Ms. Pac-Man (1981 Namco, Licensed to Midway Mfg.)
The Story: What can I possibly say about Ms. Pac-Man that hasn’t already been said? Pac-Man was an instant success in the Arcade world, and this sequel was no exception. More mazes, enhanced gameplay, and who can forget those intermission scenes? The Pac-Man series was so popular that it rapidly spawned into unlimited merchandising, more sequels and even a TV show. While this wasn’t the first arcade game I ever bought, it was the first of all games I currently own. It brought me back into the arcade collecting scene. Before buying this game for a mere $150 in 2008, I had bought and sold numerous games, but not many of those had a "classic" status, and I usually only kept one or two at a time. This game must have had a bug in it and it bit me, it bit me good.
The Score: Found on local Craigslist listed as fully working for $200. Upon calling the seller, he mentions that he just started having trouble with the game. I decide to preview the game and discovered that playing around with the fuses brought some life back. We agreed on $150 and I brought it home with a big smile on my face. I had been out of the collecting scene for awhile and was thinking these games still went for around $1000. While they have gone down significantly since then, they still merit a decent price tag, certainly much higher than my original investment.
The Service: After reading up on Bob Roberts' site, I quickly discovered that my Ms. Pac-Man was "drunk". The quick fix for this was to chuck out the widely hated filter PCB, change fuse's and blocks as well as the edge connector. I did all that with the help of a forum member (thanks Dave) who replaced the edge connector for me. I also had a flaky Hantarex monitor to deal with, and I ended up replacing that with a proper Electrohome G07, which has gotten new caps and a new flyback since. It has some burn from another game but nothing major, and the smoked plexi hides it well. The cabinet is in OK shape, typical fade. These games are notorious for "hand wear" especially on the LH side, and while mine is no exception, it’s not bad, I've certainly seen much worse. The bottom of the cabinet had huge holes in the wood where leg levelers used to be. I ended up removing the bottom 1/2" from the cabinet alltogether and replaced the bottom, wood, leg levelers and all. These games are also notorious for faded marquees, so that was replaced. The T-Molding was worn, and just for kicks, I had some T-Molding from a Sega Turbo that I recently parted out (it's a smooth black with sky blue pinstripes), it turned out looking good so I just left it on. The Bezel and CPO are in good shape with only a few imperfections, nothing to worry about.
I also decided to replace the plain jane white start buttons with Bob Roberts' illuminated button kit in cherry red. The PCB was also replaced. I ran a 48-1 in this game for awhile with a Pac-Jamma adapter. After the basement started seeing more and more games, I decided I wanted original hardware again and bought a 4-1 PCB from Souzilla. It is the latest version with "top 5" high score save and free play with attract mode.
Update: Would you believe I found another one? The cabinet is slightly better than what I have, so I have now performed a "cab swap". The new photo's reflect these changes. Enjoy.
The Score: Found on local Craigslist listed as fully working for $200. Upon calling the seller, he mentions that he just started having trouble with the game. I decide to preview the game and discovered that playing around with the fuses brought some life back. We agreed on $150 and I brought it home with a big smile on my face. I had been out of the collecting scene for awhile and was thinking these games still went for around $1000. While they have gone down significantly since then, they still merit a decent price tag, certainly much higher than my original investment.
The Service: After reading up on Bob Roberts' site, I quickly discovered that my Ms. Pac-Man was "drunk". The quick fix for this was to chuck out the widely hated filter PCB, change fuse's and blocks as well as the edge connector. I did all that with the help of a forum member (thanks Dave) who replaced the edge connector for me. I also had a flaky Hantarex monitor to deal with, and I ended up replacing that with a proper Electrohome G07, which has gotten new caps and a new flyback since. It has some burn from another game but nothing major, and the smoked plexi hides it well. The cabinet is in OK shape, typical fade. These games are notorious for "hand wear" especially on the LH side, and while mine is no exception, it’s not bad, I've certainly seen much worse. The bottom of the cabinet had huge holes in the wood where leg levelers used to be. I ended up removing the bottom 1/2" from the cabinet alltogether and replaced the bottom, wood, leg levelers and all. These games are also notorious for faded marquees, so that was replaced. The T-Molding was worn, and just for kicks, I had some T-Molding from a Sega Turbo that I recently parted out (it's a smooth black with sky blue pinstripes), it turned out looking good so I just left it on. The Bezel and CPO are in good shape with only a few imperfections, nothing to worry about.
I also decided to replace the plain jane white start buttons with Bob Roberts' illuminated button kit in cherry red. The PCB was also replaced. I ran a 48-1 in this game for awhile with a Pac-Jamma adapter. After the basement started seeing more and more games, I decided I wanted original hardware again and bought a 4-1 PCB from Souzilla. It is the latest version with "top 5" high score save and free play with attract mode.
Update: Would you believe I found another one? The cabinet is slightly better than what I have, so I have now performed a "cab swap". The new photo's reflect these changes. Enjoy.