Author Topic: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !  (Read 76123 times)

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Thanks to Paul (for importing), Bruno (for posting the first news), Erik(For, you know what for), Michael(for making it possible via-via) I am now the proud owner of a machine I never dreamt I would ever own:

A Ms. Pac Man !

Yes it's a little less exiting because such a big lot was imported all together, but still my joy is not less because of that.

The story is too nice: I was first thinking: NO, I do not need another project cab, I do not have the space and I do not have the funds at the moment. I was not jealous about the guys getting all these great machines, but I did feel like I was about to miss the chance of a lifetime.
So I casually showed the pictures with the lot to my wife and "carelesly" explained a bit and I was totally amazed by her response....she said she'd have no problem to get one but where to leave it ? She was right ! I already have too many machines. So, suddenly I decided to sell some machines I already wanted to move AND I took the decision to sell the MC cabaret. True, that was the hardest decision. It was the machine that required the furthest drive of all my cabs (but it was a great trip, incl. our first visit to Andreas & family !) and I loved that I could fix it and make it run very beatifully. I only had just installed the top bracket that Ully had (amongst the other stuff) had powder coated so beautifully.

But, MC was a "mixed emotions" machine for me. I loved the trackball concept but the game gets too hard too quickly IMHO. I remembered the game from the Atari 800XL homecomputer, and I can tell you that the conversion is _perfect_ on that machine BUT because of only one fire button, there is only one firing tower. This makes it a LOT easier to stay long in play in the higher levels, because you only have to defend one city and one tower. Not so on the arcade machine of course, 3 towers to defend and all in all this was one of the very few games I was a bit disappointed in in it's arcade form.

So, I've always mentioned that _if_ I would sell a machine, it would be the MC.
The Meteor is another story: I've also got an Asterock and I simply like that cabinet more. It's a bit pointless to have 2 Asteroids bootlegs in a small gameroom like mine, so that decision was already made.

And the Dominos, well the Dominos went out as a bonus.

Anyway, I never expected to sell the three machines so quickly, big thanks to Michael for helping in contact with the Danish arcade museum who bought them !!!

So, I knew that all the best machines were already gone or spoken for at Paul's, so I decided to not "let any grass grow over it" as we say in Holland.

I e-mailed Paul yesterday late in the evening and he said he still had a couple machines left. (Turned out 3 Ms.Pacs and 2 (or 3?) Pac's) and he would reserve one for me if I came pick it up. So today, right after work (near Amsterdam) I drove up to Paul's. A little over 3 hours driving. Paul was very kind and explained about the status of the machines a bit, saying that 2 were completely dead and one had some sync or "double" screen problems. So he powered up that cab first and.....IT PLAYED ! He was as surprised as I am. I credited it and yes indeed it played just fine (although it has some stupid speed-up hack and weird maze, but that can be reversed).
Although this machine was probably not the best looking, I still decided to choose this one. We all know what a working (Ms,) Pac board is worth....
The machine definitely has earned it's money back with 70000 credits on ONE counter (didn't check the other). Thus it has the usual wear and tear. The CPO looks amazingly good though. The bezel is nice too. Of the three machines this DID have the best feeling joystick.

The marquee was very discolored and I kindly asked if I could replace it with one of the other machines (because one was  almost perfect) but Paul (as I expected) didn't want that (well it was worth the try ;)

Anyway, I will upload some pics ASAP.



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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2010, 10:50:54 PM »
Oh, my history with Ms. Pac Man: when I was at school there used to be a little "shop" that sold soda and crisps etc. and had 1 or 2 videogames, a table-football and maybe a pool or so, and that was it. No clue how they could live from it, but every break at school we were there, and Ms.Pac was the machine we played. And played and played. I think it's the game I played most in the 80's. I've always loved it since. We played the Ms.Pac until the machine was replaced by a Q*bert. I remember I was kind of upset that they had replaced the Ms.Pac and even said something about it to the owner. He replied: try this first ! And well, he was right, another brilliant game !

So, this is why I much preferred to have a Ms.Pac machine instead of Pac. Also, I already have the Puckman so it makes more sense that way too....

Muerto

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2010, 10:54:04 PM »
Great story! - always nice when everything add´s up in the end!  :spaceace:

ckong

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2010, 11:06:39 PM »
Congratulations André, we all know that you wanted this game very much. And it's nice how you wrote it down, it feels a bit like a community effort  :D

And also great that it plays despite the initial comment of Paul. Game on!

Oh, and bring on the photo's.  :D

One hint: if you need the original roms, you can get them from hobbyroms.com.  I usually order my roms there via e-mail. He is not too expensive and quick, and an overall nice guy.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2010, 11:14:00 PM by ckong »

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2010, 11:17:46 PM »
Thanks guys ! I'm sorry but I'm very tired _AND_ I have a training tomorrow so I'm heading straight to my bed.

Anyway, I uploaded the pics here for those who want to have a sneek preview....


http://gallery.me.com/andre.huijts#100723

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2010, 11:27:41 PM »
One hint: if you need the original roms, you can get them from hobbyroms.com.  I usually order my roms there via e-mail. He is not too expensive and quick, and an overall nice guy.
Thanks, but if I can find some empty one's I can burn them at my company!

ckong

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2010, 11:32:26 PM »
Nice photo's, and the cab doesn't look too bad at all. Especially the CPO looks great. Sure, the cab has some wear and tear, but it is almost 30 years old. The woodwork is still very good.  :) Great catch.

Nice detail is the brown enveloppe. I found one also in my Pac-Man cab, still sealed, marked with 'Pac Man UR'. I probably will never open mine.  

