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So I never thought I would actually get one of these...


PacManPlus

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Today I acquired a Baby Pac-Man machine, for a quite inexpensive price.  However, it doesn't boot.  I have a feeling I have a long road ahead of me to get this going.  I already knew that the screen was bad; and I had planned on replacing it with an LCD panel (the only game I would do that to).  But I have a feeling just to get it to do *something* is going to be rough.

 

I wish I had one of these when I was working on the 7800 port :ponder:

 

I literally just got home with it, and I don't even know where to begin yet...  The boards look good except for two things: First, it looks like someone tried to replace the battery on the top right board (see pictures) and just left it hanging.  Secondly, there seems to be two chips missing, although I'm not sure yet if those two sockets are supposed to be empty or not.

 

It sure needs a lot of cleaning too, but that's the easy part.

This should be interesting...

 

 

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Edited by PacManPlus
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9 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

I literally just got home with it, and I don't even know where to begin yet...  The boards look good except for two things: First, it looks like someone tried to replace the battery on the top right board (see pictures) and just left it hanging.

Excellent find, and congratulations!  There are two arcade video games I've owned in the past that I actually regret selling, and Baby Pac-Man is one of them.

 

They can be...  Finicky.  You appear to be in good starting shape as the original battery pack has been removed and neither it nor its replacement (can't read the Rat Shack number on it, but it looks like a cordless phone battery) appear to have leaked.  Definitely remove that ASAP since it will take the MPU board with it if it begins to leak.  Trust me on this one: you don't want that to happen.  It's definitely an improvement over the original, but given that there's no good way of telling its age it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

For a replacement (since I'm assuming that you want high score and service settings to be saved ;)), you might want to consider the NVRAM 5101 Module Battery Eliminator.  It pretty much does what the name suggests, but given how long it's been since I owned my machine it's strongly recommended to get in touch with Marco Specialties and make sure that that's the correct one.

 

Be sure to grab a copy of the manual if you haven't already; you'll want it.  Also check here for some really good repair tips.

 

Have you powered it up yet?

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9 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

Thank you! :)

 

Yes, the lights in the picture (and the marquee) are the only ones that come on solid.  Nothing changes. :( 

Bummer.  OK, next step: pop all the ICs one-by-one, clean the legs & sockets (Deoxit or equivalent), and do the same with all of the wiring connectors.  If there's no change after that, start looking at power.  Oh, and also check the interlock switches and wiring.

 

Apologies if any of this is super-basic - I don't know your level of experience with arcade games, and Baby Pac-Man definitely has its own quirks.

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Checking connections and power is a good place to start.  I might start with the monitor connections and see if any are loose.  I've seen it happen to a game that after moving it, the monitor cables shake loose etc.  If you can get reliable power and a working display then other things will be a bit easier.  I might just check the fuses for the pinball part of the game too.  If those blow then weird things tend to happen and they are often just a few dollars.  A lot of games will be over-fused too from years of people just trying to get them to work.  Pinball parts are online at Marco Specialties and a couple other places.

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Hello all and thank you for the tips:

 

So, first stumbling block: The Vidiot board.  5 flashes of the LED and that's it.  Very rarely (usually after it was sitting for a while) I'll get the Baby Pac theme, but never any video.  Upon closer inspection, it looks like someone tried to do quite a bit of mod work on this board already 😡 .  There also seems to be a lot of corrosion in places on this board.

That's where I stop.  Once I recover from this purchase, I will contact this site: http://www.eldoradogames.com/ and see if they will charge me a reasonable amount to fix this board. 🤞 These boards working go for $600 on ePay 🤢 .

 

I don't even know about the MPU and solenoid board yet :ponder:  I hope those are ok.

:( 

 

 

13 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

For a replacement (since I'm assuming that you want high score and service settings to be saved ;)), you might want to consider the NVRAM 5101 Module Battery Eliminator.  It pretty much does what the name suggests, but given how long it's been since I owned my machine it's strongly recommended to get in touch with Marco Specialties and make sure that that's the correct one.

I bought one of those.  $20 wasn't bad.  So that's at least taken care of.

 

 

Edited by PacManPlus
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1 hour ago, PacManPlus said:

Hello all and thank you for the tips:

 

So, first stumbling block: The Vidiot board.  5 flashes of the LED and that's it.  Very rarely (usually after it was sitting for a while) I'll get the Baby Pac theme, but never any video.

 

Are you getting correct power? Put a meter on one of the ICs and see if you are getting a stable 5V.

 

Mitch

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Thanks Mitch:

 

Actually I did try that.  The troubleshooting site states that it needs 12Volts but if I try that with an external power supply, I just get a humming noise from the speakers.  Measuring the actual voltage coming from the power supply in the connector in the game, I get 17.19 volts or around that area.

 

Thanks again

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3 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

That's where I stop.  Once I recover from this purchase, I will contact this site: http://www.eldoradogames.com/ and see if they will charge me a reasonable amount to fix this board. 🤞 These boards working go for $600 on ePay 🤢 .

 

I don't even know about the MPU and solenoid board yet :ponder:  I hope those are ok.

