Comments on: The Pac-Man Project

By: Restoration Hardware Supply

Restoration Hardware Supply — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:58:51 +0000

Restoration Hardware Supply…

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….

By: Vredesbyrd

Vredesbyrd — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:43:17 +0000

Niiiiice job, keep up the good w0rk ^.^

By: Priest

Priest — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:12:16 +0000

NIce. I loved this article. I have one of my own on my own site. I have a full size upright Ms Pacman. You should not have ordered anything from two Bits. There prices are ludicrous. They charge (on average) $150 to $200 more for parts. A great place to pick up a CRT for anyone interested is http://www.arcadeshop.com/index.htm. He has them for around $179.

By: Jonno

Jonno — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:55:28 +0000

Hi, looks like you have done a great job on the restoration dude!!
I Have two original machines that I am restoring but can’t get anyone to send a monitor to england (Won’t send glass) . How did you get yours delivered?

Cheers

Jonno

By: Bryan Los

Bryan Los — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:26:09 +0000

That was $1,699.00 *before* restoration. I’ve seen what a $50.00 machine looks like… not pretty. My machine was in exceptional condition, and I only had to fix the coin switch originally. Would I buy it again at $1,699.00? In that condition, probably, unless I could find one in equal condition for less. The restoration was just me going crazy and wanting to make it “perfect” by my standards. It didn’t even need complete rewiring, but this one will be working for years to come. I’d rather pay more now and know it’s gonna work throughout my lifetime. But price is relative. What’s expensive to one person isn’t so much to another. If you want something bad enough, and you’ve been looking for a while, you’ll most likely pay more for something you want now.

By: Arby

Arby — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:37:19 +0000

Wow. $1700? Was that BEFORE or AFTER your restoration work? Yikes man. You paid about $1200 too much!!!!!! I got mine for $50.

By: marre

marre — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 12:56:27 +0000

hi,
I’m based in Madrid Spain, and me and my partner are opening a hamburger restaurant in November.
We’re looking for some computer games build into a low table, for the waiting area.
Do you have anything available, like the packman machine? or if you don’t have anything, perhaps you can tell me where to look for one?
Thanks for your help,
Kind regards,

Marre Moerel

By: Myra

Myra — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 01:47:25 +0000

That’s really cool. I have several of these type of machines for sale. They are in as is condition. Email me if you are interested.

By: BBBMouse

BBBMouse — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:37:57 +0000

Great job on the restoration! It looks brand new. So you have me tinkering with the idea of getting my Ms. Pacman table into shape. I bought mine from a dealer about 15 years ago (I paid $1100 back then - sheesh). The game overall has been working pretty well. Although I’m sure the insides are just slowly rotting away. Admittedly, I get pretty intimidated by ALL those wires and other foreign looking parts. The one thing I’d like to start with are joysticks. When I purchased the game, the dealer had replaced the orignals (the red ones) with another more modern joystick that has never really quite worked right. Any suggestions as to where I might find original joysticks or at the very least good replacements? Also, any suggestions as to who to trust the machine to for repair/restoration, if we’re not as adventurous as you? Thanks. I await your advice.

By: BAD12

BAD12 — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 03:56:09 +0000

kudos furi0us kudos to you

By: Eric Pinson

Eric Pinson — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:20:34 +0000

i need some help i am look for how the work old arcade game. But i can’t find out how not one thing online can till me how thing work can you help me out. it for a school thing called the senior project.thank you my e-mail is toadboy336@yahoo.com

By: Mark Laffrado

Mark Laffrado — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 12:53:28 +0000

Hey what a beautiful job you did!!!! I purchased a pacman cocktail machine for only 350 dollars 15 years ago. Actually I still cant believe I got it so cheap! Its in pretty good shape but I am still missing the glass underlay for it .All I have is a plain background .You mentioned you bought yours for 50 dollars.Any ideas where I can buy one? Thanx Mark

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:58:40 +0000

I would like to know where to get the wiring harnesses for my machine. I am lucky enough to have gotten mine the year it came out and am the only owner. Since I am now 31 and finally got it out of the garage I would love to get it up and running. Not restoring the body but only the insides. Also where can I find new glasstop for it. You did a hell of a job on yours and have great respect for keeping a classic…..classic. Hope to hear from you soon.

Stephen

By: parol

parol — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 21:26:51 +0000

Kjempe kuuuul hjemmeside du har.

By: Bryan Los

Bryan Los — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 21:47:53 +0000

> How much did it cost to get rid of the mice?

