MS. Pacman was Abused....

postmortem01

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Newbie here. Hello.

I just bought an upright Ms Pacman. It's been kept outside on a patio in open air. As you might imagine, it's not in the best shape. The cabinet is extremely worn and all of the paint is peeling. None of the side art remains. I'm imagining that I will have to replace the cabinet sides for sure.

Initially, the machine would not power up. With closer inspection, the power cord was damaged. I replaced it. Still no power. Fuses were blown. I replaced them. Woohoo! Power up!

The edge connector is loose and audio is humming horribly. I will go through that and try to fix it. The game itself does not work properly. There is a double character problem (sometimes). Sometimes, the game crashes and goes black. Sometimes, it doesn't even boot up completely. When the game is "playable", Ms. pacman runs REALLY fast.

1. Can the loose edge connector be a big part of the game crash problems or is that definitely board problem?
2. Is the fast speed because of a hack or board problem?
3. Where in the heck can I get a coin door?

I'll post some pictures of the cabinet in a bit. Poor machine.
 
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first if there filter board is still there between the harness and the main pcb, pull it out and get rid of it.
 
I would definitely replace:
-fuse holder
-edge connector

sounds like a pain in the ass, but if the connector is loose the pins don't have the proper tension. It could save you from the edge connector on the printed circuit board from burning and other future headaches.
 
There isn't any that I can see. The harness plugs directly into the top of the board. I spoke with a very helpful gentleman today at pac-man.com. He gave me some tips on how to check the connection between the harness and the board and possibly do a temporary fix.

In the meantime, I will be contacting Bob Roberts to purchase a harness.


I hope I didn't post this in the wrong section. Ugh. Newbies.
 
There isn't any that I can see. The harness plugs directly into the top of the board. I spoke with a very helpful gentleman today at pac-man.com. He gave me some tips on how to check the connection between the harness and the board and possibly do a temporary fix.

In the meantime, I will be contacting Bob Roberts to purchase a harness.


I hope I didn't post this in the wrong section. Ugh. Newbies.

I think this is sort of restoration/repair crossover.

Feel free to ask more questions. Good luck.
 
I will say this. So far, people on this forum are much more helpful than many other forums. Thank you guys. I'm excited that this machine is such a disaster. I don't know why but the fact that this machine requires so much work to get it back to it's original state sounds like fun to me. Sick in the head.....I know.

I bought another Ms. Pacman machine in the past hour when I was at lunch. I picked it up for $250. It works and is in much better condition. What is the real going rate for a working machine that needs some TLC?
 
Welp now that you have a working second machine, you should be able to test parts of your first non-working machine, and see exactly pieces-parts are bad or will need replaced......
Yep its a sickness....that's why we are all here!!!
 
I keep trying to find something, other than the manual schematics, that describes which board is what in the machine....by name. Logic board, filter, etc.

Question: Because this machine's wooden parts are a bit dried out and coming apart, would it be a bad idea to replace them with new ones? Does that reduce the value of the machine?
 
There's only 2 things that add value to a Ms Pac:

1. Art (bezel, marquee, side-art)

2. Working PCB

Other than that, Midway cabs are a dime a dozen.
 
There isn't any that I can see. The harness plugs directly into the top of the board. I spoke with a very helpful gentleman today at pac-man.com. He gave me some tips on how to check the connection between the harness and the board and possibly do a temporary fix.

In the meantime, I will be contacting Bob Roberts to purchase a harness.


I hope I didn't post this in the wrong section. Ugh. Newbies.

also get a connector kit. THeres several plastic molex connectors in there, and over time they get corroded, I had to replace every last one in my ms pac.

I also had bad fuse holders( fuse block) so you might want to replace that as well. Its a real common failure point.

one last thing to check is while the game is playing, have a friend gently wiggle the ribbon cable that goes between the main (large) game pcb board and the aux(small) board.
That cable and its socket on the main pcb tend to get krappy over time. If wiggling that cable makes the game mess up in any way, go ahead and replace the cable and the socket.


as far as ms pac running fast, it most likely has a speedup chip at location 6f. SPeed up chips , standard speed chips are available all over. I prefer my ms pac with the speedup chip, its too agonizing to play otherwise.
 
