Just picked up a mint condition pac marquee and control panel w/ all buttons + stick. How rare are these machines or not at all?

Just got a volt tester going to get in there tonight and see what i come up with

So last night I picked up a mint condition Galaga, I mean freaking mint. The side art has not a single blemish, and the kickplate has a single minor scuff, the marquee is pristine (LOL), and the control panel overlay is great condition except for some minor chiping on the edge.

Anyways enough gloating, I bought the cabinet to finally get a mame build under my belt. But apon getting it home, I decided to spend 5 hours straight through the night, trying to get the machine working. The guy I bought it from claimed the monitor was gone and most likely the pcb. He said quote unquote " I bought it from an arcade 15 years ago not working, they had left the machine on for something like 10 years straight.

When I first plug the thing in I notice immediately that the monitor begins to brighten. You can start to see the burn in really well as the monitor is getting power. However, no sound, no video. Cant get it into test mode. I made sure to check, the monitor neck was glowing. So I am thinking at this point PCB. Unless something crazy is happening like I am getting no sound and also playing blind, which I think would be pretty far fetched. I can also here the speakers pop once as I plug in the power cord, which leads me to believe the speakers are fine.

So am I safe to assume this is a PCB problem? The marquee light and coin slot lots all light up so I am assuming the power supply is good.

As I began to poke around inside the cab, I checked for all the obvious things (atleast to me). Made sure no fuses were blown. Then I started going through the Eproms. I decided to go through the CPU board eproms first, because I figured nothing and the Video board would cause the machine not to work, or would it? There were a few that were pretty dirty, I cleaned them all up. I noticed 2 eproms were seated incorrectly during my inspection. The first had a single prong on the outside of the plug in, and the second had a bent prong that was tucked under the eprom and not contacting. I managed to fix these 2 problems without a hitch. However, the last eprom I pulled had a broken prong... and another very delicate prong(a sneeze away from breaking off too).

I dont supposed there is a way to repair the broken prong? And even so do you think trying to turn the machine on with 2 eproms seated incorrectly could have blown some things? I really dont want to give up on this board, because it would be great to have a dedicated galaga cab. Any suggestions on where should I go from here. I dont have a volt meter or anything like that but I could go get one. Please any suggestions or points in the right direction would be greatly apprieciated.

Hey Joe, Good to have you.

I have a Romstar Ghosts n Goblins cab, and it works great. The picture quality, color, sharpness all look great. I have noticed though, particularly in levels 2 and above, when more sprites (or enemies) are on the screen the colors briefly invert.

Basically you will see everything in a red or white hue depending on what the original color is (white for dark colors and red for light colors). Sometimes it will briefly flicker while inverting the colors. This only lasts for a second, but occurs more frenquently in level 3 . It happens more frequently in level 3 when jerking the joystick left to right ( a technique used a lot in this game for point pressing HOWEVER this technique also generates a ton of enemies on the screen)

So im not sure if its a bad connection that is getting rocked around when I move the joystick left to right, since it happens more frequently when using this technique. Or if it is brought on when more enemies are on the screen, as the left to right technique also generates tons of enemies.

 I have never seen it happen on level 1, but I am not sure if this is becuase there arent that many enemies on the screen at one time in level one, or is it because I only use the left right technique on level 3 and its a bad connection getting rocked from the left to right. (Apon trying to recreate the problem in level 1 by rocking the joystick, nothing happened) But that doesnt explain why in level 2 it happens when 5+ enemies are on the screen at one time. Or could it be something with the board? I know this might be vague but in short:

 1) The game works fine, the monitor puts off a great picture
 2) Starting at level 2 (this has never occurred in level 1) when halfway through the level a substantial amount of enemies come on screen and the problem occurs infrequently (colors inverting once or twice a minute, but only in the part of the level where a lot of enemies spawn)
 3) In level 3 when I use a point pressing technique that goes hard left right on the joystick over and over, I can make the problem happen much more frequently (colors inverting up to 25-30 times a minute) but im not sure if this is because I am rocking the cab or again because I am generating a lot of enemies on screen.

 Any thoughts? Apologies for being so vague but these are the only 2 ways/places I can recreate the problem.

Today I played some Super Glob, level 5 is where I start to bleed lives.
Current Personal Highscore: 62150
Supposedly the WR is like 80K

Also played 3-4 games of , still havent developed my retreat strategy for Elevator stages 5+/
Current Personal Highscore: 111,500

And finally finished up with some Ms. Pac man w/ speedup hack.
Such a fun game. Played a perfect game til 5th screen =P.
Current Personal Highscore: 92000

Been playing all this on mame as my only machine is a Ghosts N Goblins and my shed is cold as hell right now. I have a cheap ass arcade stick I bought from ebay that actually works pretty good for the price.

As long as you arent too rough with it you will be OK. Word of advice go ahead and ducktape the shaft for more support.
I definetely recommend it if you are looking for a cheap USB joystick to use with MAME that has the arcade feel.

Hello,

I am going to be purchasing my first upright Cabinet in less than a week and there are some questions I would like to have answered before going into this.

1) How can I tell if its an original and not a Radarscope or some conversion. Is the TK serial number enough to confirm?

2) How can I tell if this is the Wooden or Particle board Model? Im guessing by looking at the back of the cab.

3) What other things should I look out for to make sure I am getting a dedicated cabinet?

4) Is $400 a good for a working cabinet in this condition?

Hey guys,

I have been a serious gaming enthusiast ever since the mid 80's. Mainly sticking to early consoles like the NES and Genesis. Over the last 6 months I have been getting more into arcade gaming.

Two months ago I bought my first cabinet, a Romstar Ghosts'n Goblins that was said to be non operational. I was going to buy it for $100 and turn it into a mame cab. However, when I arrived at the guys house he said he plugged it in and it is working fine. Probably some intermitant wiring problem. Instead of going back on our he still gave me the cabinet for $100. Knowing nothing about arcade cabinets I just opened it up wiggled any loose wires and have never seen the problem since. I decided to not hack up a working 1986 cabinet up, rather I decided to restore it.



All it really needs is a Plexi Bezel (repro one costs $55), new Plexiglass (slightly scratched), and a little touch up painting.

In addition, In a few days I am about to purchase my 2nd Machine, a upright. I am really excited about it, monday cant get here fast enough. I am getting the machine fully operational for $400. It just has some minorish cosmetic problems that can be fixed. Here are the pics:





This is basically the worst of it right here. Any suggestions what to do about the bolts when I put on new side art?

Thanks for reading, I look forward to talking and discussions with you guys soon.