I thought they’d never ask… Actually, the mice were only a short problem. When they knocked a building down behind us, it was loaded with them, and they found a way in. After I annihilated them, they were never to return. In the end though, it wasn’t from the mouse. A wire just got loose.

By: MONKEY

MONKEY — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 16:48:52 +0000

Great just for the details of the inside of these boxes. One thing I wanted to ask though. The problem was caused by a mouse and you dropped $1600. How much did it cost to get rid of the mice?

By: Ashtonian

Ashtonian — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 05:15:53 +0000

Is Pac-Man that thing where it eats out everything?

By: Bryan Los

Bryan Los — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 21:04:26 +0000

> old people rock!

Hey, I’m only 29!

By: Bryan Los

Bryan Los — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 21:03:59 +0000

Thanks Old Man!

By: old people rock!

old people rock! — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 17:09:44 +0000

What the heck is pac man?

By: Ivan Minic

Ivan Minic — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 09:08:30 +0000

Cool

By: Bryan Los

Bryan Los — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 04:14:58 +0000

>”playing pac man - Priceless
> Ahem, .25!

And if you’re nice, even less, as I’ll open the coin door and hit the credit switch for ya.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 03:54:22 +0000

“playing pac man - Priceless”
Ahem, .25!

By: Yen

Yen — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 03:52:10 +0000

Wow, very nice! Great job

By: Pac-Land

Pac-Land — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 02:44:50 +0000

Very nice! There’s also a restoration of an upright Pac Man out there:
http://girasoli.org/?cat=27&order=asc

By: Wayde Christie

Wayde Christie — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:35:24 +0000

Awesome job. I’d love to be able to something like this with my MAME cab, but i just don’t have the time. Mine’s been gathering dust for about 4 years now

Maybe I’ll try and resurrect it!

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 22:34:31 +0000

Dood. That’s totally sweet.

By: Bryan Los

Bryan Los — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 22:31:28 +0000

sdfsdf, I too downloaded the ROM, then bought the arcade machine. That’s what makes us different I guess.

By: JClarendon

JClarendon — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 22:20:47 +0000

Great, sdfsdf. Enjoy having incorrect timing, bad input, and wrong colors on your computer monitor while emulating the ROM.

Bryan, while Two Bits can be a little high on the price range, you get what you pay for. You wouldn’t believe the number of boards we would get where someone tried to “repair” it and did more damage than there was initially. I also developed a nice Diagnostic ROM (which hopefully they tossed in for you) that was very helpful in debugging the board, especially during development of the Super ABC board.

By: Kristian Legault

Kristian Legault — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:31:43 +0000

Oh great, a piracy advocate.

Does your ROM have a resale value?
Will people pay you to play your ROM?
Can people walk into your house and congradulate you on your nice ROM?
Will your blog gets hits because you pirated a 20 year old game?

And so on. Seriously.

By: DUH

DUH — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:29:43 +0000

WOW, A ROM… that must be some new invention no one’s ever heard of!

Beautiful restoration.

By: sdfsdf

sdfsdf — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:14:20 +0000

I just downloaded the ROM for my computer. saved my self some time and $$$..

AND YOU KNOW THIS!

By: Kim Siever

Kim Siever — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:08:04 +0000

Home Depot rents tools. You may have been able to save money that way (especially with the mitre saw).

By: Bryan Los

Bryan Los — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:04:44 +0000

The original PCB was working. I picked one up on eBay for a good price so I could have a spair. The repair was done by TwoBits. The board was a little damaged, and had some of the chip sockets broken, and some other minor problems. Now I have two working boards, just in case something should happen in the future.

By: MadJeff

MadJeff — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:04:14 +0000

Brian, if you get a chance you should throw your project photos up on my Flickr Arcade Restoration group!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/arcade_resto/

I’m trying to start a project image repository, take a look and join us.

By: Kristian Legault

Kristian Legault — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:59:17 +0000

PCB repair? Is it mostly cleaning, checking the eproms and what not, or is there more to it? Where did you get that done?

By: rikkel

rikkel — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:45:33 +0000

He learned it all form me

By: NV0U

NV0U — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:44:07 +0000

Awesome dude! I love seeing old tech restored like this. I have been restoring some old radios - my pride and joy that I am working on now is an RCA Radiola 17 made in 1927. It is so cool to hit the power switch on this old stuff and have it light up (and with 7 tubes, it is a lot of light!) and make noise. Kudos to you for brining an old machine back to life.

