What is Digg?53 Comments
- gilbes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6No surprise people are saying he should have just done MAME. If I went over to this guys house and saw his Pac Man I would be impressed (not just at the novelty of it because I too have an arcade cab at home). There it is, a real life, honest to goodness Pac Man cocktail in his house and it has been restored beutifully. Very cool. If I saw that he gutted a real Pac Man cocktail and stuck a PC in it with a bunch of pirated arcade games, the cool factor isn't there. I can pirate arcade games on my cell phone. There is no neat factor of a hacked up arcade cab with a PC insided.
- Furi0usBee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"Most fun statement..." Aren't I allowed to exaggerate :) Specifically, this was the most fun I've had working with technology. Not only did I get something working after ripping it completely apart, but I learned so much in the process. For never having attempted something like that, I was having a blast while I was doing it.
- dan_s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Now that is hard core... talk about LOVING a video game... World of Warcrack be damned!!!! Long live PAC-MAN. To show the true geekly love of makin and breakin.... that is what it is all about
- Reddog_x2000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@Danathar
I don't disagree with you. In a lot of cases I'd give the same advice. Hell, I'd probably tell him to be real lazy and just drop the $19.95 for Namco's GH & play it on his tv.
But, there's something about restoring something classic that just feels great. I hope you give it a try and experience it for yourself. I think you'll like it. - badnewsblair, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I am a modern gamer for sure, but I know my roots!
Playing Pac-Man is the little sub shop as a kid while my mom went grocery shopping. I hope my fiancé will let me do this so I can bring my kids up right! - gameraboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4For me the most fun I'd ever had would involve Scarlet Johanson and Jessica Alba. But maybe that's just me... ;-)
- GiggleStick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Get out of the 80's by building a MAME cabinet? Do you even know what MAME is? Freakin' Retard.
- NV0U, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I totally disagree with you on this one.
Take one of my other umpteen billion hobbies, for instance. I restore old antique tube radios. Yes, a modern transistorized radio does exactly what these old things do, but what good is that? That is like saying "there is no need to keep the remains of the Parthenon around - there is a brand new one that they built in Memphis, TN that looks just like it!" - nstern2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4If the board inside is still working then It would be a sin to destroy it. If he would set it up as a Mame machine he could wire the coin slot to act as a button on the keyboard and just map the insert coin button to it. I built a Mame machine that requires you to insert a quarter to play. Nice restore.
- joehobbes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Wish more arcades would do this.
I'm sick of putting quarters into machines that worked like crap - J4c0b, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10(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.
for everything else there's master card - Danathar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wouldn't of been easier to just restore the case, put a modern PC inside run mame with the original Pac Man Roms and connect the PC to the video display and the controller?
It would look EXACTLY the same from the outside and work the same (sans the coin operation...I suppose you could force your friends to put quarters in it) - donolsen1155, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Very nice.
- joebrent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3>This guy got JACKED. HARD. For starters, NOBODY is lucky to have bought a pac-man cocktail for $1700.
Bet you're younger than 25. For old farts like me (30), if I had the disposable means, it would be absolutely worth it to have something like this, especially with the satisfaction of having renovated it myself. Why do you think we geezers get glassy-eyed over the mention of Atari 2600s (which are 'vintage', mind you, not 'obselete')? If I could have a Pac-Man, Galaga, Asteroids, and Dragon's Lair in my apartment, I'd put it next to the crappy pinball machine with the alien mothership that if you got the ball in it would shoot like a billion pinballs out in all directions, and never leave my place or do anything productive ever again, and slowly waste away until I died of starvation or was evicted and succumbed to the elements and extreme gaming withdrawal.
Awesome!!! - complex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Images are dead. Coral Cache at http://www.scriptedlizard.com.nyud.net:8090/thevault/158
- kms007, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I enjoyed the article and must give props to the owner for his meticulous detail. The final product looks amazing - and he's happy. So why are other people complaining?
- Furi0usBee, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I could have waited to find one for $500.00, but I wanted one yesterday. And the condition would not have been the same. And the cabinet is practically mint. There is almost no wear to speak of, and nothing you can see on inspection, unless you get on your knees. All the components are original, except the overlays/underlay. And I took out the original monitor. I purchased it from a game seller, which of course is going to have higher prices. But I had the comfort of knowing they would have made any onsite repairs and warranted the product for 2 years. Looking back, I didn't need that, but at the time, beeing a noob, that was good insurance. So did I pay too much? Maybe so. For my first game, and an almost perfect cabinet, I think it was worth it.
