My Gameroom
Jr. Pac-man in Santa Maria, CA
At least this one was so far away that I didn’t worry too much about it.
But a nice looking machine. I bet Michael in Sunnyvale, CA is kicking himself that he had that one shipped from Traverse City when this one is obviously closer. The one in Traverse was nicer looking, but this one in Santa Maria is really good too, and I hate it that it is in my price range but all the way across the country.
I emailed the guy to see if I could get a serial, and hoping for a response that I could later contact to find out the buyer. But I haven’t gotten a return email.
Maybe I’ll email Michael and see if he already shipped his or not. Maybe we can work something out:)
Jr. Pac-man dedicated in Arkansas
One collector had told me that when you have a hard to come by game pop up on ebay, and go for a lot of money, all of a sudden you will see more of that game come out of the woodwork, usually operators looking to cash in.
Lately it seems like there have been a good deal of Jr. Pac-man’s on ebay that are dedicated but have Mappy sideart.
When we got back from Gatlinburg I saw that there was a Jr. Pac-man in Arkansas that was up for sale. It had been in storage for awhile, and the town was out in the middle of nowhere.
I asked for more photos, the three on ebay weren’t the best, and from I could see it seemed pretty beat up. I did get more photos, and the machine is beat to hell. I don’t think it would get much more than $200-$250 from a local collector and less from me since I would need to drive so far to get it.
I have been in touch with the lady who is selling it, she says she isn’t going to take less than $500 for it and is going to relist on ebay.
Good luck. I have been wrong before. The Jr. Pac-man in Marion, OH with painted black sides finally sold for $695 after being on ebay for a year, so you never know. Sometimes it just takes that buyer that just “has to have it.”
How do I get the Pengo Sound Control Panel Out?
I took a short look inside my coin door today to see if I could figure out a front way to get the sound mount out of the cabinet. I know I should be checking for loose connections, maybe I just need to test continuity and that is it. But I can’t really get my hands inside the cabinet much.
I haven’t drilled out the bottom coin door yet, and am not liking that idea. But if I have to in order to get at the remaining screws that hold the whole door in, then that is what I need to do.
Pengo PCB arrived in Pittsburgh
Heard from Richard today. He got the PCB in the mail, and he was able to set it up on a test rig and check it out. He was getting the bars across the screen just like me, so I wasn’t crazy. He said one of the chips felt like it was getting hot and that probably means that it is bad. It may be just that simple to swap it out and have it work, so here’s hoping.
Once the holiday is done things should move fairly quick, and I could have my PCB back hopefully before I go on vacation. (Nearly one year after I got the silly game)
Pengo cabinet inside has a fun design
Got in back of the cab last night and tried to figure out how to get at the Sound Control. I want to be able to take it off so I can work on it, take photos as needed, but I can’t figure out how. It feels as though it is riveted to the back of the coin box inside, so I thought I might be able to get at it in back.
I loosed the four bolts holding the huge particle board “L” that contains the Power Supply and PCB. I pulled it out a little bit to see that there is still a board in my way of getting at it through there unless I remove that little board. Doesn’t seem like it has much of a purpose, but I hate to go ripping apart the game if I don’t have to.
Pengo sound controls inside coin door.
After talking to Rick the other night, I decided to just send him my Pengo PCB to have his tech friend take a look at it. I think Rick is really smart and knowledgeable and really trust him and anyone in his network. So, hopefully he can easily figure out what it is, if it is a RAM or processor issue or what. Hopefully it is an easy fix and I can get it working really soon with that high score save kit.
But since the Pengo PCB is now in the mail, I thought it might be time to look also into getting the volume pot replaced. Thinking I might need to place an order this week with Bob Roberts, might as well combine it all. Here are some photos of the front and a crappy one of the back of the pot I think I need to replace.
(Around page 37 of the Pengo operator’s manual it says I need a 10K pot Car Pnlmt, part no. 475-0007. I don’t know what “Car Pnlmt” means, but I think all Bob needs is the 10k portion. I don’t actually know what part in this assembly is the pot, I will have to take it out and take a closer look I guess. It looks like from the manual that the gold piece on the right is a little AMP, so the pot must be back in that wiring somewhere.)
I think I have mentioned it here, but from talking with Tim in MI, who also has this same problem, and Bob it sounds like all of the static we are getting from moving the coin door is from a bad Pot on the sound. I also turn the knob when I played the game and it wouldn’t adjust anything, just leaving the sound at the deafening high level it was at.
Troubleshooting Pengo Power Supply
Spent a couple of hours tonight looking at the Pengo game and trying to do some troubleshooting, mostly on the liner power supply.
As you see in the photo below, this is what a Sega/Gremlin Linear Power Supply looks like fromt the front, with the PCB board mounted on the inside of the humongous heatsink.
I had made contact with two different people who said to start by testing the Power Supply Voltages. The Power Supply in this machine is mounted awkwardly, so I just decided to unscrew it and get rid of some of zip ties. Most collectors like their games to be perfect and neat, right now, I just want to understand them and care little about that.
I took out the first two fuses and checked for continuity, and those seemed to be ok. (Those are the fuses on the left in the photo, just above where I indicated where the pot for controlling the voltages is at.) So, now time to check the voltages.
These second two photos above show the power connection for the 12V, 5V and Ground connections that supply the PCB. The 12V would be for the audio, and the 5V for the game board. I stuck my black lead into one of the ground, set my meter to 20V, and put my positive lead into each of the 5V and 12V connections, four tests in all.
For each 5V I read 5V exactly, and the same with the 12V, I read 12V exactly. So know that voltages can be dropped on the way to the board, I checked the voltages in the connector. Same thing, all of them right on the money which is weird, they usually fluctuate about .2 a volt. So, I decided to test right on the traces for the edge connector. I am going to point those places below, as well as the pinouts for this 44 (22×2) pin connector for the Pengo.
