Original Stand up Pac-Man Arcade Machine Restoration
Man, what can I say, well... Happy 50th Birthday Dad... And I can't believe I found this for you instead of me. But in all seriousness, I've been looking for Pac-Man for a good price FOREVER, and well, I'm proud to have restored this for my Dad since he's a huge influence how I got into gaming in the first place, plus these are his favorite games.
LONG STORY BELOW (feel free to skip if you don't wanna read ;P)
This thing looked great... Through the eBay photo... Very deceiving seller, but it worked out in the end, and he was an alright guy. Problem was once I won the eBay bid; almost right away I contacted the guy and I got no response back expect for two invoices; one with just something like "thanks for you bid, let me know when you want to pick it up," plus some BS surcharge of $10, then another after I emailed him real quick with his phone number. I quickly called the number being as I would think he would answer his phone... But nothing, rang all the way till voicemail and that was full. So I tried again, nothing... So I contacted him back and very nicely said something like, "I tried calling the number you gave me but it just keeps ringing and your voicemail box is full, so here's my number and lets setup a date." So I get a call back almost instantly, he explains the shape of the cabinet in more detail since it was just the one photo, tells me that his uncle found in it in some house he was renovating, explains there's probably no PCB, and we setup a date for Saturday the following weekend, and I don't ask for his address cause I like to call the day of when I say I'm going to go and get the address then, so it doesn't look like I'm doing anything fishy. Saturday rolls around, no answer, no nothing, and can't even leave a voicemail. I freak, I mean I REALLY freaked, since I got my whole family almost in on this, donating away to the cause. So I mean I call the guy some more, email through eBay, probably go a little too schizo, but I mean hey, this is all my plan and I'll be damned if this dude screws me over, especially out of something this cool. I wait around till Sunday, and I'm pissed, like extremely super mega pissed, like look at my first YouTube video pissed times 10. I just continue to email him through eBay and try getting his info from eBay, and posting on KLOV to see if anyone knows this guy. But, it all turned around for the better, I believe Tuesday that following week he finally managed to call me back, and like I said in the video used some crappy excuse like his mom was sick, he was working, etc, I was still a little antsy but I'm a nice enough guy to not scream at the guy, I mean we're all human, we make mistakes, lets just move on and gimme the damn Pac-Man. So he apologizes, and we setup to pick up the Pac-Man the following Saturday again... and there you go we got it. After a 130 mile trip, it's all mine... Well my dads technically, but I'm just glad I didn't get screwed over, extremely happy, cause I was gonna have to improvise, and then tell people it didn't happen, which would just suck.
Though the guy was honest about one thing, the side art is actually in beautiful condition for a 30 year old cab. But it did need a lot more work then described, but hey, that's the fun in it, almost everything is original on this thing, obviously other than the back door,T-molding, and modified kick plate.
All in all, I wish I could of stripped the paint off completely and stencil it, and I wish I would of taken my time more with the bondo, and I wish the thing had a back door. BUT, it turned out in my opinion pretty awesome, especially with my limited budget, good enough to last the ages and my Dad loved it. That's what's most important. But damn, I wish I could keep it, haha. Soon enough I'll have my own.