- jmccorm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow. Let's back up a bit here...
I'm not an op. I'm over 30. I do have the disposable cash to do this, and I *do* collect arcade games for a hobby. At one time I was up to 25 of them in my gameroom, now I'm down to 12 +/-. And I have two of the games you named.
Now, back to the JACKED statement, I said that because of the price paid. You can get authentic period pac-man cocktails on ebay for $1000 any day of the week. You can get them far cheaper at auctions on a regular basis. The estimated prices by mbourgon seem in line.
But to have paid $1700 for one that wasn't in ~100% top condition is bad enough. To add $700-1000 in parts to fix it up is complete insanity. His problem was that he sacrificed time, knowledge (and unfortunately, quality) for money. If you want to get arcade games at a good price, you've got to "not want it right now". And you've got to understand what you are looking for and research what is available at what price. And learn more about the particular item you are wanting. You can easily save yourself a great deal of money if you do this.
They did throw in a 2yr warranty, which is worth something. $700? Probably not.
Otherwise, you can go down to your local gameroom company and buy any arcade machine that they might have at totally exagerated prices that have no bearing on anything but how much they think you're willing to pay for them. Would you pay $600 for a Pole Position upright? Yes?
Well, you haven't done your homework. You can get them, and in good condition, for $125. All the time. Back up the truck and fill it up with Pole Positions. I'm not kidding!
But if you don't know that, you'll be taken to the cleaners by the local gameroom dealers. - truk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I used to work for a vending company doing referbs on old games like this as we brought things through he shop between locations, so I think this was a really cool project. On the other hand, the guy would have been much better off getting the original game and a lot of the parts from a local vending company or distributor and just buying the reproduction decals from twobits.com. It's been a few years since I was there, but we used to have quite a stack of the old cocktail machines that we would have let go for a couple hundred dollars each to anyone who asked, and wholesale prices on parts are cheap.
- stalky14, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The cocktail models go for a premium because they are less common. I have a full-sized Super Pac Man
upright. (Paid $150 for it. $1700?! He must have gone to one of those arcade auctions where prices get bid up to rediculous levels.) I've often thought of hollowing it out and making a MAME-based Pac Man/Ms. Pac Man/ Super Pac Man/Dig Dug/Galaga box out of it. It works fine now as a Super Pac Man machine, and it's it fair shape cosmetically for its age... but Super Pac Man just isn't as fun as the others, and the others aren't as fun without the real arcade joystick. - monkeyballsoup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For what he paid and the effort put in to restore the cabinet, he should've just built the darn thing from the ground up.
- SirPoonga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2FYI good resources for cabinet restoring
http://www.arcadecontrols.com
http://homearcade.org/BBBB/siteindex.html (halfway down the page past the parts list are write-ups)
and the newsgroup rec.games.video.arcade.collecting - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah, I'd much rather spend hundreds of dollars and hours of my time refurbishing an old Pac-Man machine then just loading the Rom on my computer.
Yeah, that makes sense. - luke--, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Great article a+. Internet is bettered by these type of articles.
- NJank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2by the way, the Profanity filter keeps filtering the word c.ocktail.
- jmccorm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3You paid too much. Being a newb is a reason, certainly, but you got taken to the cleaners on this one. For the price paid for the game + repairs, you could have had a very nice pac-man, galaga, and star wars in your collection. And quite probably more.
- BiGdUsTy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I just done this to my Ms. Pac-Man machine a few months ago. Installed all new wiring, monitor, power supply, and joystick. Also replaced all the lights and a few bad eproms on the pcb. Plays like new!
- BiGdUsTy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I can't agree with you more on that. I bought a Ms. Pac-Man to play Ms. Pac-Man not everything else under the sun.
I like MAME but its just not the same as playing on the orginal hardware. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Somewhat related, read my FAQ...
http://members.cox.net/jmccorm/buy.htm
...you did express an important point that is made there.
"How much do you have in your wallet? You may have noticed a theme here, and that's money. If you've got money to burn, you can get yourself whatever game you want, in top condition, and in less than a week. Visit your local gameroom dealer. Many of them delight in customers with little time, limited knowledge, and a pocket full of cash. If, on the other hand, you have a budget, you'll have to make some choices, do your homework, and take the time to do it right." - mbourgon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The reason the OP said the guy got "JACKED" is not anything philosophical, but because the price was insanely high for what he bought. Superauctions.com has a videogame/pinball auction in my area every 2 months. You can buy these cabs for $50-$100 if they don't work, maybe as high as $700-$800 if working in good condition. A high-quality, _working_ Pac-Man cocktail probably would've gone for
- Achilles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Someone needs a friend that's a girl.
