Arcade Resources
Trimming down the new Ms. Pac-man back door.
Today I went over to Kenny’s and he helped me cut down the back door to the Pac-man that I have in the garage to fit in my Ms. Pac-man.The backdoor I had was so broken and waterdamaged that there was no salvaging it. I still don’t know what to do with the Mr. Pac, and since it is already painted a very similar blue, I thought it only made sense. We got the hole drilled in the back for the lock at approximately the same size, I haven’t tried it yet. If I want to be thorough, and I probably will since there is no rush with the game no working, I need to put the vent holes at the top of the board too just like the old one.
Jr. Pac-man overlay reproduction scan
As a sidebar, here is the scanned image of the Jr. Pac-man control panel overlay reproduction that I got in the mail with my sample. Pretty cool, Richard did a really good job in finding someone to make it, and picking the materials (poly carbonate and sealer) to make it feel
Testing Ms. Pac-man Power Supply
Today Kenny came over to work on all of the machines, including the Ms. Pac. We are going to start with testing the transformer, and probably all of the fuses.
We did determine that the marquee light is getting power, so the bulb, which doesn’t come on, is probably burned out.
He also figured out that the line coming off the power supply, an orange line that eventually ran to the PCB and powers that, seems to have a short. It was only outputting less than a volt, like .3. He did some testing with a jumper, but we blew some fuses, so for now he is going to take back what he learned and talk to other people and see what they think. But I think that is worthwhile discovery. It would explain why I was getting a white screen with a known working monitor, the PCB wasn’t getting power so hence nothing. But, I don’t really know, that is just a guess.
Using Pantone book to match Jr. Pac-man colors
Next door to my work is a print shop, so in the morning I went over there with my sample that Richard sent to try to do some color matching. It took a little time, but I feel really confident that I matched the yellow and the pink really close. The blue was pretty hard, and I didn’t find anything that was as exact as I would have liked.
These are the coated spot Pantone colors that I found were exact matches, or as I mentioned, best matches that I have found to this point.;
- Yellow – 109 C
- Pink – 674 C
- Blue – Hexachrome Cyan C
Richard still thinks he has a piece of the sideart from a Jr. Pac that he restored, so he is still going to look this weekend to try to find that to match the final two colors. Otherwise, I suggested having him get some hardware store paint chips and finding those closest matches, then send those out to me and I can compare those chips with the Pantone color book.
Got NOS strip of Jr. Pac-man artwork in mail
In the mail today I got my package. Inside I found the strip from the bottom of the NOS Jr. Pac-man kickplate that Richard had promised, lustrous and colorful like it was brand new. He also sent me some sort of Control Panel overlay, possibly from a Jr. Pac-man conversion? I have seen them mostly on the Pac-man cabinet conversion, it only goes on top and doesn’t curve around the beveled edge of the whole cpanel, but it is really freaking sweet either way. I am going to try to scan it in so I have it digitally and very flat. Thanks a ton Richard!
Closest Professor Pac-man font = ITC Grizzly
In continuing to try to find the right font used in the Professor Pac-man control panel overlay instructions, today I found a font that looks like it could be very similar to the “ITC Grizzly”. It’s just called “Grizzly BT” and looks like it is an Adobe Postscript font, file names Grizzlyn.afm, .pfb, and .pfm.
I can’t seem to get the font to work on my font management software on Windows Vista Ultimate. I tried to set it up downstairs on XP, and it worked fine, it even came up in Illustrator as “ITC Grizzly”, so I know I have the right font. It appears to line up just fine with the text on the Professor Pac control panel, there will have to be some leading and kerning of course, and there is some small differences in different letters, like the “s”, but it will work as a great base, and save me a ton of time.
“Citrus Cleaner” for arcade control panels
Stopped by Home Depot tonight after dinner and picked up some of Zep’s Cleaner and Degreaser, I called Richard to make sure it is the right stuff. Supposedly this work loosen up and ground in grime, and also give a control panel a great shine, not to mention make it smell nice:)
Here is a photo of what that looks like here on the right. He also recommended Mr. Clean’s magic eraser, so if this doesn’t work that is what I am going to try next.
