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Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade Maintenance

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Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade controls (instruction guide 91758)
Coleco's drawing of the Ms. Pac-Man controls: player 2 stick on the left, player 1 stick on the right

The Coleco Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Arcade is built like Coleco's other VFD Mini-Arcades. Batteries, opening the cabinet, the speaker, the joysticks and reassembly are covered in Coleco Mini-Arcade Maintenance, and the Handheld Museum teardown on which that guide draws was done on a Pac-Man; its author describes the Ms. Pac-Man as almost identical inside apart from the controls.[1] The notes below cover what is different on the Ms. Pac-Man. The Pac-Man's own notes are in Coleco Pac-Man Mini-Arcade Maintenance.

Identify the game and board

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The Ms. Pac-Man is model 2395, and its instruction guide is no. 91758.[2] MAME records the board as "Coleco 911171", with a Hitachi HD38820A61 microcontroller and a Futaba DM-60Z 3I display.[3] The Pac-Man boards are marked 75690 or 75721, carry an HD38820A28 or A29 and use a DM-34Z display, so parts and photographs from a Pac-Man do not transfer one for one.[4][5]

Joysticks

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The stick layout is the reverse of the Pac-Man's. On the Ms. Pac-Man the right stick is player 1 and chooses the game; the left stick is player 2 and is used only in Head-to-Head.[2] The right stick therefore does most of the work. If a leaf switch under it wears through on a game that is only played alone, a leaf from the left stick can replace it.[6]

Each stick has an egg-shaped knob held on by a screw, and the knobs are often missing.[7] To tell a worn leaf switch from a tired spring or stick, swap the stick parts between the two sides and see whether the fault moves with them.[8]

Power

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Coleco's guide asks for four C alkaline cells or the Perma Power battery eliminator/AC adaptor #2298, and tells owners to switch the game off after use to save the cells.[2] Take the cells out for storage: in VFD tabletops that run on C cells, corrosion can start on the battery contacts within weeks of a set being left in.[9] Jarrad Lewis's 3D-printable battery cover is made to fit the Ms. Pac-Man.[10]

Stickers

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A complete Ms. Pac-Man has stickers on the top, front and both sides, a plastic sticker on the control panel and an instruction sticker underneath. One or more of these is often damaged or missing.[7] The two hood screws are under the upper corners of the control panel sticker.[1]

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 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.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 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.
  3. ↑ 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. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ Rik Morgan, Handheld Museum, "Coleco Game Repair", board-variation page: a second Pac-Man board marked Rev. E, with a round black display transformer and relocated transistors. handheldmuseum.com.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 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.
  8. ↑ AtariAge forums, "Handheld/Tabletop repair options", thread 158637: worn joysticks on the Coleco Pac-Man, the thin metal joystick contacts, swapping the player 1 and player 2 parts to locate a fault, and microswitches as a replacement. forums.atariage.com. Community repair discussion.
  9. ↑ Steven Read, Mini-Arcade, "How to fix a handheld game": battery corrosion on VFD tabletops that run on C or D cells, speaker wiring and the speaker baffle in Coleco tabletops, contact cleaning, and checking batteries and adaptor voltage before condemning a game. miniarcade.com.
  10. ↑ Jarrad Lewis, "Coleco Tabletop Arcade Battery Cover", Thingiverse 4405062 (2020), archived on the Internet Archive: a 3D-printable battery cover that fits Frogger, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian and Donkey Kong. CC BY 4.0. archive.org.


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