:( 

Totally understood if you want to leave it there for now and have Eldorado look into it.  Not knowing the extent of the corrosion damage / modifications that you found, that really may be the best route.

3 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

I bought one of those.  $20 wasn't bad.  So that's at least taken care of.

:thumbsup:

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Update:

 

I spoke to someone at Eldorado who repairs these, and sent them pictures.  He showed me where the battery acid corroded some of the contacts on both this and more extensively the MPU board, and suggested a place to get a replacement MPU board for about $160.

As I mentioned, once I recover from this purchase (hopefully by next month), I will send the vidiot board to be repaired and hopefully pick up the new MPU board.

I'll keep this thread updated.

 

I know it's kind of off-topic, but it somewhat relates to my port of it to the 7800...  Kind of, but not really... :ponder:

Edited by PacManPlus
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Wow, very cool that you managed to snag a Baby Pac-Man cabinet!  Such a unique machine, there aren't a ton of these out there in working condition.  As @x=usr(1536) stated above, these can certainly be finicky machines.  At the arcade I was managing a decade ago, we had one of these on the floor, and it was not unusual for it to go down for maintenance.  Of course, this was true of most pinball machines in a busy arcade environment, but Baby Pac-Man was one that definitely required a bit more attention.

 

Look forward to watching you bring this baby back to life!

 

 ..Al

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4 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

I know it's kind of off-topic, but it somewhat relates to my port of it to the 7800...  Kind of, but not really... :ponder:

I think its appropriate and look forward to pics and/or a video of the coin-op once its up and running.  Congrats on the purchase.

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Thanks guys!

 

27 minutes ago, Albert said:

At the arcade I was managing a decade ago, we had one of these on the floor, and it was not unusual for it to go down for maintenance.  Of course, this was true of most pinball machines in a busy arcade environment, but Baby Pac-Man was one that definitely required a bit more attention.

Just curious, do you remember if it was more the physical pinball section or the actual boards (Vidiot, MPU, Solenoid) that required 'more-than-usual' maintenance?

 

18 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Apologies if any of this is super-basic - I don't know your level of experience with arcade games, and Baby Pac-Man definitely has its own quirks.

I've fixed some standard arcade boards in the past (i.e. a few Pac / Ms. Pac / Plus boards I resurrected)...  but nothing like this.  So, I decided to stop in case any thing I do makes things worse (I've been known to do that). :P 

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8 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

I know it's kind of off-topic, but it somewhat relates to my port of it to the 7800...  Kind of, but not really... :ponder:

I consider it development work for "Baby Pac-Man - 45th Anniversary Edition" on the 7800... Bring on October 11, 2027!  :-D

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So here's the funny thing: the one thing I was told wasn't working is the one thing I was able to get to work.  The monitor.  After some finagling, I got a great picture testing it with a Ms. Pac-Man board I have.

One issue down.

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On 8/16/2022 at 10:37 AM, PacManPlus said:

Just curious, do you remember if it was more the physical pinball section or the actual boards (Vidiot, MPU, Solenoid) that required 'more-than-usual' maintenance?

In my case, it was more age-related issues than anything else.  Recapping, cleaning ICs and sockets, checking for cold solder joins, tracking down flaky wiring and connectors, going through the power supply, etc.  Oh, and adjusting / replacing components related to the pinball section - rubbers, solenoids, drop targets, etc.  The monitor had a little burn-in (which a lot of them seem to have), but nothing that was easily-noticeable at more than three feet from the screen and was generally reliable.

 

It's been 15 years since I last owned that machine, though, so my memory is only partially-trustworthy when it comes to recalling what it needed in terms of maintenance.  My recollection is that I approached it like buying a project car - everything's there, but you're going to spend a few weekends getting it essentially running, followed by more weekends after that troubleshooting issues that can only really crop up when it's working.  That's not to give the impression that it was a nightmare: it wasn't by any means (and I am not a pinball repair expert), but it would just need something.  Sometimes that something was a good whack on the side with an open hand :-D

On 8/16/2022 at 10:37 AM, PacManPlus said:

I've fixed some standard arcade boards in the past (i.e. a few Pac / Ms. Pac / Plus boards I resurrected)...  but nothing like this.  So, I decided to stop in case any thing I do makes things worse (I've been known to do that).

IMHO, Baby Pac-Man is no better or worse than any of those boards in terms of basic diagnosis and repair.  The exceptions I would make to diagnosis are a) the wiring (comparatively, there's a lot of it) and connectors, and b) figuring out the extent of corrosion damage from battery leakage since some of it can be non-obvious, especially if someone attempted to repair it previously.

 

That said, there's only so much free time in the world and outsourcing certain things makes sense when there're other ways that you'd rather be spending that time.  Let me show you the pile of semi-working Atari stuff to I have to go through simply because of that reality :-D

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9 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

figuring out the extent of corrosion damage from battery leakage since some of it can be non-obvious, especially if someone attempted to repair it previously.

This is exactly what I was referring to when I said 'nothing like this' ;)

 

Thank you so much for your insight; it's actually the pinball part that kind of scares me more, never having dealt with pinball parts before.

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