- cyberghost232, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1who besides me remembers smashing nickels with a hammer to the same size of a quarter to play these games?
- Furi0usBee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Thanks for the link complex. The site is slow loading, as it's getting a bunch of hits right now. http://www.scriptedlizard.com.nyud.net:8090/thevault/158 is working great.
- koktakee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1MAME sucks! Glad to see a reference to RGVAC up there...I restored a vintage Crystal Castles upright and relive my pizzeria waiting days too... I can go out to the garage anytime I want, fire it up, and know it was onsite earning money when I was in second grade! You can NEVER duplicate the control feels on MAME, no matter what people say.
- GiggleStick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@NV0U
Isn't that Nashville? It's nice that there's only one level of comments on here. I don't think that we could handle multiple levels. - Windsinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wait, that worked? (:
- SirPoonga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I mentioned what needed to be mentioned :) I know hardcore RGVAC users are anti-mame but both can co-exist. I have an emulation cabinet along with an Asteroids and Double Dragon II cabinet. For Double Dragon II the game play is the same, even down to the slow framerate issues in some areas. But with mame it depends on the game, it is still emulation, so you can get some thing not handled correctly.
I don't appreciate it when people mame a perfectly fine classic. I know people are suggesting he could have just mamed it but its value goes down then. That's why I built my emulation cabinet from scratch. The collectors are noting he paid too much for it. Hey, if he's happy with it that's fine. He's probably not going to resell it.
FYI, you can do more than emulation in a cabinet. There are many shareware and freeware PC titles that work perfectly in a cabinet :) My favs are Gish, Turbo Sliders, and Little Fighters. - Furi0usBee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's where I got Pac-Man, TNT!!! They had great service. They shipped it to me from PA to MA right to my door. I would recommend them for anyone who wants a great machine.
- LabThug, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dugg ... wakka, wakka beerrrruuupp
- EvilBadger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You have motivated me man. With a cheap cabinet, my engineering degree, your resources, power tools from a neighbor, and an old college electrical engineering book, I might just be able to pull this off. thanks.
- Nighthawke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There are arcade service manuals to be had for free online, especially the classics. Galaga, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, even the newer Williams machines are online in one form or another. These include wiring diagrams and diagnostic decision trees and guides on finding and diagnosing common problems. You could have saved alot of time and procured a bench bible on your lovely cocktail and done it by the book without alot of trouble.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Now all I need to do is find an arcade Pac-Man machine. :
- heysuburbia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I have a place by me that restores arcade machines, they have birthday parties in their arcade warehouse, and restore and ship anywhere with a 5 year guarentee. They also have an hour long infomercial that is absolutely hilarious:
part 1 - http://66.150.45.167/tnt1.wmv
part 2 - http://66.150.45.167/tnt2.wmv
http://tntamusements.com
individual clips:
http://www.uwm.com/tnt.htm - monkeyballsoup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0To each his own I guess. I love arcade games but I wouldn't have done this. In fairness, there's no denying the beauty in the finished product. Great work!
- Furi0usBee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0^ Slacker!
- Furi0usBee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The purpose was to be as authentic as possible. If I wanted to build a new one, or buy one of those "newly manufactured" games, it wouldn't actually be an original Pac-Man. Authenticity was the key for me. I want the one I played as a kid. What is the right price for authenticity?
- wtfunkymonkey, on 10/12/2007, -8/+7I'm sorry, but if this is 'the most fun you'll ever have' then you need to get out more. I whole heartedly agree that this is pretty cool, and PacMan is an awesome game, but there's a lot more fun things in the world.
- jmccorm, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5This guy got JACKED. HARD. For starters, NOBODY is lucky to have bought a pac-man cocktail for $1700. Worse, for the price far in excess of a totally mint cocktail, he got a piece of junk. Then he threw in an additional... what, $700+ into the machine to fix it up? OUCH.
I hope he enjoyed himself on that project, because for the price he paid, he could have gotten some really sweet games.
PS: I will be putting an empty Star Wars cabinet on my curb later today. Hopefully someone will drag it off an restore it for less than half the price paid on this project in total. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0The most fun you'll ever have?
- rikkel, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Man that is so freaking cool!!!!!!!!! U pown man, your like a legend :0
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