Revival: Ms. Pac-Man

delamaize

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For once Luck shined on me, and I was able to jump on a pair of games in my area, before anyone else did. The Craigslist ad didn't list a phone number or location, outside a city, which was wrong, and a general area on the map. I e-mail the seller, and didn't get a response. Luckily, at one time of my life, I use to be a legal process server, and did some private investigation work. I was able to take some clues from the CL pictures, and the general location on the map, and pinpoint the shop that had the games. This was on a monday night. Tuesday, I drove out to the location. Sure enough, Inside the shop, though his glass front door, I could see the games, Ms Pac-man, and Gyruss. The sign on his door said he was only open on Fridays, and Saturdays. I work 24 hour shifts, I'm off work at 7am that Friday morning. I was at the location about an hour before he opened. Sure enough Noon rolled around, shop opened, I checked out the machines, and a deal was cut.

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(I will be doing a separate thread for Gyruss)

Ms. Pac-man is in pretty good shape overall. I'd say 6/10 for side art and overall condition of the machine it's self. It still has the orginial side art, although it's starting to flake a little in places, and has some damage. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

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And of course, the S/N

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I have not tried to clean up the paint on the CPO, but overall it looks good. I need to tape off, and repaint over some graffiti. I did a lot of cleaning, the inside had a huge amount of dirt and dust accumulation.
 
Inside, Like I said, was super dirty and dusty.

(sorry about the blurriness, I didn't realize the shot sucked until after I cleaned.)

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I'm horrible with monitors, and know nothing about them. Can anyone tell me how I identify what monitor this is? I'm planning on capping it, and doing a flyback eventually.

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Credit counter

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The vacuum and compressed air was my friend, I was able to get the inside cleaned up, checked fuses, and a few other things, then I decided to take the leap and power it up....

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I wasn't expecting any life at all, this is better than nothing, the burn is pretty bad though. For now, I will live with it.
I decided to checked out the edge connector.

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So, that's a problem. I went ahead and ordered some stuff to replace the edge connector, and replace the end connector. I know I can "fix" this with some foil tape, but I'd rather do something a little more permanent.

While I was at it, I checked voltages, and looked over the caps on the boards, at the advice of members of a Facebook group.

I found this cap looks like it is leaking, so I ordered a cap kit.

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My fat fingers accidentally bent over some pins on the ribbon cable also, When I tried to bend them back, they broke. So needless to say, I ordered one of those also.

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On to the voltages.
Here is the results of voltage testing at the end connector. Voltages are AC:
Pin a+c 6.9
Pin a+d 3.8
Pin b+c 6.9
Pin b+d 3.8

Pin 1+3 6.9
Pin 1+4 3.8
Pin 2+3 6.9
Pin 2+4 3.8

Pin w+y 11.9
Pin w+z 11.9
Pin x+y 11.9
Pin x+z 11.9

Pin 19+21 11.9
Pin 19+22 11.9
Pin 20+21 11.9
Pin 20+22 11.9

Right away, 3.9v ac jumps out at me as being wrong, I think it's supposed to be 7v ac. This is my first Pac-man though, so I could be wrong. Once I get my parts order, and get the fingerboard and end connector replaced, I'm planning on checking DC voltage at the ROM chips.

So, that is where we are at with this one. I'm waiting on parts. I have a feeling the monitor is going to need work also, but I want to get the boards going first before I start messing with the monitor.
 
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I'm horrible with monitors, and know nothing about them. Can anyone tell me how I identify what monitor this is? I'm planning on capping it, and doing a flyback eventually.

Congrats on the pickup!
You have a Wells Gardner 19K4906

Cap kit:
https://www.arcadepartsandrepair.co...kits/wells-gardner-k4900-series-cap-kit-105c/

Flyback:
https://www.arcadepartsandrepair.com/store/monitors/monitor-flybacks/msh1fap08-k4900-k5501-flyback/

I would suggest you just go ahead and do the flyback while the chassis is out.
 

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I'm sure you know this, but that's NICE for original paint. I wouldn't TOUCH that. Well, maybe clean it up with Novus 2 and wax, but wouldn't touch it up. I might replace the CPO, and if you do - phoenixarcade will be your best option for that. Nice find!!!!!
 
i would also vote to leave the art alone and wax it.

also would not touch the monitor [not capkit or flybak] until you have the board issue fixed.

no need to open a can of worms before the game is working.
 
i also would not touch the monitor [not capkit or flybak] until you have the board issue fixed.

no need to open a can of worms before the game is working.


