It's been a little over 24 hours since I brought home a new addition to the modest arcade collection -- an original Pacific Novelty Manufacturing "Mr. F. Lea." I appreciate that this game is not exactly a classic mainstay, nor is it one that a lot of people have fond memories of playing. I only recognized it from some odd search I did of KLOV several months back. I gathered from additional on-line searching that Mr. F. Lea (1982) was the last game from Pacific Novelty, which didn't produce a large run for it. As you might know, the game has a Tron-like selection screen where your flea can be sent to one of four different games that are described as variants of Donkey Kong or Frogger, among others.
James, a fellow collector about an hour and a half southwest of Ottawa was selling it for $50 on a local forum, and although I wasn't planning on adding any more games, I had to pick it up given it was an original. Unfortunately there are some problems with the PCB, but I hope that I can manage to troubleshoot a solution.
After a nice drive yesterday afternoon, I arrived at James' house; I bought an Astro Blaster from him back in March, so we had a chance to catch up on all topics gaming-related. Then it was time to look at the cab:
(got James kneeling behind the cab looking at fuses)
Overall, the cab looked to be in good condition; a little water-related swelling along one side, but given the original cab's construction in particle board, it wasn't surprising. No side art (the one in VAPS shows the cat in top hat on the sides) but it didn't look like it was ever added.
Really cool feature: Pacific Novelty installed the game PCB on the back door
:
Beastie boards, or jumper hell. This looks like a fun one to diagnose.
After some more arcade talk, it was time to hit the road with the game safely tucked in the back of the Ford Freestyle:
90 minutes later, I arrived back at home, and waited for my friend to pop by so I could lug the cab into living room:
I promised my wife the stay upstairs would be a short one.
Finally, a blurry peek inside. Clean and orderly:
Given it's a project, I most likely won't get to serious troubleshooting for a while, but the kids were definitely interested. Hopefully the repair works out!
James, a fellow collector about an hour and a half southwest of Ottawa was selling it for $50 on a local forum, and although I wasn't planning on adding any more games, I had to pick it up given it was an original. Unfortunately there are some problems with the PCB, but I hope that I can manage to troubleshoot a solution.
After a nice drive yesterday afternoon, I arrived at James' house; I bought an Astro Blaster from him back in March, so we had a chance to catch up on all topics gaming-related. Then it was time to look at the cab:
(got James kneeling behind the cab looking at fuses)
Overall, the cab looked to be in good condition; a little water-related swelling along one side, but given the original cab's construction in particle board, it wasn't surprising. No side art (the one in VAPS shows the cat in top hat on the sides) but it didn't look like it was ever added.
Really cool feature: Pacific Novelty installed the game PCB on the back door
Beastie boards, or jumper hell. This looks like a fun one to diagnose.
After some more arcade talk, it was time to hit the road with the game safely tucked in the back of the Ford Freestyle:
90 minutes later, I arrived back at home, and waited for my friend to pop by so I could lug the cab into living room:
I promised my wife the stay upstairs would be a short one.
Finally, a blurry peek inside. Clean and orderly:
Given it's a project, I most likely won't get to serious troubleshooting for a while, but the kids were definitely interested. Hopefully the repair works out!


