Hello... Huge Baby Pacman fan here.

Here is my Baby Pacman 100% controlled by PinMAME $100 worth of boards from Ultimarc.com and a custom driver board I built. Thought you guys might be interested. I modified the PinMAME source to allow it to control the Ultimate IO board. The solenoids will be triggered by an Ultimarc PacDrive board, which will connect to the custom solenoid board. I found there was a problem controlling the solenoids directly from the Ultimate IO, so I am changing that.

Here's some videos:

Ian demonstrating Baby Pacman game play:

Building the custom solenoid driver board:

Testing the custom solenoid driver board for the first time:

This may be the most reliable Baby Pacman machine in existence!

I'm happy to share additional info and source code if anyone is interested.

Later,

Brad O.

Thank you! Yes, part of the reason for my post is to potentially save any Baby Pacman machines out there whose hardware is beyond repair. I believe someone stole the hardware out of my cabinet to fix another Baby Pacman. The total cost is around $200 - $300 plus a whole bunch of labor.

This will never happen... at least not by me. That will have to be done by someone who is willing to do the incredible amount of work considering that such a thing would probably only sell only 3 or 4 units.

Later,

Brad O.

I believe I have things reliable now (time will tell). We now control the solenoids with a PacDrive connected to the solenoid driver board and use the Ultimate IO for the input switches and lamps only. Here is a video of it working:

Here is the PinMAME source code and binary in case you want to try it out.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11yR_5iEpzpEu8L9Ha3rqGrFYzyIKvDN2/view?usp=sharing

Brad

Here's a correct link for the source code for PinMAME that controls the UltimateIO and PacDrive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EyDWgv-UfC4jja8hEGW0aS-xFOJwkXUp/view?usp=sharing

I think the default is that energizer memory is off while center arrows memory is on. I reverse that so center memory is off and energizer memory is on. It makes it more likely that the player can actually use their energizers decreasing the frustration there, but making it more difficult to get an extra ball... and provides motivation not to lose your ball to see the center arrows reset. To me, these are the perfect settings. I think when I played in the arcade when I was a kid, the energizer memory was off, so I'd think I would still want to keep it that way, but just too frustrating to lose energizers after you've worked so hard for them.

Every time I do something non-original like that thinking it is cool, I end up hating it and having to revert it back to original later... so now I just don't do that anymore. I agree it does look cool though.

Test the left target (1) switch and the right target (5) switch. If those aren't registering properly, it can cause the target to repeatedly reset.

Go into Service mode.... there's a button in the coin door. Press it until you get to the SWITCH TEST. There, you can test to make sure your switches are working properly. If the left or right drop target switch is stuck on, it can cause the drop targets to reset indefinitely.

Most pinball machines have a switch test function too.

In switch test mode, move Target 1 and 5 up and down by hand. See if they register. For a sanity check, press other switches on the playfield to make sure they register. If Target 1 or 5 don't register, that may be your issue. If the machine detects that target 1 and 5 are up, it will try to lower one of them by resetting the targets and then lowering one.

Well, I gave you bad advice.

I just tested on my machine. The flipper buttons do not register in the switch test. The joystick and P1/P2 buttons do register. BUT.... NONE OF THE PLAYFIELD SWITCHES REGISTER. What the heck? And my playfield switches are working fine. That's pretty useless.

Well, you're going to have to test your switches some other way. Of course, you want to test that your solenoids are firing properly in the solenoid test, but your issue really sounds like a target 1 or 5 switch issue to me. I'd look under the playfield and physically inspect your target 1 and 5 switches and see if you can see any problem there. You can do a continuity check with a meter with the machine off to make sure the two lugs on the switch are connecting properly as you move the targets up and down.

You can get an assortment on Amazon for $11. I don't think they sell individual clips... but you only need one.

https://www.amazon.com/Neiko-50455A-Assortment-Treated-Retaining/dp/B000K7GRDW/ref=sr_1_4_mod_primary_new

Sounds like a problem with the cable between the monitor signal cable between your game PCB and monitor. Try wiggling it and see if you can identify which side of the cable the problem exists based on when the picture restores to normal. Another possibility is the PCB connectors... you may need to reflow solder on either the monitor or game PCBs. First, identify the location of the fault... next, identify exactly what in that location is faulting. Since you have two colors going out at once and it is intermittent, I highly doubt the problem is with the neck guns or neck board transistors on the monitor.

Just look in the manual:
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What is that CD jewel-case you have in your coin box?

There is no reason to trash a Baby Pac cabinet. I got mine for cheap with no boards at all. Installed PinMAME in it and it works better than the original hardware... no dimming when coils fire either. Been running perfectly for 5 years now.

