Newb Question: Ms Pacman value (sit down)

Alan_One

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Greetings Players!

My good friend has been working on sucking me into his (and your) world of classic arcade game restoractivities. Just today we had a short email exchange about getting a machine to work out the bugs of our technical efficacy and "train" as it were.

My father in law owned a barber shop for many years in which he had a sit down Ms Pacman machine. That machine has now been sitting in his driveway for at least a couple of years.

I want to make him a fair offer on it and was wondering if anyone had any experience on the pricing of the item.

It's not currently working and the cab is in "been in a barber shop for years" condition.

Any direction is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
 
Not much at all if it's been sitting in weather. If it was sitting out of the elements In a garage or something and decent condition and non working your looking at around 150-250$ max but like I said it depends on condition. If it's water damaged and beyond repair I don see you getting over 50-80$ if even that. In good working order they bring in 500- up towards 1k in mint condition. I paid 600$ for mine in the nicest shape ive ever seen with new glass and new underlay artwork.
 
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Greetings Players!
My father in law owned a barber shop for many years in which he had a sit down Ms Pacman machine. That machine has now been sitting in his driveway for at least a couple of years.

It's been sitting outside for two years. He's your father in law. Bring it up in conversation and he should give it to you.
 
Yikes. Common machine + outdoors for that long = next to no value (to me).

Agreed. It's more of an opportunity to do some training, practice soldering, etc.

I dunno about you guys but I've found over the years that my first "projects" haven't necessarily been the most perfect successes and that the second time I took something on of the same vein I had the wealth of knowledge gained from the first experience to help me get it just the way I envisioned it.

(the fist time I took apart a car and put it back together I had a lot of bolts left over)

Better on this machine than on others I actually care about.

It's been sitting outside for two years. He's your father in law. Bring it up in conversation and he should give it to you.

You would think right?
 
Agreed. It's more of an opportunity to do some training, practice soldering, etc.

I dunno about you guys but I've found over the years that my first "projects" haven't necessarily been the most perfect successes and that the second time I took something on of the same vein I had the wealth of knowledge gained from the first experience to help me get it just the way I envisioned it.

(the fist time I took apart a car and put it back together I had a lot of bolts left over)

Better on this machine than on others I actually care about.

Exactly.

I've got a real pet peeve about water-damaged anything, too. In fact, when I was out shopping for a good used car in my late teens, that was always my first question when I saw one I liked sitting on a front lawn with a "For Sale" sign on it.

"You interested in the car?"
"I might be. How long has it been sitting on that wet lawn for?" (I grew up in MA)
*silence*
"...`cause, if it's been long enough, there's bound to be some rust going on now."

(Needless to say, no one ever sold me their lawn cars.)
 
You'll def get a better gauge of opinions with pics. :)

If this thing has been rained on religiously, it may only be good for parts. I completely understand wanting a project, but rust on a car is repairable (I live in the Bay Area, so rust is just a way of life)...water damaged wood is a major issue with these cabinets and the work to restore them can sometimes not be worth it (depending on the severity of the damage and the game...).

I'd go for it just for the parts. Worse comes to worst and the wood is totally screwed, you can get it electrically sound (monitor, PCB, power supply working) and find a replacement Ms. Pac cab down the line. *shrug*
 
Yeah, condition will dictate value.

Also, this machine since it is not working and assumed the cabinet needs repair since its been outside, is probably not a good beginner machine.

You should probably find one that's working. Either that or take a look at this one, see if its something simple to get at least to turn on, and then make an offer.

You are family, so if not for free, it should be at least heavily discounted for you.


I paid $350 for mine, working but it had issues and was pretty much all original. Now its worth top dollar, as I've never seen another in the condition mine is in now after I restored it.

See mine here:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=153213&highlight=toolguy
 
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Yeah, condition will dictate value.

Also, this machine since it is not working and assumed the cabinet needs repair since its been outside, is probably not a good beginner machine.

You should probably find one that's working. Either that or take a look at this one, see if its something simple to get at least to turn on, and then make an offer.

You are family, so if not for free, it should be at least heavily discounted for you.


I paid $350 for mine, working but it had issues and was pretty much all original. Now its worth top dollar, as I've never seen another in the condition mine is in now after I restored it.

See mine here:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=153213&highlight=toolguy

That's a very clean resto on that machine.

Really great work. It looks brand new.

