Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade
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| Coleco's drawing of the game from its instruction guide, with the player 1 stick on the right | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Coleco Industries, Inc. (made in Taiwan) |
| Type | Tabletop electronic game |
| Released | 1983[1][2] |
| CPU | Hitachi HD38820A61 (HMCS45A, 4-bit PMOS)[3][4] |
| Memory | 160 × 4-bit RAM; 2,048 × 10-bit program ROM, both on the microcontroller[4] |
| Storage | — |
| Display | Futaba DM-60Z vacuum fluorescent display with a colour overlay[3] |
| Sound | 1-bit output to a piezo buzzer[3][5] |
| Power | Four C alkaline cells, or the Coleco Perma Power #2298[1] |
| OS / Firmware | — |
| Predecessor | Coleco Pac-Man Mini-Arcade |
| Model no. | 2395[1] |
The Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade is a battery-powered tabletop version of Bally Midway's Ms. Pac-Man arcade game, sold by Coleco from 1983 as model 2395.[1] It follows the Coleco Pac-Man Mini-Arcade in a cabinet of the same design, with a multi-colour vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) driven directly by a Hitachi 4-bit microcontroller.[3][4][5] It holds two games, Ms. Pac-Man for one player and Head-to-Head Ms. Pac-Man for two, and a demonstration.[1]
History
[edit | edit source]Coleco had the game made in Taiwan and sold it under licence from Midway.[3] The instruction guide carries a 1983 Coleco copyright for the package, program and audiovisual work and a 1981 Bally Midway copyright for Ms. Pac-Man itself.[1] HotHardware's 2004 comparison with the Coleco Pac-Man found the differences to be small changes to the maze, the moving bonus fruit and better character graphics.[6] The Handheld Museum's owner believes it the least common of Coleco's five arcade-shaped VFD games.[2]
Games and controls
[edit | edit source]The Skill 1/Off/Skill 2 switch turns the game on; Skill 1 is the easier game. Unlike the Pac-Man, the player 1 stick is on the right, and it is the right stick that chooses the game.[1][3]
| Stick direction | Game | Players |
|---|---|---|
| Left | Ms. Pac-Man | 1 |
| Down | Head-to-Head Ms. Pac-Man | 2 |
| Up | Demonstration | – |
Each player has three Ms. Pac-Man characters and wins another at 10,000 points. Shortly after a power capsule is eaten, a blinking bonus fruit appears in the maze, worth 100 points in the first maze rising to 800 from the fourth. Clearing the maze moves the game on to different mazes and faster play. The one-player game remembers its best score until the power is switched off; Head-to-Head shows the difference between the two players' scores, with an arrow pointing at the leader. Only the one-player game keeps a best score.[1]
Hardware
[edit | edit source]The board is marked "Coleco 911171" and carries a Hitachi HD38820A61 microcontroller in a flat package, the same type of chip as the Pac-Man with a different program.[3][7] The HD38820 is a PMOS part of Hitachi's HMCS45A group, running from −10 V, whose outputs are rated to −50 V so that they can drive a VFD directly.[4] Sound is a one-bit output to a piezo buzzer; the Handheld Museum's teardown of a Pac-Man, whose author describes the Ms. Pac-Man as almost identical inside apart from the controls, shows the buzzer under a plastic cone in the base.[3][5]
The display is a Futaba DM-60Z 3I with cyan and red phosphors under a colour overlay: orange over the playfield and the lives, pink over the best-score area and yellow over the fruit.[3] MAME's driver gives it eleven grid lines and 26 anode lines, the same numbers as the Pac-Man's DM-34Z, but with its own graphics.[3][7] The guide's display key shows a five-digit score with a BEST legend and score indicator arrows, a Ms. Pac-Man remaining indicator, a fruit and maze level indicator, red power capsules, the maze, the monsters, the dots and the escape tunnels.[1]
The cabinet carries stickers on the top, front and both sides, a plastic control panel sticker and an instruction sticker underneath, and each stick has an egg-shaped knob held on by a screw.[2]
Power
[edit | edit source]The game runs on four C alkaline cells, or on Coleco's Perma Power battery eliminator/AC adaptor #2298, sold separately.[1] The Perma Power is a non-adjustable 9 V adaptor whose lead plugs into one of four dummy C cells in the battery compartment.[8] Coleco warns that weak batteries cause an erratic display or erratic play, and tells owners to switch the game off to save the cells.[1]
Known faults
[edit | edit source]The faults are those of the other VFD Mini-Arcades: worn joystick leaf switches, battery leakage, broken battery or speaker wires, failed power transistors after reversed polarity, and missing parts of the display from cracked joints or corroded tracks.[5][9][10] A KLOV member's Ms. Pac-Man had one vertical line of the display missing, which its owner took to be a cold solder joint.[11]
Model notes are in Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade Maintenance, Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade Troubleshooting and Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade VFD Repair. The full procedures shared with the other games are in Coleco Mini-Arcade Maintenance, Coleco Mini-Arcade Troubleshooting and Coleco Mini-Arcade VFD Repair.
