install anything that couldn't be played right with the installed controls. There is no real limit to the number of games you can install in a bootleg setup. If you stick a PC in there the number of theoretical titles shoots into the 10s of thousands with console emulators and the like. However titles that don't control properly don't add value to the unit, they subtract from it. Even if the buyer initially thinks it might somehow be better with more.

Now I am all for installing the appropriate number of buttons for the platform in a multimachine. The only reason no to do so is if you wish to maintain original appearance in a pseudo restoration.
 
The switchable sticks or even dual sticks are great for a personal machine, but visitors, customers and other "normal" people will never get it right, never realize which mode they are in, nor which games require which modes.

not really getting into a heated discussion on this one, but scramble is unplayable in 4 way mode. If I gave it a little thought several others as well.

using a switchable joystick from 4-8way from the top of the control panel is the way to go.

One of these may be suitable. :)

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=239518
 
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