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I will say this. So far, people on this forum are much more helpful than many other forums. Thank you guys. I'm excited that this machine is such a disaster. I don't know why but the fact that this machine requires so much work to get it back to it's original state sounds like fun to me. Sick in the head.....I know.

I bought another Ms. Pacman machine in the past hour when I was at lunch. I picked it up for $250. It works and is in much better condition. What is the real going rate for a working machine that needs some TLC?


Repairing is half the fun. I love projects, almost as much as I love having a fully working game.

As for the going rate, location is a key factor. Around here, $250 is about as cheap as you can ever find one, and that's usually not working. $400-500 is where most fall, and some go above.

I wish I could find one for $250... well... I did find one for that, but right before it was offered, I had commited myself to another deal, so my money was gone.
 
i bought my ms pac for just under 300. the paint was real rough but the monitor and all the internals were in great shape. ive replaced the bezel and cpo and parked it between two other cabs and theres nothing to complain about

when i get some funds here im going to get one of them boards that plays all three pacs and lets you switch between fast and slow
 
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One of my first games was a Moon Patrol converted to a Neo Geo. It was outside completely uncovered for 6+ months, in a bad neighborhood in North Philly. It was graffitied, and there were several dead things amongst trash and everything else you can think of inside. The back door was a rotted piece of plywood that only covered the bottom half. Think of how bad this could have looked, and double that lol. Even the cord was hacked in half with what looked like a dull axe.

Long story short, I spliced on a new cord, turned it on (dead things and all)...and damn if it didn't fire right up right out the door.

Eventually I used a shovel to clean out the bottom, and got like $12 worth of corroded quarters out. The bank loved me that week.

I kept it for like 4-5 years and even so regret throwing it away. I think it had so many coats of paint the cab itself was impervious to the elements lol.
 
After work today, I fired up the machine again. Same problem with the screen where it had a double image, etc. I shut it down and tried to clean up the harness connector. I turned it on again and same problem.

IMG_1243.jpg


I walked away for about 10 minutes and when I returned, it was corrected. I shut it off a few times and turned it on. Still corrected. Warm up making connections better?

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I pulled the door and the control panel to see what kinds of mess I was dealing with. I need a tetanus shot now.
 
After I pulled the door and frame off, I disassembled the coin mechanisms and sandblasted the paint away. This process took about an hour. I primed my parts and painted them Satin black. I cleaned up the coin mechanisms as much as possible. I polished the coin slots to clear away as much of the rust as I could without removing the plating. I may still have to strip these and get them chromed.

These are the parts after sandblasting.
IMG_1266.jpg

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The coin slots are in pretty bad shape too.
IMG_1272.jpg

There's not much I can do for these guys. I might have to replace them. They function but it hurts me to look at them.
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After a couple hours of work, I had to go home. Not bad for the first day of restoration.
IMG_1275.jpg
 
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Does anyone know how to revert Ms. Pacman from the fast speed? I want it to run at the normal speed. What chips do I need to replace and where are they?
IMG_1276.jpg
 
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LOL. The R2 is a ham. He always tries to get in every picture. Film industry. R2 is for Lucasfilm. Took me a few months to build that sucker with the help of two of my friends. It was a nightmare to get all the motors mounted and the sounds and lights going via remote.
 
I'm very interested in removing the fast speed from the Ms. pacman game. Anyone have any ideas how to do this?
 
You will need to replace one of the chips on the main PCB. The chip located at 6F determines Ms. Pac's speed. 6f is located under the little satellite PCB on the right side of the main board. You will have to order a new chip with normal speed, then clip the wire tie (if there is one) that holds that satellite pcb to the main pcb, take out the satellite board, remove the current 6F, put the new 6F in, and then put the satellite board back in.

There's probably a ton of info on it if you just search for "Ms Pacman speed-up chip" or something like that.

Also, since no one seemed to answer this....the biggest PCB is the main game board. Attached to it via a ribbon cable is the auxillary board used just for Ms. Pacman. You MIGHT have an additional long thin board above the main board that is between the wire harness and the main PCB. If you do, that's the RF filter. Take it out and get rid of it. It's not needed and it just adds more contact areas where they game can go bad. Connect the harness directly to the main PCB.

With your current problem, I would guess that taking out, cleaning, and reseating the chips might fix it. Be super careful with both taking them out and cleaning them, though.
 
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