I posted about it on VPForums back when I did it....

https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=41495&hl=brado426#entry421288

Here's a link to the PinMAME-HW software with source code:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N_yPA2iSD-2YO-HDC1EqwdEOLgFFkcSn/view?usp=sharing

To completely replace all Baby Pacman electronics, you need:

1. Ultimarc Ultimate I/O Board for handling input switches and lamps
2. Ultimarc Pac DRIVE board for handling the 9 solenoids.
3. Custom Solenoid Driver board (custom board that drives the 48V to the solenoids) Schematics and Eagle files included.
4. DUPONT patch cables.... lots of them.

This requires that you totally hack the playfield LED and switch wiring. You would need to wire one wire per LED and one wire per switch. This is a major disadvantage of doing this.

This PinMAME also has a hack in it so that the high scores get saved (for Baby Pacman) even if you power off the computer without exiting/shutting down the OS.

To run PinMAME with support for the Ultimate IO and PacDrive, the command line looks like this:

pinmame babypac -ultimateio -joystick -dmd_only -scanlines -skip_gameinfo

Here's a few important notes to consider when doing this project that I learned along the way:

1. Be sure to install the Ultimate IO Gamepad firmware. You should use Gamepad inputs (not keyboard inputs) for all switches that may be constantly on (ie: the outholes and targets) Otherwise, you'll be fighting for keyboard control when trying to perform maintenance.

2. Be sure the PacDrive, Solenoid driver board and Ultimate I/O have a common ground. Otherwise, the coils will not get fired. The PacDrive does not have an output for ground, so just solder a wire to the top of the USB port and connect it to ground. That will fix it.

3. Ensure you never short any switches to any solenoid wires. Do whatever you need to do to ensure they are far away from each other. You will definitely blow out your Ultimate I/O board that way. I blew out a couple before I was done.

4. You can use any Windows PC, but I'm using a little solid-state MINIX box. I'm sure there are better alternatives in 2023.

5. Do NOT attempt to trigger the solenoid driver board with the Ultimate I/O directly. At first, I had the bright idea to just use extra outputs on the Ultimate I/O board to drive the solenoid driver board. This may appear to work at first, but will eventually cause your Ultimate I/O board to fail because of the dimmable LED outputs. Coils do not behave well with dimmable LED outputs.

My son still has the high score... and while I've gotten close... I still can't beat it.

Why would someone even want that? The game is already hard as heck.

I hate speed hacks. Either they are cheating and make things too easy, or they make things too hard (if the ghosts are as fast as the Pacman).

If you need more speed for Pacman/Ms. Pacman, just play Pacman Plus or Ms. Pacman Plus (hack... not the version in MAME). I think Baby Pacman speed and difficulty are perfect as is.

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The closest thing to a board replacement that currently exist is the project I did with mine awhile back. Still works 100% after 5 years.

To completely replace all Baby Pacman electronics, you need:

1. Ultimarc Ultimate I/O Board for handling input switches and lamps
2. Ultimarc Pac DRIVE board for handling the 9 solenoids.
3. Custom Solenoid Driver board (custom board that drives the 48V to the solenoids) Schematics and Eagle files included.
4. DUPONT patch cables.... lots of them.

This requires that you totally hack the playfield LED and switch wiring. You would need to wire one wire per LED and one wire per switch. This is a major disadvantage of doing this.

This PinMAME also has a hack in it so that the high scores get saved (for Baby Pacman) even if you power off the computer without exiting/shutting down the OS.

To run PinMAME with support for the Ultimate IO and PacDrive, the command line looks like this:

pinmame babypac -ultimateio -joystick -dmd_only -scanlines -skip_gameinfo

Here's a few important notes to consider when doing this project that I learned along the way:

1. Be sure to install the Ultimate IO Gamepad firmware. You should use Gamepad inputs (not keyboard inputs) for all switches that may be constantly on (ie: the outholes and targets) Otherwise, you'll be fighting for keyboard control when trying to perform maintenance.

2. Be sure the PacDrive, Solenoid driver board and Ultimate I/O have a common ground. Otherwise, the coils will not get fired. The PacDrive does not have an output for ground, so just solder a wire to the top of the USB port and connect it to ground. That will fix it.

3. Ensure you never short any switches to any solenoid wires. Do whatever you need to do to ensure they are far away from each other. You will definitely blow out your Ultimate I/O board that way. I blew out a couple before I was done.

4. You can use any Windows PC, but I'm using a little solid-state MINIX box. I'm sure there are better alternatives in 2023.

5. Do NOT attempt to trigger the solenoid driver board with the Ultimate I/O directly. At first, I had the bright idea to just use extra outputs on the Ultimate I/O board to drive the solenoid driver board. This may appear to work at first, but will eventually cause your Ultimate I/O board to fail because of the dimmable LED outputs. Coils do not behave well with dimmable LED outputs.

Here's a link to the software with compiled binary and source code: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N_yPA2iSD-2YO-HDC1EqwdEOLgFFkcSn/view?usp=sharing