Jakks Pacific

[Atariboy]

Even if it does happen, what makes you so sure Atari will be the one behind it like your so sure of? I remain hopeful that something will come of it, but I doubt it.

Edited September 7, 2006 by Atariboy

[Paranoid]

I'm not certain that Atari will be behind it. But I *knew* for a fact that calling the FB3 *dead* was premature and uninformed, at best. And I do believe that Atari was pushing forward with concepts that were designed to a higher standard than Jakks garbage. It seems more likely that Atari WILL be behind a FB3 than NOT, to me, as well.

 

Time will tell.

[Retro Rogue]

Oh, and as for Flashback 3, I would say it's dead since Curt wasn't done with it yet, and has now moved on to a new company...

 

That's just plain wrong. The FB3 was done and in breadboard/proto stage. Likwise he has not "moved on to a new company", he has started *another* company (Awesome Arcades). Legacy Engineering is still there and active.

[mattwillia]

Seems to me it would be better(and easier) just to transplant the thing into something a bit more "user friendly" than to gripe about a carbon dot. I understand the frustration but, it was intended to be a toy.

 

But all that aside...we can make it better & stronger than before...

 

My Jakks Super Pac Man (New Wal-Mart version) is liking its new home so far...just need to add some wood sides and a back now.

 

 

Add a couple of switches, change the restrictor plate to a four way...and volia:

 

 

I think the old Bosconian cocktail would have been proud Of course, the piece of junk clicky Jakks stick found its way to the trash.

Edited January 24, 2007 by mattwillia

[Paranoid]

Nice job.

 

That looks pretty nice, and I bet it makes a good conversation piece at parties. Not a bad idea at all.

[mattwillia]

It gets a lot more comments than a jakks stick sitting next to the TV. Its also a lot more fun.

 

Its coming along quite well. It still needs a little cleaning up though. This board was from the Wal-Mart Edition 3 Super Pac-Man but, I'm guessing just about any of them including the Atari stick could be stuffed in a cocktail control panel with minimal effort...I think I could even get a FB2 in there. (of course that would need a few extra connections.)

 

For what its worth the Jakks ed. 3 Super is easily one of the best "simulations" so far. The joystick control is horrible though. Thats what prompted me to gut the thing in the first place. Its also cheap. The Jakks stick was about $15 and misc. parts were about $10. I think I bought the Bosconian control panel for about $15 bucks about 7 years ago. Far cheaper than a MAME setup.

 

I'd like to find a way to do this with the wireless Mrs. Pac-Man since its got a good selection of games that feel pretty close to original.

Edited January 24, 2007 by mattwillia

[Paranoid]

If memory serves me correct, the control and the logic on the Atari stick are built into one board (where the Ms. Pac Man and I assume others) have a separate mechanical stick that is wired to the logic board.

 

That would seem to mean that it would be far more difficult to get the Atari stick running with a different stick. You would have to run wires from the actual directionals on the replacement stick to the contacts on the PCB intended for the carbon dots.

 

Does that make sense?

[mattwillia]

that sounds correct...solder two wires to each directional...somewhat more complicated than the other sticks. of course if you still need a carbon dot, I have 1 left over from the jakks stick I trashed.

Edited January 26, 2007 by mattwillia

[jlh2600]

"I've sent the Jakks agent a note with a link to this thread..."

 

She's gotta be laughing her ASS off at you right about now.

 

 

But sorry you've had so much trouble w/Jakk's products. I've had a few, most have been about par w/what I'd expect at their price points (with the notable exception of the 2 player PADDLE games- that thing is AWESOME!).

[DrLove0378]

Seems to me it would be better(and easier) just to transplant the thing into something a bit more "user friendly" than to gripe about a carbon dot. I understand the frustration but, it was intended to be a toy.

 

But all that aside...we can make it better & stronger than before...

 

My Jakks Super Pac Man (New Wal-Mart version) is liking its new home so far...just need to add some wood sides and a back now.

 

 

Add a couple of switches, change the restrictor plate to a four way...and volia:

 

 

I think the old Bosconian cocktail would have been proud Of course, the piece of junk clicky Jakks stick found its way to the trash.

 

 

That's AWESOME! I have a Jakks Super Pac-Man stick as well, and I wish I had the skillz to build it into an old CP, like you did. The games themselves are good, but the controls SUCK, SUCK, SUCK!!!!!!! And of course, it's not feasible to carry around a computer and X-Arcade stick, to get an on-the-go gaming fix.

 

But still, it's hard to imagine all that plastic garbage coming in container-loads from the other side of the Specific Ocean[sic]. The average consumer (and their snot-nosed kids) doesn't have the know-how to transplant the guts into a new case... and the sticks eventually get trashed. Whoever commented on the "waste of plastic" issue was right on -- the world would be better off without some of their offerings.

 

It'd be nice if something like this had AC adapter capability... that'd be all the more incentive to build my own. Unfortunately, the Jakks battery eliminator doesn't fit in the Super Pac-Man stick, so I gotta think up something different.

Edited February 19, 2007 by DrLove0378

[mattwillia]

An AC adapter should'nt be too much trouble to add...its just using 6 volts DC. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but, it seems like you could wire in a 6v 200mah or greater DC wall wart in place of the batteries.

