Broken cocktail Ms. Pacman

[Cinder6]

I might be able to get my hands on a broken Ms. Pacman cocktail game. When I say "broken", that's how the owner describes it. All I know is the artwork on it is good, and I'm going to ask what, exactly, is broken--does it power on, do you hear sound, is it just the monitor, etc.

So, I have two questions:

1. How much should I offer for it (a fair price, that is)?
2. I've heard it can be more difficult to work on these machines. Is it worth it, from a parts and labor standpoint?

Thanks!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

If it's all original parts, they usually go for over $1000 on eBay.

(even if it's not all original parts, they usually go for that much too)

I certainly wouldn't pay anywhere near that if it's "broken".

[diskoboy]

I might be able to get my hands on a broken Ms. Pacman cocktail game. When I say "broken", that's how the owner describes it. All I know is the artwork on it is good, and I'm going to ask what, exactly, is broken--does it power on, do you hear sound, is it just the monitor, etc.

So, I have two questions:

1. How much should I offer for it (a fair price, that is)?
2. I've heard it can be more difficult to work on these machines. Is it worth it, from a parts and labor standpoint?

Thanks!

The guy I bought my Pac-Man from thought it was broken.

Turns out, it was only missing the mobo's daughter card. $20, and it was good as new.

Even "broken", a Ms. Pac-Man can still fetch a few hundred bucks. I have a Galaga cocktail. I find it easier to work on, than my Pac-Man upright.

[skaar]

Offer 150.

[Cinder6]

Offer 150.

Is this a fair price? Problem is, he's a client, and I can't try to rip him off. I was hoping something in the neighborhood of $300 would be fair.

[Pete Rittwage]

If it's "broken" you could get lucky and it's a blown fuse or something, but that's very far from likely. Most of these have bad monitor burn-in and/or board/power supply faults. The power supply is impossible to work on, so you'd have to buy a switching power supply replacement and mod the board, for openers.

Replacement monitors and board sets (or send-off repair) for Ms. Pac-Man are fairly expensive. If only one thing is bad, it'll likely cost you $300 or more to fix it. If the board is bad you could also consider replacing it with one of the X-in-1 boards, but that's not "authentic".

If you don't have the expertise and time to troubleshoot and repair it yourself, then it's really only worth what a piece of furniture in it's condition would be worth. :)

Depends some on condition, I wouldn't pay more than $100 personally knowing I'd have to take the risk to rebuild the thing into something useful.

[InsaneDavid]

Is this a fair price? Problem is, he's a client, and I can't try to rip him off. I was hoping something in the neighborhood of $300 would be fair.

$300 sounds about right but before the offer ask him to open it up and take a look inside. Is the entire monitor there, not just the tube, etc.? Is there actually a board of some type inside? Have the control panels been canibalized for other controls? Does the game look reasonably clean inside? Is there a power supply down in there? All that stuff.

If it's not working but nearly everything is in there and in pretty good shape then you have a better chance at an easier fix. Usually just one thing has gone awry if it seems well taken care of. If it's gutted and trashed inside then you'll have a lot more work ahead of you since you may need to buy more components to even begin to diagnose what's wrong. It's nice to start with a "broken" but nearly complete machine over a broken machine missing a bunch of stuff.

[Videogamerdaryll]

I paid $200.00f or my Broken at the time Ms Pac Man Coctail table...The guy wanted $300.00(flea market)

Check out the thread I made here about it..how I fixed it as it's fully working now.
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170238 (mhtml:{38B82F2F-7B1A-4497-9765-8325D5A65E0C}mid://00000010/!x-usc:http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170238)

Parts
http://www.pac-man.com/mspacman/cocktail/out/ (mhtml:{38B82F2F-7B1A-4497-9765-8325D5A65E0C}mid://00000010/!x-usc:http://www.pac-man.com/mspacman/cocktail/out/)

Fix info
http://www.twobits.com/Humbar/ (mhtml:{38B82F2F-7B1A-4497-9765-8325D5A65E0C}mid://00000010/!x-usc:http://www.twobits.com/Humbar/)

[channelmaniac]

OK..

If it has the G07 monitor in it, you can get a rebuild kit from Bob Roberts that has the caps, horizontal output transistor, and a new flyback for less than $35 with shipping. That takes care of most problems with the monitor.

The power supply brick (transformer, fuses, etc...) in the bottom of the cab is pretty solid. You may need to clean the fuse holders.

On the board... there are several common things that go bad on a Pac Man boardset: CPU socket. ROM sockets. Bad ROMs (corroded and/or broken pins). Power supply connections on the card edge burn up. Caps on the board need replacing. (The power supply is actually built into the Pac Man board. The transformer & fuses are in the bottom of the cab)

The Ms Pac is just a set of upgrade ROMs and a small board that plugs in place of the CPU on the Pac Man board. The CPU socket on it ends up going bad as do some of the ROM sockets. Same issues here with tarnished/corroded pins on the ROMs... and you have a 40 pin ribbon cable that likes to get brittle with age.

I can fix the board issues for you if you don't feel comfortable doing it. I can even use copper trace tape to repair the burnt board edge connections.

If the board has a burnt edge connector on it you'll need to replace the socket on the wiring harness.

[skaar]

Is this a fair price? Problem is, he's a client, and I can't try to rip him off. I was hoping something in the neighborhood of $300 would be fair.

Well if it someone you deal with or have a good relationship with - that's different. I thought it was some CL dude or something ;)

If you're happy with 300 and he is too then that's the way to go - the last thing you want is a dirty taste in your mouth from the deal.

[Cinder6]

Thanks for all the tips, everyone; sorry I haven't responded in a while. I'll see if I can't get it in a couple months (the guy is about 3.5 hours away from me) for $300 or so. Sounds like a fun project.