Which is exactly what little Pac-Man Junior is doing on the control panel artwork of Midway's 1983 classic,   Jr. Pac-Man!   When this cabinet first entered the shop, it looked like a wet schnauzer with birth defects.  I mean- the marquee topper had been torn completely off the top of the machine by a mystical giant, the monitor was broken, and the bottom of the cabinet was more swollen than our national debt... and it will still take a bit to fix some of that.  Two great things in my world though:   Two really great guys have the equipment to help to restore these 'electronic tumor sarcophagus'... Killerbrew is running a beautiful CNC router, and Paco))) has a state-of-the-art printing setup, up at Action Signs & Design in Norman.  Either way, there will be the need for some new artwork and woodcutting, and I know I can count on these two great guys to help.  So-

The first thing that needed to be done was to sort out the monitor issue.  At first glance, the monitor appeared to be hooked up correctly, RGBG and sync, but on these old Midway machines, there can be sync issues, and after Killerbrew stated he had turned every pot on the monitor a hundred times and got no results, I had a feeling there was sync out somewhere, and there was.  Take a look at this photo, and you can understand what was going on with little Jr. Pac.

See the red circle at the top-left?  The set of 3 pins on the top, are sync.  The 5 pins below those three are, in this order:  Red, Green, Blue, Ground, and -sync.  The trouble with our particular machine was, when the monitor was removed to be capped, (when 13 or more of the capacitors on the monitor's motherboard are replaced) a newer G-07 monitor was installed.  So, the existing setup in the 3-wire molex connector was H Sync, G, V Sync (meaning Horizontal sync, Ground, and Vertical sync).  The new monitor wanted a different signal, actually being G, HS,VS.  So, taking a small flathead screwdriver, you have to actually remove the pins from the molex connector and arrange them in the correct manner- and there is only one way to find out which way is correct- and that is process of elimination on the connector.  Plus after ReRuss set the convergence, and Killerbrew torqued the actual monitor neckboard to sort out the position, we have an excellent looking machine now!  So now that you are good and bored with the details... here are a few pics!

Pretty excited to have this rare classic up and running!  Jr. Pacs are pretty tough to find!  Have you ever played a dedicated one in person?  I hadn't...

So, we'll keep turning the screwdrivers- we've been really busy all week and with Spring coming, there will only be more machines coming out and being repaired.  It's going to keep us busy, and Spring break is right around the corner.  Maybe Gia will let me get a few things done that week, we'll see.  Until next time, cheers, and remember to follow your red balloon!

It was the summer of 1985.  I had been wearing out the wheels on my Powell-Peralta and getting into trouble at the QuikTrip on 11th st- the only place I could ride to play some arcade machines.  But in anticipation of the NES coming out, I had tried to keep things on the straight and narrow.  Atari had kinda run it's course with me, and I had had played endless hours of Space Invaders and Adventure- and shit was getting old.  I foolishly thought my coming birthday might bring a Nintendo.....and it didn't.  It came to my Uncles house instead- which made no fucking sense at all to my sister and I.   Was this some sort of cruel joke?  Were we in trouble?  That's right- that Christmas our Dad bought our Uncle Steve a Nintendo- and bought us some clothes or something....what the fuck???  Seriously- I never really understood that.  I went to my Uncle's house just yesterday to help him move some stuff around, and there his Nintendo sat- on the shelf, in the original box, still unopened.  He didn't give a fuck about that.  And that's the real comedy (or tragedy, you decide).  So this leads us to the summer of 2002.  I was cleaning up some boxes of stuff and moving to a new place, and found about 13 NES cartridges and a few controllers, but no NES....and I decided to hunt down a system to play a few of these games on.  After all, hours of Marble Madness and Metroid were fond memories, and I wanted to waste a little time remembering the good ol' days.  But beware- this collection has become a behemoth...and now it has me considering building new shelving and rearranging my gameroom...all because I have recently discovered what I didnt as a kid...8-bit magic and what it can do....and I have created a monster.

Over the last several years, we've been adding to the collection, and now we have  over 250 carts, several peripherals, and it's getting harder and harder to find carts we don't have.  Or, we'll find carts we don't have, but just don't fucking want, like the 60 or so different baseball games, unlicensed bible games, or retarded shit like Barbie, or the Little Mermaid...meh.  The collecting sort of becomes an addiction, much like smoking or anything else...the attempt to find the rares and the favorites from yesterday, and everyone else in the market is competing with you, so cart prices are driven up.  Sometimes wayyyy up.  In fact, in a local game store the other day, I saw several NES games that were more expensive, even twice as expensive as some Xbox games!  Mega Man 6, only $59.99.  $59.99??!  Jesus, the copy of Gears of War right next to it was 14 bucks.  Pretty strange time we live in.  And you know what it is?  It's guys like me that missed out on these games when they were 13, and have a genuine love for the 8-bit era.... and the music- don't even get me started.  There's something about that 8-bit midi sound that trances me.  It does!  I don't know why!   Some of the games coming out today will never stand up to previously undiscovered treasures of that era.  Maybe it's just me, or my age, but I would rather pull an onion out of the ground and throw it at a Beezo than play 30 seconds of Bulletstorm, or Red Dead whatever the fuck.  I dunno.  Personal preference?  Or maybe I'm just cooler than these fucking snot-nosed kids of today?  (you're right, it's my age.)  Anyway, have fun with it, after all video games are meant for fun.  Don't take me too seriously-  I'm on some kind of high still unexplained.

Until next time, call your local Gamestop and ask for Battletoads.  For the Wii.

The Angry Video Game Nerd has just released his 100th episode!  And you'll never guess who guest-stars!  Watch it now right here!

OK, this has been a challenge for me for about 10 years.  Win 50 consecutive matches in a row on Mortal Kombat II, unlock the shadow ninja, 'Noob Saibot', and attempt to kick his ass.  The AI on the new 3.1 chip (which is installed in our machine) is so insanely difficult, that you can barely get close enough to him to land a strike before he has ground you into bread.  Last Friday, after I had a few beers with Joey, Amy, Nick & Ben, I decided to give this another attempt. 

It takes a long time to reach him, because getting the 50 wins can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour or so, and then, you return to Goro's lair from the first Mortal Kombat, and you get the chance to fight the shadow ninja.  And he is completely unpredictable.  He steals moves from Scorpion, though can run and teleport behind you, etc.  I had Kitana selected when the battle began, and I think I may have fared much better with Sub-Zero or Reptile.  Anyway, I gave it a good run, but he still mangled me. 

Check out the video, and until next time, cheers!

After a brief hiatus, I am back to updating my column. It has been a rough month, the gang (mostly) have been sick, babies have been sick, bills have been large and tickets have been issued.  But, at the end of the month, in retrospect I think everyone has enjoyed the last few weeks, and with Jill & Scott's birthday party right around the corner, much steam was about to be blown off. We all assembled a group of people, (and although I wasn't able to make it to the bar) and had it large on December 18th, where a VIP party was planned at the TreeHouse, in downtown Tulsa. The admission was 15$ cash each person, and unlimited top-shelf liquors and beers flowed throughout the crowd all night. People seemed to be coming out of the ducts and woodwork.

After the bar, everyone returned to our place, and fired up the High Voltage arcade.  I tried to get a total head count of everyone in attendance, but due to the crazy activity happening everywhere the constant distractions kept my ADD highly active! There is a huge collection of photos documenting the nights events in the forums here:  http://www.justinedlich.com/regalia/index.php/forums?task=viewtopic&id=1328

Log in and check them out!  Till next time, cheers!