Multi Pac-Man

Manufactured by Midway Manufacturing Co. (c)1980



    The Multi-Pac machine I have came to me as a Pac-Man Plus machine in the lot I picked up off ebay back in 2009.  I do believe it is the sole survivor of that pickup that remains in the garagecade.  The cabinet was in solid if better than average shape for an original Pac Man cabinet.  The artwork was all there minus some natural degradation … carvings… no sharpee… etc.  The T-Molding was faded the control panel overlay had seen better days… and the stick was sloppy.  It was your typical better than average routed Pac machine.  I decided to keep the Pac cab rather than either of the two Ms. Pac cabinets because,  well,  I already had buyers for the two Ms. Pac cabs.  I actually PREFER the shape of the Ms. Pac cabinet vs the Pac cabinet,  but I think I like the nostalgic flavor of the original Pac Man artwork vs the loud obnoxious pink blue scheme of Ms. Pac's.

I cleaned the game up a bit and took stock of what was necessary to bring the game up to snuff.  The Marquee would have to go.  The control panel would have to be re-painted and a new overlay installed.  The side art would need some minor restoration as would the black area around the monitor. The bezel was in decent enough shape,  the stick and buttons would need to be cleaned up and,  of course,  a multi kit would would need to be purchased and installed.  After some consideration I decided on a Mike Doyle 96-in-1 Multikit (running in "Simple Mode" which offers up a 16 or so game list eliminating many of the odd custom mazes).  I also replaced the T-Molding and restored the side art via good ole "Sharpe".  I decided to go with a custom "Multi-Pac" marquee via www.gameongrafix.com though to be honest,  there are times I wish I had gotten an original Pac Man marquee for it.  I cleaned up the stick and replaced the white buttons.  I also cleaned up the coin door. I also re-capped the Wells Gardner K4600 monitor chassis.  The last thing I did was de-convert the cab from a Pac Man Plus to a Pac Man so I could add the Multi-kit, which I did when it came in the mail.

For anyone interested in a Multi-Pac kit,  you'll soon find out there are quite a number of options for you to choose from.  Some offer Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man.  Some offer 2 versions of Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man and Pac Man Plus (slow and fast version),  while others offer much more.  Pricing is also all over the board from FREE on up.  I chose the Mike Doyle kit because it offers more than just the Pac's while still keeping hardware integrity…. basically it's an add on to the original Pac Man Hardware.  Not only do you get fast and slow versions of Pac Man,  Ms. Pac Man,  and Pac Man Plus,  you also get a Ms. Pac Man Plus version as well as non-Pac games like Eyes,  Mr. TNT, Pengo and more.  These games originally ran on the Pac Man hardware so they play authentically as they are NOT emulated.  The 96-in-1 kit offers two menus,  a menu of all 96 games (most of which are different mazes for Pac and Ms. Pac),  and a simplified menu which includes the most popular Pacs plus the non-Pac games.  I choose to keep the simplified menu up and running.  Hell,  having Eyes handy to play is worth the price of the kit in of itself IMHO.  Another plus for the kit is that it saves high score.  UNFORTUNATELY it doesn't have a separate high score board for the FAST and SLOW versions of the Pac Game,  as such,  the high score board tends to fill up with FAST Pac scores.  While some of the other Multi-Pac options are cheaper and some are free,  I can't recommend Mike's 96-in-1 Multi-Pac enough.

By the time I was done with this machine,  I had a kickass Multi-Pac that cost relatively little to put together.  I ended up picking the game up itself in a bulk deal where I paid about $75 total per cabinet,  the Multi Kit,  marquee and control panel overlay and T-Molding didn't cost much more.

Pac Man (and it's variants) remains one of the more approachable video games of the era.  Everyone,  even non-videogame types know Pac Man.  Everyone,  even non-video game types,  know the basic premise of the game.  The game is even decently easy to teach young children who never had the opportunity to see,  much less play the game out in the wild.  I really don't much care for the term,  but it's certainly a "keeper" for the gameroom.   The Multi Kit really expands the game allowing the (better IMHO) Ms. Pac the difficult but entertaining Pac Plus and even some good non-Pac games (Eyes,  I'm looking at you) to be played.  Some astute folks will notice that Super Pac Man is included in the list.  Unfortunately it's not the real Super Pac Man we all know and love,  but rather an interesting hack of Pac Man that,  aside from being interesting,  isn't much fun.

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