This board is fantastic. For those of you that don't know, it is an add on that lets you transform your existing Pac-Man or Ms Pac-Man into a bunch of games that can run on that existing hardware.
- Pacman Slow
- Pacman Fast
- Pacman Plus Slow
- Pacman Plus Fast
- Ms Pacman Slow
- Ms Pacman Fast
- Ms Pacman Plus Slow
- Ms Pacman Plus Fast
- Super Pac
- Eyes
- Mr TNT
- Cookiemon (version A)
- Pacrabbit (3D with jumping)
- Ms & Mrs Pacman (version A)
- Pengo
- Alien Armada
- Piranha (version B)
- Caterpillar (version B)
In the mail you get two shiny packages, 1 containing the add on game boards, and another containing a ribbon cable (in case I was converting a Pac-Man). You see, Ms Pac-Man is really just Pac-Man with a daughter board attached via ribbon cable (and a change of character roms I think). Here is my Ms Pac-Man board and daughter board (notice the I-heart-Steven on the cardboard. My wife wrote it. Don't be fooled, it's a sarcastic note).
Not included in the packaging were instructions, but I could get those online from his site. So on to step one!
Step 1. Remove the four EPROM's in row 6. If you have to remove the syncbus card to get to 6E, make sure you plug it back in the same way.
You see from left to right, 6I, 6H, 6F, 6E. No idea what happened to G. :) Anyway, use an EPROM remover if you have one, or use a very small flat head micro screwdriver and carefully wiggle the chips up on each side, keeping them fairly even so as to not bend the legs of the ICs. When you're done, it should look like this.
Alright, now for the next step.
Step 2. If you’re converting a Ms Pac board, remove the Z-80 from the Ms Pac auxiliary board and place it in the Multi board in the 40-pin socket near the center, with the notch in the same direction as the other chips on the Multi board. Then plug the ribbon cable in the 40-pin socket closest to the edge of the Multi board, orient the cable per the diagram on page 2.
Okay! Well, you can see the Z-80 in the picture of the daughter card, to the right of the multi-colored ribbon cable. I had to remove this chip and put it onto the new multi-board I got from Mike. The Z-80 is the chip in the middle (on the picture below). Notice the little moon-like symbol on the IC? Make sure these guys are aligned properly when you put them into the sockets, and be careful not to bend any legs. In addition, be sure to disconnect the ribbon cable going to the Ms Pac-Man daughter card and connect it to the socket pictured on the left. I don't have a picture of that, but you'll want to make sure to do that. If your ribbon cable is bad, use the one included.
Wondering about the little green-and-blue-and-purple bunch of wires going off picture? That's going to a new set of character roms, which brings me to our next step.
Step 3. Carefully remove your 5E and 5F ROMs. The small graphics board is plugged into 5E with the notch in the same direction as the other chips on the main PCB.
Nice. The paper on the chips looks ghetto. Does anyone else feel a geek squeak coming on when they see chips on boards with writing by some tech over 30 years ago? Maybe it's just me. So I removed those and put them into an anti-static bag in some foam. Here's what the graphic board looks like plugged into 5E.
That's it! Turn the thing on, set her to hover, and pray to God. You should see the friendly 96 in 1 menu screen below. If you don't see anything, immediately turn off your machine and triple check everything.
Anyway, since putting this thing in I've become addicted to Pac-Man Plus. Crazy stuff. I love it when you nom the coke can and the whole maze turns invisible. Oh, and Pengo. Pengo is tough! I cannot recommend this board enough. Makes me wish I had a Q*bert so I could buy his multi-board for that.
While I could have succumbed to the dark side and gotten a 60 in 1 or some other Chinese knock-off emulation board, I prefer to keep my games true to the cab they are in. It's why I kind of hate multicades (even though I'll likely put something together like one eventually, but running MAME not giving money to bootleggers).
Have fun!
Steven