Jr. Pac-man
Jr. Pac-man High Score Saver
After today, my list of techs that have the prowess to make modification kits and high score save boards for classic arcade games read Jrok, Matt Osborn, Mark Spaeth, Mike Doyle, Clay Cowgill, Jeff Kulczycki and Dave Widel. A week ago, I hadn’t done a lot of research into others who were making custom boards and kits but then I came across Matt Osborn’s kit’s mostly for Konami games, and he turned me onto Dave Widel.
Installing Mark Spaeth’s Jr. Pac-man Toggle Speed Chip Kit
Took me over a month to finish installing Mark Spaeth’s Jr. Pac-man speed up kit, but I can finally rest easy know that my switch is no longer hanging out of my coin door. There was a couple page thread about the kit on the klov forums, mostly people looking to make their Jr. Pac-man gameplay faster. But, towards the end of the thread, there were some good photos and some advice as people started to get the chip replacements in the mail. (more…)
Jr. Pac-man finished!
It took me another four days of jockeying around, but I finally finished the Jr. Pac-man late late tonight.
Here is what I ended up doing…
I had some short white power coating shelf brackets from Lowe’s.
Jr. Pac-man’s in the basement ‘gameroom’
After we got back tonight, Sarah and I moved the Jr. Pac-man into the basement. Before we left on Friday the monitor connector had arrived, so the only thing left to do is put in the monitor in the cabinet.
It was really hot this weekend, after looking at the Jr. Pac cabinet closer I felt like it had warped a little bit. I had to put that out of my mind, there was nothing I could do about the cabinet now, just that much more important to get Jr. Pac inside tonight.
Jr. Pac-man was the hardest game we have moved so far. The unique Bally cabinet was just a touch wider than the base of the steps where the turn is always hard, so it took some fancy maneuvering to keep the game and walls safe and get it to the back room.
But, looks cool either way. Pretty basic and less than special when it comes to some of the gamerooms I have seen, including one this weekend, but that is going to have to do for now.
This is also the first photo with the new Ikea stools. Never liked round stools much, and after visiting Chris Moore’s gameroom this weekend, I saw a couple of different stools he had that he got from Ikea. Sarah loves the store, I had never been, so it just made sense to go and I am really happy about the choice and that I waited.
Now all I need is a real Mr. Do, a Galaga cocktail out in the main room somewhere, and, well, I’ll still sit on the pinball. I don’t even know how that would work.
Missing Monitor hookup for Jr. Pac-man
Sent payment for the Jr. Pac yesterday, so I felt comfortable asking Rick how to hook up the monitor. After a series of emails, it came out that the monitor hooks into the top of the PCB on the right side. There is another connection on the left side as well that attachs right into the harness. There was no connector on the right side, and I looked inside the game in case it came loose, wasn’t there either. So it sounds like he is going to send it to me in the mail today so I have it by Wednesday or Thursday of this week. I was really hoping to play it sometime before Friday for sure.
Plus, I had forgotten about the monitor brackets. He had mentioned that original Jr. Pac owner had taken them out with the monitor before Rick bought it. The Pac-man ones I have won’t work, just a little too short. I am going to try to go to Home Depot this week and try to find something that will match, I have read in the forums that people have found things. I also need some tinted plexi, but I am less worried about that right now…
Other info about the game…The swelling that I mistook for water damage towards the back of the cab can just be caused from heat he said. He said he sealed it off, hopefully preventing any more swelling. That makes me glad it is sitting in the garage now that it is a little cooler out. I also identified the serial no. #333, it’s stamped on the back of the cab above the back door. The Mappy serial is stamped there too. The Serial is in the cab still too on a piece of paper, A29-00333, and you can see where the old Mappy tag was on the harness.
Rick also said that the tracks that are in the bottom where the new switcher supply is are for the old linear power supply board that almost always fails in these games.
Jr. Pac-man has arrived
It finally came on Thursday, as smoothly as planned. The truck came, they dropped off the game wrapped up tightly and well protected, they took some photos of my “gameroom” which was a small disarrayed mess, and they headed out. They didn’t want a drink, food or anything.
I will try to post some photos of it, it’s still sitting in the garage as I wait to have a little more space hopefully after Tuesday. I haven’t figured out how to hook up the monitor just yet either, but I am sure that won’t be too hard.
Jr. Pac-man arriving tomorrow!
I knew when the truck left Pittsburgh a couple of days ago that my time had finally come, but I just wasn’t sure when.
I got ahold of Troy yesterday, and he said he was in Columbus, and thought he would be my way in the next couple of days. It sounded like he had to swing down to Cincinnati first, and since Mudmantim wasn’t going to be free until the weekend, would stop by my place next.
Well, he called tonight and said that he should be at my place by around noon or 1. I am really pumped, the timing is just about perfect. I have the day off tomorrow, and in the next couple of days I should be moving out two more games, so I should have the room to move things around and rearrange them as needed.