THIS EXACTLY ^

#1 rule when troubleshooting anything is to never change more than one thing at a time. Especially if you are new to all of this.

Don't introduce more variables at any given time or you could end up with a real mess on your hands.
 
I'm sure you know this, but that's NICE for original paint. I wouldn't TOUCH that. Well, maybe clean it up with Novus 2 and wax, but wouldn't touch it up. I might replace the CPO, and if you do - phoenixarcade will be your best option for that. Nice find!!!!!
i would also vote to leave the art alone and wax it.

That is the plan, the original art is in pretty good shape. there is some wear and tear that don't show in the pictures. I want to protect the original, and maintain it as much as possible.

I'll bet that CPO will clean up real nice with a wet magic eraser.

I was thinking about trying a magic eraser on it, I was worried about damaging the CP though. I guess worst case scenario, if the Magic eraser does damage it, I'll replace the CPO.


also would not touch the monitor [not capkit or flybak] until you have the board issue fixed. no need to open a can of worms before the game is working.
THIS EXACTLY ^
#1 rule when troubleshooting anything is to never change more than one thing at a time. Especially if you are new to all of this.
Don't introduce more variables at any given time or you could end up with a real mess on your hands.
Congrats on the pickup!
You have a Wells Gardner 19K4906
I would suggest you just go ahead and do the flyback while the chassis is out.

That is the plan, at a minimum, I want to get it playing blind before I do anything with the monitor. One thing at a time. But I do plan on doing a cap kit and a flyback transformer.
 
I'm going to jump in here and tell you NOT to replace the flyback on that 4900 monitor chassis. In my experience, the flyback in the 4900 either works or it doesn't. A cap kit will not matter in terms of whether you should change the fly. If you want to ORDER the fly and have it handy for later, fine, but there's no need to change it until you have a failure.

Nice survivor - she's a beaut, Clark!
 
I'm going to jump in here and tell you NOT to replace the flyback on that 4900 monitor chassis. In my experience, the flyback in the 4900 either works or it doesn't. A cap kit will not matter in terms of whether you should change the fly. If you want to ORDER the fly and have it handy for later, fine, but there's no need to change it until you have a failure.

Nice survivor - she's a beaut, Clark!

Agreed.

Rule #2 of troubleshooting/fixing - Don't fix it if it isn't broken.
 
+1 leave the fly alone on a 4900

The art is fantastic for an original. Replace the cpo but that's all I would do.

I personally am suprised to see that much of a dark pink left on the one side...

The original color of the later ones from what I have seen 50k+ numbers. Is a medium pink 90k+ is a magenta ugly red pink.

This is just from what I have seen in my 3 mspac cabs.

And about 8 others. Wish I took pics to compare.

But yes, VERY nice score, you should keep that one.
 
Agreed.

Rule #2 of troubleshooting/fixing - Don't fix it if it isn't broken.

Yes and no.

With capacitors, I recommend changing all of them on a monitor chassis when you have it out. Not because they've all failed (or ever will, for that matter), but the likelihood that one of them will fail soon is very high. Just replace them all with good quality caps at once, and then you can be assured that you are starting with good caps from this date forward. Will you have to replace caps again? Maybe. But if you buy good quality product, you should expect to get many years out of a cap kit on a monitor. With low-hours home use, probably a lifetime.
 
- Yes cap the monitor.

- No, don't replace the flyback.

- Yes, magic eraser the CP. You will be impressed.

Then just wipe the rest of it down with your favorite spray cleaner and paper towels, and keep it original. It's a great survivor.
 
I'm pretty sure the "don't change the flyback" has been covered folks. I'm not going to even take a position to defend that because I don't have a strong opinion on it either way.
I would personally change the flyback if I had the chassis out to recap if it had the original flyback.

He does have some board problems that could use some expert examination though.
 
I'm pretty sure the "don't change the flyback" has been covered folks. I'm not going to even take a position to defend that because I don't have a strong opinion on it either way.
I would personally change the flyback if I had the chassis out to recap if it had the original flyback.

He does have some board problems that could use some expert examination though.
On some chassis's I would agree but with the k4900, they just don't seem to fail. The k4900 is a very reliable chassis. Imo, always keep an original working fly over a cheap China replacment. I've had some of the replacments fail with less than 10 hours of use. One I put in a friend's chassis blew so much smoke out when it went, his neighbors called the fire department.
 
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