My first dedicated cab !

[ElPancho]

I just bought my first decicated cab today.  

It's a baby pac man, bit of a contrast to let's say, ehm, Galaxian Theatre, but I'm thrilled.
Road trip tomorrow with my brother.

[DarthNuno]

Congrats ElPancho  

A Baby Pac Man      

Does it work fine ?

PLease ... the pictures I can host them if you send them to me by mail

...and like the 1.000.000 of spam  mails I got every days : "Size Doesn't Matter"

[ElPancho]

The seller says it's working fine. The playfield-paint of the pinball section is a little worn in a few spots but I'm planning to restore that.
Monitor has no burn marks.
I've read all your tips on transporting a cabinet (we will betransporting is horizontally, so I'll check everything on the inside of the cab. is securely fastened)
Will take and post pictures (is there a way we can exchange e-mail-adresses ?, would indeed be easier)
Do you have any other tips ? Things I should be aware of when collecting it).

Earlier tomorrow my brother is picking up a an other pinball machine (his second) so he has quite of a road trip ahead tomorrow (700 km). Than he's picking up me, and we'll collect the "baby". (near the Dutch-Belgium border)

Anywat one cab down (well after restoration) and many more to go.  

In another post you said you were looking on the Dutch E-bay site. Also make sure to give "marktplaats" a try. Cabs cabs be found under
Verzamelen
Automaten - Overig

Now they are offering a non-working Tekken cabinet witch looks authentic to me (altough the control panel looks a bit non-original), for a few euro's (35 I thuoght is was)

Hope this helps you.

Any progress on your massive Galaxian Theater project ? (I'll check that thread later).

[DarthNuno]

Yes, you can use this email adr. to send me pictures : webmaster@dragonslairfans.com

Regarding some tips about transporting the Baby Pac, I can't really help you because I've no knowledges at all regarding pinballs   But I'm sure I'll get one very soon    

Thanks for your help regarding Dutch E-bay site by the way  

Arg... I can't wait to see your roadtrip  

[amadama]

HI ElPancho.
Congrsatulations on your purchase!
I bought a Baby Pacman almost ten years ago. I still have it and it's  a great game. It's a tough game because the pinball field is so small compared to a regular pinball game. It's a nice looking machine too. The machine can be a little problematic as some of the connectors oxidize. If it it a bit flaky when you get it home you may have to reseat all of them and/or clean the connector edges.
Make sure you get the side art if the game does not have it already as it looks much nices with it.
Good luck!
Alex

[ElPancho]

Thanks for your comments.
The monitor is a little flaky, but at the moment that doesn't bother me too much. Since I don't have any technical schooling there so much I've to learn. All the experience I have is building a Mame cab en knowing PC's.
So it's very nice to get all the help on this great forum.

But I'm planning on knowing a thing or two about monitors / tv's as well. The ease with wich Nuno changes his makes want to know/do the same thing, when nessecary.
The side-art is there but damaged, not much but enough to want better ones.
The joystick-overlay is also pretty much gone, and the 1 player start button is also gone. I think that one is called an atari-button, finding one might be hard I think.
So was looking for those items on the net and found them at Arcade Renovations and Quarterarcade, but there may be other sites, please let me know when you know an arcade art site.
Does anyone know: Are those buttons suppose to flash after inserting a coin ?
The game it self plays like a charm though, played it for 2 hours straight yesterday. Difficult game indeed !  
I'll send Nuno some pictures of the road trip coming week-end, since it's a busy week for me. *checking daily on the Galaxian Th. road trip though *

[amadama]

Hi ElPancho,
I will fire up my machine this weekend (first time since 1999) and let you know about the flashing buttons.
Thanks,
Alex

[ElPancho]

Hi amadama,

That's very nice of you to do so. First time since 1999, how you live with the suspence if works or not, is beyond me  

I've read about the presence of a notorious "leaking battery problem" inside Baby Pac man on the net.

http://www.marvin3m.com/bally/babypac.htm

I just spotted that nasty battery in my cab, it's on the MPU Module. It's a NiCad battery, white, marked "Everready". (Item # 68 - service manual)

The battery doesn't look too bad but I'll get rid of it as soon as I get the chance.
Leaving it there is not an option since it will lead to major problems in the end.
Do you have any experience removing the battery ? For example: can I just cut it from the MPU board or do I need to de-solder it ?

Bye

[amadama]

Hi ElPancho,
Sorry I did not get a chance to power on the Baby Pacman this weekend. Too much stuff going on.
I'll try to get to it this week.
Now you have me worried about the battery. I hope my boards are not all corroded because of this!
Talk to you later,
Alex

[ElPancho]

No worries, I've got a lot going on as well (still gotta find the time to mail this forum's admin with the story and pictures of this project's road-trip)

Update on the battery:

After spotting it last week I was thinking "no time like the present" and cut it off the board. I have taken pictures and will include them in the WIP on BPM. Battery had no signs of having leaked.
Effects from removing the battery were: a wacky high score table, and 99 credits. This is quite normal I think after this little bit of surgery.

This week is a short one over at work so I'm planning on disassembling and cleaning the playfield later on this week. I'll take pictures of this phase aswell.

I'll also order the CPO reproduction of BPM at Quarterarcade this week.

Also the switches (the ones with the long metal blades) directly behind the flipperbuttons are all used up. One, in fact so much, that the sparks have worn a hole in the metal. Thankfully I can order those over here in the Netherlands. All these chores to be done in the near-future.

Then, coz I'm still not happy about the colors on my monitor I'm thinking of replacing the vidiot-eproms wich influence this function.
The Eproms are also available over here.
Also I think installing a cap-kit will help reviving the monitor's colors. But, being not sure all of this will help, I'll post pictures of the screen in action and maybe you guys have an idea or two how to fix those fading colors.

Then I'm planning on replacing all the solenoids (coils) and have a check-up on the power supply aswell.  (Old Bally power supplies tend to be problamatic, so chances are I'll do some preventive maitenance on those suspicious parts) Learning the hard way: If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and for this reason  being against my experience, l still think it's a good idea to tackle any power-supply problems rather sooner than later.

Then when all the hard work is done I'll install the fresh side-art as the finishing touch.

If all goes well I'll have an (almost mint    )  BPM that will -hopefully- run another 25 years.

[amadama]

Wow, I can't belieb one month ago I said I would turn on my Baby Pacman and I still have not even taken it out of my garage!!
Ok, I will try and do it this weekend.
How's your machine coming along?

[ElPancho]

Hi amadama,

We've been busy planning and doing the road-trip to the UK. Hopefully I'll have more time for BPM in the next 6 weeks or so. Meanwhile the playfield has been completely cleaned.

And as I'm totally new to pinball-restauration I've asked a professional to help me out with that. We've made arrangements for september 1st.

I've ordered new side-art and a new CPO at Arcaderenovations. They have arried today, after I had been ripped off by Dutch Customs.

Before september 1st I'll do the CPO, than the pro checking and replacing everything needed (he's a BPM expert, I'm lucky to get the chance to learn something from him).  
And when all's done I'll apply the new side art as the finishing touch.

So next job on BPM is the CPO, I'll keep you posted, will add some photo's later on as the job progresses.

Your's been fired up yet    Take your time I love what you are doing with the 2/3 DL.  Stunningly beatiful.