I was just getting into the hobby and was amazed by the incredible restorations I saw on RGVAC and BYOAC. I couldn’t believe the attention to detail shown in some of the restorations. The step by step tutorials really got me itching to try my hand at a full restoration. Fate would provide me with some free time in the summer of 2001, so I decided to try my hand at fixing up a Ms. Pac-Man CT. I purchased some cabinets from Troy Smith of arcade unlimited in 2001. We drove down to his place and picked up a Tempest UR and a Ms Pac-Man CT, paid a little more than I would now, but I was still a newbie. I got the games home and the tempest worked just fine (and did for many years), but the ms pac was another story. Here are some pics of the game before anything was done.

The game had some water damage on the bottom few inches of the cabinet and overall looked like crap. Since I planned to keep this one, I figured I could spend a lot of time trying to clean and restore the cab, or I could remake the cabinet and just re-use all the metal parts. Essentially I would have a brand new Ms. Pac-Man CT. It was time to practice my woodworking skills. First part was to break down the cabinet so I could reproduce the parts. Then I jumped into making the blanks out of birch veneer plywood. A bit more expensive than standard plywood, but it has a much smoother finish and would take the laminate well. I used the original panels to route exact duplicates from the blanks I had made. I then laminated the pieces with a standard grade laminate I found at Home Depot (long since discontinued). I routed out the openings and trimmed the pieces flush before starting to assemble the cabinet.

The cabinet was shaping up nicely. I still had to make the “door” that swings with the top, the control panel sides and the top itself. I purchased new control panel parts from Arcade Shop, it was easier. I used the original panels on the second CT I made. Yes, I made two at the same time. I had to buy full sheets of material and ended up with enough to make two complete CT’s, with some repro parts from Arcade Shop added into the mix.

After assembling the cabinet, it was time to make the top. I used the original as a template and cut two new pieces. I couldn’t find 1″ thick plywood, so I laminated two pieces of 1/2″ thick plywood together to create the correct thickness. I didn’t have a nice router table, just a plunge router and some hardwood pieces to guide my cuts. I did the best I could and it turned out just fine.

With the tops completed I could paint them black and continue with assembly. I have been painting any cabinet edges black that I felt might be seen if not properly covered with t-molding. It just made sense to paint before assembly as the CT had a somewhat difficult construction. With the tops attached I started the process of rebuilding the interior, attaching the control panels, installing the new Happ Vison Pro monitor and installing the coin door. It was shaping up nicely.

The new Happ Vision Pro monitor would really make this project shine. While I had the old monitor, the screen burn just didn’t make me think “new cab”, plus Happ is local to me and I waited for a sale! With the monitor in place I could start wiring up the cab using Bob Roberts handy wiring guide. If you’ve never wired up a cabinet before, his guide makes it pretty easy. Once you wire up one, the rest are easy. The mounting brackets are from Kerry Stair, another local. He was making lots of cabinets at one point and had these custom made.

With the monitor in place I finished up the cabinet wiring, the control panel wiring and installed my Ms. Pac-Man pcb. This pcb has Clay’s 24 in 1 kit installed, so I also picked up some multi pac man artwork for under the glass. It adds a nice touch. The game has played flawlessly ever since I finished it up and always seems to get played during parties or when ever family or friends come over.

Some of the pictures are pretty large, sorry for those still on dial up! If you’d like to build your own cocktail game, check out the free plans on my resource page. Good luck!

Tags: Gameroom, Ms Pac-Man, Restorations

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Gameroom, Machines, Ms Pac-Man, Restorations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.