I'm not so concerned with woodworking or metal or plastic as much as I am with the electronics and doing things like refurbing power supplies and soldering parts in and out.

I've been in the fabrication business for a long time and have access to pretty much every machine you can think of (water jets, flat bed printers, multi axis routers, etc).

I can make it look pretty... whether it works or not is another issue :)
 
Ms. PacMan Update: Pics included

So this past weekend my friend and I went over to pick up the machine.

It's an original machine. It's definitely seen some action in its time.

We managed to start it up but one of the joy sticks (the 1st player) is toast. By the looks of it there are parts missing.

The display is gone - it shows random horizontal lines and we can bump up the brightness to the point where we can see the screen burn but that's about it.

I've included a close up shot of the board that's connected to the monitor which shows considerable corrosion on a few parts. I'm guessing that it's the reason the display doesn't work.

The game starts up and the sound is good. We can hear it playing and move the character a bit using the few directions that function on the joystick.

The exterior cabinet is in rough shape but it's nothing that can't be fixed. The glass is good. The art under the glass has been repaired in the past and will need replacement.

I'd love to get your thoughts on value in this condition.

Cheers,
 

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Is there water damage? Does the wood look flakey or swelled inside? It's hard to imagine it hasn't taken serious damage from sitting outside...Also, can you get pics of the missing controls on P1? That should be an easy fix, anyway.
 
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You must be located somewhere really dry. (Arizona?)

I am in RI, and if I ever left a game outside for two years, I can't even imagine what it would look like.
 
More pics including interior shots of the joy sticks.

The wood is in good condition considering the exposure to the elements. It was indeed in the high desert (Hemet near Palm Springs CA). There's some banged up corners at the bottom but everything I can see is very fixable cosmetically. It was in a covered car port so there wasn't any direct exposure to sunlight or rain.

Does anyone have some idea of what the value of the machine in this condition could be?

Essentially I'm trying to establish fair market so I can make my father-in-law an offer.
 

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More pics including interior shots of the joy sticks.

The wood is in good condition considering the exposure to the elements. It was indeed in the high desert (Hemet near Palm Springs CA). There's some banged up corners at the bottom but everything I can see is very fixable cosmetically. It was in a covered car port so there wasn't any direct exposure to sunlight or rain.

Does anyone have some idea of what the value of the machine in this condition could be?

Essentially I'm trying to establish fair market so I can make my father-in-law an offer.

Offer him $50. Maybe $100 if you are feeling generous. You will put $500 worth of your own time into it plus any parts you end up purchasing and then have a maybe $600 game.
 
It was indeed in the high desert (Hemet near Palm Springs CA).

probably don't need to remind you since you live down there but be careful going through that thing. i once picked up a sail plane (glider) for my dad in Hemet and when we got it back up here for inspection it was infested with black widows.

also, there looks to be at least $100 in parts. i wouldn't count on the board working entirely until you've seen it on a monitor; often it may "play" fine but have graphic errors. random horizontal lines could mean a lot of things; if you can get a nice screen shot of 'em it might be easier to diagnose if it's a board problem or monitor problem.

the monitor is a GO-7 which is one of the easiest to work on with a host of available and inexpensive parts for repair.

i'd say $100-$150 would be a fair offer, though it seems like games in California go for less than just about anywhere else but Texas so maybe knock a bit off.
 
probably don't need to remind you since you live down there but be careful going through that thing. i once picked up a sail plane (glider) for my dad in Hemet and when we got it back up here for inspection it was infested with black widows.

I think, on one of those "overhauling"-type reality shows, they once rescued a rare big-block engine from a junkyard, and the thing was totally infested with brown recluse spiders. Yeech!
 
There were no stowaways that we could find in the machine. All of the cobwebs were old and unused.

This is the best image we were able to get out of the machine by fiddling with the brightness and contrast.
 

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I've never seen another in the condition mine is in now after I restored it.

Now, you have.

Trust me, there are plenty of us out there who are crazy about near-perfect restoration. (and yes, fuse holders, painted inside and out, washed wiring harness, etc etc)

;)

Edit: Aw shit I just saw it's a ms pac you're talking about. Oh well. Hey, if it were a Ms Pac, it'd be just as restored! Heh.
 

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$100 would be a fair market price for nonworking / condition shown, here in AZ... At least in the Phoenix area. But if you can get it for less, more power to ya.
 
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