Documentation
[edit | edit source]The wiki hosts Coleco's 12-page instruction guide, no. 91758; see Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade Documentation. The guide says the game has no user-serviceable parts. Within 90 days of purchase Coleco repaired or replaced a faulty game for a $5 handling charge; after that, and up to a year from purchase, it repaired the game or exchanged it for a reconditioned one for $15.[1]
Related pages
[edit | edit source]- Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade Maintenance
- Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade Troubleshooting
- Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade VFD Repair
- Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade Documentation
- Coleco Pac-Man Mini-Arcade
- Coleco Mini-Arcade Maintenance, Coleco Mini-Arcade Troubleshooting and Coleco Mini-Arcade VFD Repair
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Coleco Industries, The Official Ms. Pac-Man Instructions and Game Rules, guide no. 91758, model no. 2395, © 1983: cover (model number, four C cells or Perma Power #2298); p. 2 (games, controls and features, with the player 1 stick on the right); p. 3 (batteries, weak batteries, demonstration mode); pp. 4 to 8 (play, display key and scoring); p. 9 (special information and care); p. 11 (warranty and service policy). Hosted as File:Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade Instructions 91758.pdf.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rik Morgan, Handheld Museum, "Coleco Ms Pac Man": 1983, VFD, four C batteries, model 2395; the sticker set and the egg-shaped joystick knobs held on by a screw. handheldmuseum.com.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 MAME source,
src/mame/handheld/hh_hmcs40.cpp, driver notes for Coleco Ms. Pac-Man (cmspacmn): made in Taiwan under licence from Midway; PCB label "Coleco 911171"; Hitachi HD38820A61 in a flat package; 1-bit sound; cyan/red Futaba DM-60Z 3I display; colour overlay (lives and playfield orange, best score pink, fruit yellow); game selection with the player 1 stick; port mapping. github.com/mamedev/mame. - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Hitachi, Full Line Condensed Catalog (HLN1000, 1982), "4-bit Single-chip Microcomputers HMCS40 Series", pp. 105 and 106: PMOS parts have high-voltage outputs for direct drive of vacuum fluorescent displays; HMCS45A supply −10 V, power dissipation 150 mW, maximum I/O terminal voltage −50 V, ROM 2,048 × 10 bits plus 128 × 10 bits of pattern memory, RAM 160 × 4 bits, 44 I/O lines, 54-pin flat package. bitsavers.org.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Rik Morgan, Handheld Museum, "Coleco Game Repair (Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger & Galaxian)", page 1: teardown of a Pac-Man; the other Coleco games of the same design are almost identical apart from their controls; the two hood screws under the control panel sticker, the five base screws, the speaker cone over a piezo buzzer, and the red (positive) and blue (negative) battery wires. handheldmuseum.com. Owner's repair report.
- ↑ Robert Maloney, "Retro-Gaming with Coleco", HotHardware, 30 September 2004, pages 2 and 3: the Perma Power or four C cells, the inside of an opened unit, the mottling of the decals on the author's Pac-Man where the glue has seeped through ("a common issue with these units"), the Pac-Man's loud sound with no volume control, and the differences of the Ms. Pac-Man (maze variations, the moving bonus fruit, the character graphics). hothardware.com.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 MAME source,
src/mame/handheld/hh_hmcs40.cpp, driver notes for Coleco Pac-Man (cpacman,cpacmanr1): PCB label "Coleco 75690", Hitachi HD38820A28/A29 in a flat package, 1-bit sound, cyan/red Futaba DM-34Z 2A display, colour overlay, game selection with the player 1 stick, the Japanese release as Gakken's Super Puck Monster, and the note that the first version does not show the whole maze at power-on; the chip table at the head of the file. github.com/mamedev/mame. - ↑ Rik Morgan, Handheld Museum, "Coleco Perma Power": model 2298 (1982), a 9 V AC adaptor with five tips, one of which is a 9 V battery snap that plugs into one of four dummy C cells; centre-positive. handheldmuseum.com.
- ↑ Rik Morgan, Handheld Museum, "Coleco Game Repair", page 2: the four wires to the main board (B+, B− and two PZ speaker connections), the three board screws, the joystick parts, worn or stuck leaf switches, and the two lens screws. handheldmuseum.com. Owner's repair report.
- ↑ Rik Morgan, Handheld Museum, "Coleco Game Repair", page 3: no-power faults (supply wires, power switch, the two transistors and reverse polarity), no picture with sound (broken glass, the exhaust tip, the display supply transformer, bad joints at the display), partial display faults, the eight filaments, the nine playfield grids and two score grids, and the repair of a corroded grid trace; with photographs of the 75690 board's power section (transformer, transistors T1 and T2, zener diodes ZD1 and ZD2, two electrolytic capacitors). handheldmuseum.com. Owner's repair report.
- ↑ KLOV forums, "Coleco handheld arcade games - anyone fix those or have intel on them?", thread 505247, April to May 2022: a Ms. Pac-Man with "one vertical row in the display" missing, which its owner took to be a cold solder joint (no outcome reported), and a Frogger with missing lines fixed by reflowing the display joints; reproduction decals. forums.arcade-museum.com. Community repair discussion.