Pac Man with missing ghosts for $200?

steve8091

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I suspect I know the answer, but does $200 seem reasonable for an original Pac-man machine with some board issues? The cabinet is in pretty good shape, with some minor damage on some of the panel edges. As I understand it, Pac man and the ghosts have disappeared, for which I found the following suggestion:

"Plays, No Characters in Maze or intro Screen. Dots visible & disappear as eaten.
(rare case) Dead 74LS157 at U5 of V-Ram Addresser (rare case)." (http://lawnmowerman.rotheblog.com/)

Thoughts on the price or fix?
 
Get it first and troubleshoot it after. While you're thinking about it, there's someone out there right now looking at it to gut it and put a 60 in 1 board in it.

Go get it before it's too late.
 
You're asking this question from the front seat of your truck, with the cab already strapped in, from the gas station because you're already halfway home, right?

Because if you're not, you've probably missed the game.
 
Fortunately the game was never listed for sale...it was someone replying to my want ad who has had the game sitting ghostless for 10 years. It also happens to be about 10 minutes from my house, which is a rare thing for me. I'm hoping that I've got a fair shot at it. I'll keep you posted, for good or ill.
 
LOL yeah go get it I have a pile of 12 pacman project boards. I'm about to dive into them so I may be able to help a little later down the road with troubleshooting. Plus there's so much repair information out there on the web your bound to be able to figure out the problem fairly easily.
 
He's still got it - looks like I'll be picking it up either this weekend or early next week. Here are some shots.
 

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It's fine - it just ran out of ghosts. Pac-Man finally ate them all. It happens, but you can simply dump in some more. You used to be able to buy new jars of ghosts from Midway, later Namco, but I think they stopped making them a couple of years back, but there should be ample stock of NOS ghosts for years to come. In a pinch, you can substitute ghosts from Atari 2600 Pac-Man cartridges, but they're blocky and ugly looking, and they flicker. Good enough for testing - just pry open the end of the cartridge and pour them in through the opening in the top rear. Some people had issues refilling the ghosts through the vents, which is why you commonly see the mesh poked out and missing. The proper procedure for ghost refill is on page 12 of the manual.


:D

But seriously - go get it. Pac boards are easy to fix.

-Ian
 
Buy it now. My Ms.Pacman had the same issue when I got it, the wiring harness just needed to be snugged up to the board a little bit. Ghosts were back and everything is fine. Worst case senario, as suggested by others, put a 60-in-1 into it!
 
It's fine - it just ran out of ghosts. Pac-Man finally ate them all. It happens, but you can simply dump in some more. You used to be able to buy new jars of ghosts from Midway, later Namco, but I think they stopped making them a couple of years back, but there should be ample stock of NOS ghosts for years to come. In a pinch, you can substitute ghosts from Atari 2600 Pac-Man cartridges, but they're blocky and ugly looking, and they flicker. Good enough for testing - just pry open the end of the cartridge and pour them in through the opening in the top rear. Some people had issues refilling the ghosts through the vents, which is why you commonly see the mesh poked out and missing. The proper procedure for ghost refill is on page 12 of the manual.

You can also find more NOS ghosts for sale here at the forums. I can't remember where I saw them last, but they were for sale recently. They were cardboard, but they'll work. After all, it's still NOS.
 
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