And try to learn some electronics skills… it sounds like you are just a beginner, which is fantastic, and even cooler that you were able to get this thing running without really knowing what you were doing. My hat is off to you, sir! But, if you know what is doing what and know how to troubleshoot/read schematics, you will save yourself some bucks in the future. That $180 you spent having the motherboard repaired could have paid for some of those tools!

Anyway, keep at it. You do very nice work.

By: Haochi

Haochi — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:41:44 +0000

“Playing Pac Man - Priceless”

Visa Credit Card Commercial???

Great Job.

By: Terc

Terc — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:31:58 +0000

DOH! stupid typos Packman -> Pacman

By: Terc

Terc — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:29:06 +0000

My Grandma has one of these (actually Mrs. Packman), my grandpa had owned a coin-op company from the late 70’s to the mid 90’s. It’s still working, but I’ve started to notice some “hiccups” from time to time. I’ve loved playing it since before I can remember. I’m not sure I’m ready to embark on something like this quite yet, but I just saved you page for safe keeping, thanks so much for putting this out there. Now I dont have to fear the day it wont turn on so much. Your base looks beautiful by the way. Great job

By: Jacob

Jacob — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:03:28 +0000

(2) .093 Plug & Receptacle (2 pos.) - $2.00
(1) .093 Plug & Receptacle (3 pos.) - $1.25
(1) .093 Plug & Receptacle (12 pos.) - $4.00
(2) .093 Plug & Receptacle (9 pos.) - $6.00
(1) .156 Housing w/pins (3 pos.) - $0.25
(1) .156 Housing w/pins (6 pos.) - $0.50
(5) 1N4007 - $1.00
(1) AC Line Cord - $3.00
(1) AC Line Filter (.25 tabs) - $5.00
(1) AC Power Distribution Block (.187 tabs) - $2.00
(1) BX 161 Lamps - $2.00
(1) BX 1813 Lamps - $2.00
(1) Cable Clamps (3/8?) - $2.50
(1) Cable Ties (4?) - $2.00
(1) Coin Switch - $5.00
(1) CP Bolt Set - $4.00
(1) CP Molding $10.00
(1) CP Overlays - $50.00
(1) Crimpers - $20.00
(1) Degaussing Coil - $40.00
(1) Fan - $35.00
(8) Fiber Leaf Switches - $24.00
(1) Fuse Blocks w/Fuses - $29.00
(2) Fuses - $8.00
(4) Lamp Holder (161) - $6.00
(1) Lamp Holder (1813) - $1.50
(1) Molex Pin/Socket Extractor (.093) - $20.00
(1) Monitor - $329.00
(1) Pac-Man (PCB) Repair - $190.00
(1) Powder Coating - $60.00
(1) Smoked Plexi - $10.00
(1) Speaker (shielded) - $12.00
(3) Speaker Grills - $27.00
(1) Spiral Wrap (5?) - $3.00
(2) Start Buttons - $22.00
(1) Table Molding - $12.00
(1) Underlay Artwork - $50.00
(2) Wiring Harness - $70.00
(1) Wooden Base - $40.00

playing pac man - Priceless

By: David Ogletree

David Ogletree — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:03:28 +0000

That is cool. I have an old Star Wars arcade game I need to do that to. This has been motivational.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:02:25 +0000

absolutley stunning work!! A real interesting story about a machine on the brink of death and brought back to life!!!

Rock on Pac-Man!

By: JClarendon

JClarendon — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:05:50 +0000

Hey there, I used to work at Two Bit Score in Austin, TX. The one thing you need left for that machine is to call them up and order a Super ABC Kit to have a coin-op friendly method of playing 16 different variations of Pac-Man, along with high score save and initials! God, that thing took me months to program…

By: MadJeff

MadJeff — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 16:51:13 +0000

Well, props to you for doing such a great restore. It’s the nicest Pac-Man I’ve seen, bar-none.

By: Bryan Los

Bryan Los — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:34:40 +0000

Yeah, the initial price was high, but I bought it from a reputable seller, and it had a great warranty, plus the outside condition was so beautiful. I probably could have found one cheaper on eBay, or if I looked, at some old arcade show, but being my first, I wanted one that worked.

Knowing what I know now, I probably could have found a really nice cabinet, then just did all the work I eventually did to mine. But you can’t go back… It was 100% working before any restoration, so I really didn’t need to do what I did, but did so with the thought that I’d never have to worry about it in the future after the final restoration.

By: MadJeff

MadJeff — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 23:08:22 +0000

Great job on the restore, it looks beautiful! Although $1700 was a steep price to pay… =)

By: rikkel

rikkel — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 20:14:09 +0000

Really nice job man NOW GET ON SKYPE! You rich bastard