As with the Dig Dug and Venture post, most of this was originally published as part of the bavacade repair log from February 9, 2023. But in service of celebrating the greatest video game of all time, a dedicated permalink to share the Pac-man overhaul love was not too much to ask.
After fitting Pac-man with the BitKit2, I decided that cabinet needed to be on wheels and the bottom looked over closely given the floor was feeling tenuous under any kind of pressure. There were early signs of wood rot that may have been a result of water damage, although it was definitely not extensive.
Pac-man without underpants
Pac-man‘s old floor was feeling its age
I stripped the cabinet down to its bones and sent it out to Alberto, who worked his magic. He replaced the floor entirely, while leaving everything else in tact, and added a base pedestal to hide the new wheels. Once I got it back I taped around the original artwork and painted the cabinet with the Scramble yellow I had left-over from that project, and did some touch-up on the black paint, but otherwise left the original artwork untouched. The yellow from Scramble was matte, which meant the color was a bit muted compared to the original Pac-man yellow.
This was probably the fastest I ever completed a strip down, re-build, and re-paint. It was all done in less than a week, including Alberto’s work—which was crazy fast. I took a ton of photos, and you can find them in this Flickr album. I was also racing against time given I had planned travel back to the US, so it was nice to get it done.
That said, once I returned from the US the matte yellow from Scramble I used for touch-ups was bothering me. So, I got that yellow mixed as glossy, and then re-painted the sides, front, and back of the cabinet with the new glossy paint, and now the difference between the yellow around the original artwork and the yellow I added to clean things up is much harder to notice.
It’s looking good! I still need to paint the back of this cabinet, which was also yellow. I’ll take care of that once I return. This dot gobbler is the crown of my collection, so it needs to be beautiful! In fact, you can get a better sense of the before and after effect with the two side-by-side images below.
Pac-man after the work
Pac-man before the work
See the little black “skirt” as it were to hide the wheels, doesn’t bother me at all. The add-on doesn’t distract from the look/feel of the cabine one bit. So kudos to you for doing that mod across the Bavacade fleet. Cabinets get damaged because they never came with wheels in the first place quite frankly.
Exactly, and the mod is also eminently practical given I move them around my foyer and basement a lot, and it just makes it easier and safer. What’s more, I am far more likely to damage these cabinets using a hand truck rather than rolling them around. So I am completely at one with the mods, and if someone wants to undo them in the future nothing of the original has changed, so it is not at all a true modification.
Pingback: bavacade work log 3-28-2023 | bavatuesdays
This is such a great project! I love the look of the finished product!