Cocktail Pac-Man "restoration"

[Pete Rittwage]

I know this isn't a "real" restoration, but I did rescue a very disused Pac-Man cocktail from the claws of time.

This one obviously had bees and mice living in it at different points during it's lifetime, and possibly some kittens. Thankfully the glass is intact (scratched, though) and there's no water damage. Most of the games I find here in the south have water or humidity damage. It seems you can't leave a particleboard box stored in a non-climate-controlled area in Georgia for very long.

The monitor was very burned and missing the electronics, and the board comes up with garbage on the screen, so it got turned into a MAME cabinet.

There is something very different about running the vertical monitor with the original controls and the "sound of the cabinet" that is a very different tactile experience. It allows me to go back in time to some long lost 1983 pizza parlor and forget that it's a computer running emulation.

I think it's mostly the sound of the game coming *from* the cabinet and the vertical monitor that allows reality to be lifted. Plus, it's enraging to play games that used 4-way joysticks with an 8-way or a PC joystick. Since these are original leaf-switch 4-ways, it makes those old games *much* more playable.

I did drill a couple of holes in the side of the control panel on each player's side for two buttons, rather than ruin the original Pac-Man overlay. It works out better anyway because it would have been crowded near the joystick.

The graphics on the top glass were pretty much chipped off completely, so I'll order a new 'Multicade' underlay from arcadeshop.com. I'd like the original Pac-Man, but they seem to be very expensive due to licensing.

Also, there is rust on most of the metal parts such as the coin door, the piano hinge, and rivets in various places such as the control panel. Any good way to clean them or should I remove and replace it all?

[GrandAmChandler]

Gonna move this to the Arcade Alley section of the forum!

-GAC-

[InsaneDavid]

Also, there is rust on most of the metal parts such as the coin door, the piano hinge, and rivets in various places such as the control panel. Any good way to clean them or should I remove and replace it all?

Start out with some WD-40 and a scrubber sponge. Those aren't rivets, they're the heads of carriage bolts. Remove them and scrub the heads as mentioned above, then give them a quick spraying with some black spray paint. If the rust is extensive you could go at it with a rotary tool (Dremel) or replace them as you said. The WD-40 should get rid of most of it though, it got rid of 98% of the rust on my Pole Position control panel and 100% of the rust on the wheel chrome.

[diskoboy]

another classic dies for a MAME cabinet.....

*sigh*

[InsaneDavid]

another classic dies for a MAME cabinet.....

*sigh*

From the OP it seems it was dead to begin with. There's nothing wrong with restoration via MAME conversion, especially for machines that are garbage otherwise. Sounds as if the panels and their overlays are still in tact and the machine has been kept close to original as possible. I'd like to see some pictures.

Killing working machines for MAME or taking cabinets that are in decent condition and massively chopping them up for MAME is something I've never approved of. That doesn't seem to be the case here however.

[Pete Rittwage]

I still have all the parts, but I couldn't have made it work as Pac-man with what I ended up with. All the wiring and transformers were corroded and eaten beyond repair, and the original monitor was missing the electronics and burned-in badly, and the paint on the top glass was worn off. Keep in mind- animals and insects lived in it!

I still have the board (seems to be Pac-Man Plus actually) and the harness and monitor tube.

I did drill a few holes, but now it plays Galaga and a few hundred other games, so it can appeal to a wider crowd in my game room. With 3 boys, it gets a lot of play time and exposes them to the classics. The glass on top is chipped, but it's expensive to replace and gives it the "old" look. The original joysticks still work great.

[Pete Rittwage]

As soon as I get the underlay I'll get some pictures of it.

Right now it's got a piece of black posterboard there instead, cut to fit. It's very plain that way, though.