Baby Pac-Man
Manufactured by Midway Manufacturing Co., (c)1983
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Condition When Purchased:
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B–
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Current Condition:
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B
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The first time I saw this particular Baby Pac Man was at a local friends place. He'd picked up a decent sized lot of games (barn finds) and was selling off the vids t
o make room. I ended up picking up 3 games myself that day, but a friend Dan ended up with the Baby Pac Man. A few months later I ended up buying it from him. He'd cleaned it up and what not (It actually wasn't in bad shape compared to many in that lot), but it still had some lamp issues and what not plus it was starting to act up a bit from time to time causing the video to lock up or not respond. You could get through a few games though so I knew it wasn't anything major. The monitor also needed to be recapped.
Baby Pac Man, for those not familiar with the game, is a hybrid video/pinball game. The object of the game, like all other Pac Man games, is to clear the screen of the dots. The biggest difference in this version is that there are no power pellets* in this game. There are also 2 additional tunnels located at the bottom of the screen. Basically, you munch on dots and when you want/need to earn power pellets you go down the bottom tunnels and in to the pinball play field area. The object now is to play pinball and earn power pellets and other goo
dies like speed increased tunnels. To say the game can get difficult quick is an understatement. The ghosts are relentless… period. That is what turns some folks off because, frankly, the opinion of this game seems very polarized. People tend to either love it or hate it. I was rolling the dice when I bought it… but luckily for me, I find the game to be quite fun and easily the most unique Pac Man games ever built.
This particular cabinet is in very good physical condition overall. The play field is also in good shape as well. The drop targets were not originals and needed to be replaced. The original plastics have a few "issues" but nothing terrible and are in good shape for originals. There were a dozen or more lamps out. I replaced all the lamps and half the bulbs came to life. Unfortunately the other half didn't. I still have about 6 lamps non operational in the cabinet. One of the letters in PAC MAN and half of the letters in TUNNEL. I also still need to recap the monitor. When it's cold there are some issues to the right (top) of the monitor… as it heats up it gets better and eventually looks fine, but it (obviously) needs that Cap Kit (which I actually have!). The control panel overlay could very well be a repro, but if it is, its a good one. Also, if it's not, it's in damn good shape for an original.
Opening the back of the c
abinet it was a surprise to see an Alltek Ultimate MPU installed. This is good news as the original MPU is often damaged by battery acid. The other boards were original but looked to be clean. Unfortunately the original IDC connectors and likely the problem I was having with resetting/locking. I figured that would be a good place to start. After replacing all the IDC connectors the game works great. No more lockups… no more resets. The last thing I did was to throw in some spare LED lamps I had in the box. It really brightens up the playfield and it helps in that LED's draw less power.
There is still a list of things for me to finish with this game. First and foremost I need to re-cap the monitor. It's getting bad and I have no excuse considering I've had the cap kit sitting in the parts drawer for months now. The next thing I need to do is to determine WHY the lamps few problematic lamps I have aren't working. They are all CPU controlled lamps so at this point I suspect one or two may be bad diodes and I am guessing a bad transistor or two as well. We'll have to see. Finally, I have to decide on if I will keep the original monitor bezel (in 6/10 condition with some missing and cracked artwork at the bottom) or try to source a replacement. Once I get the monitor rebuilt and the lamps back up and running fully Baby Pac Man will be in pretty darned good condition and will have a home in the garagecade for many years to come. If I decide to get a bezel, it will be icing on the cake.
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