Pacman quandary

[BeagleBoy]

I'm looking for opinions, to help me make up my mind on some of points.

1. I've stripped the old paint off my pac, and I've purchased stencils. But I'm not sure how "perfect" of a restoration I want to do. Most of my machines are somewhat "battle-scarred," and I'm fine with that. But since I'm going to go through the effort of using stencils, I guess I'm leaning towards a pristine surface.

2. Should I bother with blue splatter? It's a high serial # cabinet, if that makes a difference. While stripping the old paint, I didn't find any sign of splatter, so I have no idea if it originally had any.

My biggest quandary:
3. Original or multi? I had been planning on an original board, with multi-pac roms. But I saw Phet's restore, and thought his multi control panel looked really nice. The original harness is chopped all to hell, so it would be less work to wire up a multi. How do the pac games play on 60-in-1's (or ArcadeSD)? Pretty indistinguishable?

I realize it's my cabinet and my decision, but I'd appreciate your input as I ponder.

-Jim

 

[Jr. Pac]

I'm looking for opinions, to help me make up my mind on some of points.

1. I've stripped the old paint off my pac, and I've purchased stencils. But I'm not sure how "perfect" of a restoration I want to do. Most of my machines are somewhat "battle-scarred," and I'm fine with that. But since I'm going to go through the effort of using stencils, I guess I'm leaning towards a pristine surface.

2. Should I bother with blue splatter? It's a high serial # cabinet, if that makes a difference. While stripping the old paint, I didn't find any sign of splatter, so I have no idea if it originally had any.

My biggest quandary:
3. Original or multi? I had been planning on an original board, with multi-pac roms. But I saw Phet's restore, and thought his multi control panel looked really nice. The original harness is chopped all to hell, so it would be less work to wire up a multi. How do the pac games play on 60-in-1's (or ArcadeSD)? Pretty indistinguishable?

I realize it's my cabinet and my decision, but I'd appreciate your input as I ponder.

-Jim

1: Pristine surface is the only way, otherwise it'll be a huge waste of work and look ugly.
2: If there wasn't splatter on yours, may as well leave it off. I don't care for the splatter myself.
3: Keep it original! 6Pac, Shilmover 8 in 1, 96 in 1, Super ABC (my personal favorite) etc are all good choices.

 

[DPtwiz]

i have an original pacman, and it has no splatter. With or without would be factory correct.

 

[jcellegood]

Speaking as a professional pragmatist...

1. You stripped it and paid for stencils, so I would say make it as nice as you can realizing (of course) you'll see every mistake and everyone else will talk about how great it looks.

2. Blue splatter (at the end, right?) sounds like an opportunity to create a problem when you're 99% of the way done.

3. Why not wire it up with a jamma harness no matter which way you go boardwise? They're cheaper, easier to obtain and to replace if it gets messed up. Take the money difference from a new/used Pac harness and buy a Pac-Jamma adapter. Then you get the opportunity to use an original board with whatever mods (4, 6, 8, 24, 96, etc.) you want with an adapter and the original power supply or a jamma board (60n1, AdcadeSD, etc.) with a switcher (or some combination of the two). If you wire up the 1 & 2 player buttons as fire buttons, you get some flexibility with the multi-boards and can play some horizontal shooters and the next best reason (besides fast Ms. Pacman) to have a 4 way joystick, Mr. Do!

 

[BeagleBoy]

and the next best reason (besides fast Ms. Pacman) to have a 4 way joystick, Mr. Do!

This is, in fact, at the forefront of my thoughts.

I hadn't thought of the jamma-adapter route. Good idea.