Working on a Coleco Pac-Man

That80sGuy · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:52 pm Post subject: Working on a Coleco Pac-Man

Well..the Pac I won on e-bay arrived today. Just as advertised..it does not power on and the battery bay has some rust and a little corrosion. I have taken the game apart to check the traces on the board. It is a different revision than the one listed on the site..so I will take pics to document it and offer them up so others can benefit.

Cool

Rik · Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:34 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I think there's at least 5 different versions of th board. I have one labeled Ver E, so I'm assuming A-E at least... Good things to know are exactly where the battery ans speaker wires attach. I get asked that all the time. Smile

Let us know how the repair goes.

That80sGuy · Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:47 pm Post subject:

Well I got 4 C cell batteries and rigged up a way to connect them to the game. The good news is I get sound an the display lights up. When I start a game I can move Pac-Man but there are no dots to gobble up. Also..Pac starts in the ghost box and the ghosts start sort in the outer corners. Its been a long time since I actually played one of these games. Its probably a couple broken traces. Now I just have to find them. Also.. the game isn't scoring.

Rik · Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:47 pm Post subject:

You are starting the 'Eat & Run' game it sounds like. Push the player 1 joystick to the right to start normal Pac-Man.

Eat & Run starts Pac-Man in the middle (as you describe) and only the 4 power dots are lit. You have to grab one of the power pellets, and then run back into the base to score.

Rik

That80sGuy · Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:54 pm Post subject:

DOH! Ok... I wasn't looking at the control panel since having the thing apart! LOL I guess its all working fine then!

LM · Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 9:51 pm Post subject:

OK, so instead of starting a new thread, I'll just continue here, since I'm going to be working on one of these too.

Just got this....

[img]http://thmb.inkfrog.com/thumbn/blizzard/013_1_018.JPG=450[/img]

on the bay for 25 + reasonable ship.

Reported as being not working, display lights up, but no game action?

[img]http://thmb.inkfrog.com/thumbn/blizzard/017_1_018.JPG=450[/img]

Any idea where to start?

The same seller had a Frogger in box for $65 BIN / best offer. I cheaped out and offered 40, someone got it for 55. Wish I hadn't been a cheapskate and had just bought it Sad

Oh well. Any ideas about the pac man appreciated.

Rik · Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 12:33 am Post subject:

Just noticed this post... When you first turn the game on, that's all it does. You have to move the left joystick in the direction of what version of the game you want to play... Does that work?

If moving both joysticks won't start the game, that's the first place I'd look (something not working right with the joysticks...)

Rik

LM · Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 1:32 am Post subject:

Hmmm... Lemme give it a try...

LM · Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:37 am Post subject:

Hooray, it worked!

Still one glitch- the joystick won't manipulate Pacman so he goes right. Up, down and left are fine.

Any idea on what to do here? I do have a spare unit I can cannibalize for parts if needed.

Rik · Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:50 am Post subject:

Not sure if you've seen the Coleco repair guide or not...

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Coleco/ColecoRepair/index.html
I specifically used a Pac-Man, but it will also apply to most of the games as they are pretty much built the same.

For joystick functionality, see page 2:

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Coleco/ColecoRepair/index2.html

If one direction isn't working, I'd suspect the silver rectangle shaped things under the joystick. One is probably worn to the point of not bending well, or could be worn all the way through. My bet is that this is the problem. If you have a game for parts, you can get a replacement metal thing there. If you don't think two-player playing is something you intend to do, you can steal one from the second player joystick. Cool

(If one is heavily worn, and you have the parts, I'd advise replacing all 4 of them... The others are probably on the verge of failing if one already has.) I've actually seen one were someone replaced the triangles with staples. This works okay-ish, but they don't really spring back like the triangle things, and they eventually stop working well... Interesting solution though.

If these look okay and seem nice and springy, you might be looking at tracing the contacts between the joystick and the chip to make sure everything looks okay.

But it's definitely a physical problem somewhere (bad metal thing, bad contact, broken trace on the circuit board), so it should be fixable... Worse case could be a crack in the circuit board, but even that can be fixed by soldering little wires over the crack.

Rik