Familiar place by the way where you brought the game  ;)

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2010, 11:36:13 PM »
Thats why you needed the space !

Congratiolations andre!

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2010, 11:47:13 PM »
Nice machine Andre !!!  :-*

Congratulations  :spaceace:
PROJECTS FROM SCRATCH:

Galaga - PacMan - Donkey Kong Red Cab - Track & Field Upright - Tempest - Burgertime - Gyruss - Defender - Track & Field Cocktail - Robotron 2084

RESTORATIONS:

Q*bert - Timber

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #9 on: March 09, 2010, 07:21:52 AM »
OK a little bit of roadtrip pics:

As always I forget to take a picture of the statistics. But this time I don't start my journey from home but from the place I had been working that day, Hoofddorp, a place not too far from Amsterdam and very close to Schiphol airport.

About 306 km to do:


I'm lucky because I'm able to finish my day job early (15.00 hrs) so after robbinggoing to the bank I head for the east. Amazingly (and because pretty early hour) I have no traffic jams around Amsterdam. Only a very small one a bit later on the road.


My "favorite" city.....NOT. O well, it _did_ bring me my SW cockpit...


I do like this building. Head-office of ING, now a state-bank, we all know the story:


WHY is it that I see Lada's on my road-trips ? OK, this one is "much" more "modern" than the one we saw on the Asterock-Power Drift-SI trip but still, these have become a real rarity here...


Making good progress, city of Deventer nice place to visit !


And in Germany. Do you know why you can see this is Germany, because there's a Baustelle ! Germany has great hi-ways, I love them, but they have too many Baustelle's !!!!
And if there's a Baustelle in Germany, you can bet your ass that it's for LOTS of KM's.


Reminds me of road-work places in Massachusetts. There were always police cars at them, my aunt told me that road-workers demanded them and those police officers do nothing but sit in the car all though with their blinking lights on. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Not very cost-effective IMHO.

Although it's still freezing cold here, there's no more snow in Holland, but Germany got hit by another pack of snow last weekend (the reason for Ully to cancel his trip to Paul, man that snow has caused some troubles this winter):


The good thing is that the days already start to get longer, nice winter evening atmosphere:


Glad the roads are OK now (except for a number of places with Strassenschade (Road-damage because of winter):


I clearly have front wind heading to the East:


When I arrived at Paul's place I didn't take any pictures, I think Erik did lot's of them and there was very little to add. Plus I wanted to be back on the road again ASAP. Paul and I had a nice chat in which (once again) it became clear how small the (European) arcade world is....The best looking machines were in a row and as I expected these were reserved for others (lucky you ;))

It was funny that I could add Paul to the people who initially don't believe that the cab will not fit my car. He said I had to keep the back-door open for sure but I told him it would fit just fine and mentioned what machines I had in there....
And indeed the Ms.Pac just fit fine as expected. He was amazed :D

SO, time to head back and well, since the roads are clear let's see what happens when I flatten the gas-pedal:

MMmmm, should have flashed I guess, but now I know the top-speed of my car (with tail-wind) Must be the fastest Ms.Pac cab ever....

Of course it's not possible to maintain these speeds for very long times. Near cities and at places with road-damage the limit is only 80....which is very hard to keep to if you just had this speed before.... ;)

Anyway, without any problems I reach Rotterdam. Time for pics !

« Last Edit: March 09, 2010, 07:28:05 AM by Level42 »

Belike

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #10 on: March 09, 2010, 07:26:12 AM »
Congrats for your new girlfriend, lol!!! ;D

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #11 on: March 09, 2010, 07:42:25 AM »
The trip home is a little bit longer but not much, about 330km:


So, arrived safely at Rotterdam around 22.00 hrs:



Time to unload the lady:


OK she has a wrinkle here and there, but she's still a beauty !


With a tight little but:


It's clear that the majority of people play right-handed !:


That will need to be replaced, very faded...


Flash shows a decent screen-burn. Didn't look as bad without flash ;) Bezel is not bad at all:


The CPO survived amazingly well:


Without flash:


Kickplate:


Strange place for paint to fade....but the Galaxian was the same, that's an easy fix :D


Details:






That should be better, both the picture _and_ the top:


Woohoo, the key for the backdoor is in the coindoor:




Bonus ! But it's opened and it does have a number of schematics but not the operation manual..o well.


Looks like a WG to me. The monitor did show some pretty strange colors so will have to look into that. Sorry for the poor focus !:




A hint form where it's coming from ? I've seen this Brady distr. before on Luc's SW cockpit (I think)...



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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #12 on: March 09, 2010, 09:56:23 AM »
haha so you did buy a Ms Pacman after all. When me and Gyruss picked up our cabs at Ckongs place, we still were wondering why you didnt get one yourself. So strange, for such a hardcore arcade man not to buy one from this Pacman-lot. Luckily you did!! :ghost: :ghost: :ghost: :ghost:

Congratulations on your Ms Pacman, you must be as happy as I am with my own yellow cab!!!

 :ghost: :ghost:

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gyruss

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #13 on: March 09, 2010, 10:01:58 AM »
Congrats Andre, I almost knew you would get one. You must be just as happy as the rest of us.

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Re: WAAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOO !!! I've got one of my "Dream Machines" !
« Reply #14 on: March 09, 2010, 10:45:08 AM »
congrats on the catch, andré! i was wondering "how could that guy resist the temptation of NOT getting a ms pac for that price when he's been talking about wanting one so bad quite often?". well, here we go  ;D

hope the weather will be ok atthe weekend, trailer has been reserved and _AT LEAST_ two games are going to be added to the list  ;)
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!