 

All the other parts are radio shack/junk box specials... a battery holder, euro terminal strip, spst switch, and led holder. Maybe a velcro dot or 2 to hold the parts in place in the control panel. Its possibly 8-10 dollars worth of parts. (assuming you already have a joystick)

[+DamonicFury]

This board was from the Wal-Mart Edition 3 Super Pac-Man...

 

For what its worth the Jakks ed. 3 Super is easily one of the best "simulations" so far.

 

What's the difference between the third edition and the original one?

[Vic George 2K3]

Not bad, having an arcade panel redone as the new casing for a plug-and-play game machine.

[mattwillia]

 

What's the difference between the third edition and the original one?

 

I'm not sure...I've only seen & played the ed. 3 unit. Maybe someone else out there knows?

[onmode-ky]

You're misinterpreting the meaning of "Edition 3." What it really means is "third in the series"; the Namco series has the 2003 Pac-Man model as Edition 1, the 2004 Ms. Pac-Man model as Edition 2, and the 2006 Super Pac-Man model as Edition 3. I don't think any other of Jakks' TV Game series has had more than 2 Editions so far. E.g., the Spongebob series has only 2 (the early-childhood activities model doesn't count), as do the Disney and Disney Princesses series. The new Spider-Man 3 model may count as Edition 2 of the Spider-Man series, though I don't think I've seen it numbered that way.

 

The only other company I've seen do something like this is Radica, with Vols. 1-3 of the Play TV Legends Sega Genesis line. It's kind of a strange numbering, though, since they had 3 Genesis models between Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 that didn't get numbered.

 

The way I see it, the explicit numbering of models in a series seals the abandonment of the GameKey concept. If the plan were still to release multiple keys for one model of controller per series, they wouldn't need to number controllers.

 

I don't believe there's any difference between the various packaging designs of the Super Pac-Man model other than the packaging. I think the model just came out during a time when Jakks was in the midst of renovating their TV Games line packaging. Similarly, the Activision joystick model had at least 2 different forms of packaging, a cardboard card-backed type (like with action figures) and a slim cardboard box type; this was right before the line switched from larger cardboard boxes to the slimmer boxes. Now, Jakks has switched to all-plastic packs; personally, I prefer the slim cardboard boxes.

 

Incidentally, Jakks mentioned an upcoming Pac-Man Gold model in their recent quarterly conference call. I've found no info on it so far.

 

onmode-ky

[Paranoid]

I don't think so, Onmode. When people refer to the 3rd edition they mean that there were 3 revisions of the wired Jakk's Ms. Pac Man stick.

 

The first edition had notoriously poor directional input, and was unclear on the device and the packaging how the "twist" feature for Pole Position worked.

 

The second edition had a little ring on the stick itself that illustrated HOW the twist feature worked for Pole Position 3.

 

The final edition/revision, boasted improved directional controls (through improved logic on the board or better mechanicals or engineering in the stick, I do not know). For some people, this version indeed proved to provide a more satisfactory experience, although a lot of people still complained about missed input, especially on diagonals in Xevious, and false input on Ms. Pac Man.

 

3 revisions/editions, one single stick. There is also the Wireless Ms. Pac Man, which ALSO promised improved control, and, IMHO, once again failed to deliver on this promise, while also making the stick itself unnecessarily complex.

 

I have the 1st and 2nd revision of the wired version (and the 2nd edition works DECENT), and the wireless. They're all pretty lame, though.

[onmode-ky]

If you look back a few posts, mattwillia and sdamon were specifically talking about the Super Pac-Man unit when they discussed "Edition 3," so I think my response correctly answers what they were asking (the boldfacing below is mine):

 

This board was from the Wal-Mart Edition 3 Super Pac-Man...

 

For what its worth the Jakks ed. 3 Super is easily one of the best "simulations" so far.

 

In other news, I e-mailed Jakks Pacific recently. The response said that GameKeys have been discontinued (so it's official now, not just de facto), and the customer service rep said he had not even heard of the Pac-Man Gold unit I asked about. I guess the higher-ups haven't told Customer Service about the upcoming unit yet (one of the company executives was the one who mentioned it in the transcript I read, among other new titles). Also, I thought this might be of interest: a recent Jakks Pacific press release stated that the company had extended their licensing agreement with Namco-Bandai Games America. It noted, "To date we have sold more than 15 million units based on Namco's top-selling franchise and look forward to at least another three year-run with the titles." That to-date number sure is a lot of Pac-Man.

 

onmode-ky

[Hoodoo]

Me two cents....

 

Seems a little strange to be hounding people about plastic being in landfills on a site about Atari.....

 

 

I was neutral in this argument until the statement "Usually, I just know a lot more than the people who disagree with me"

Are you sure? I own nothing from Jakk's (and have no plans to, I own the entire collection of "Classics" they've put out anyway), so don't call ME a fanboy, but I think what that "Usually..." statement says to me is "I'm foolish enough to believe that I, who probably works a regular nine to fiver is SMARTER than a multimillion dollar company". Don't be so arrogant. Who are you to judge people, just because you're some hippie worried about some junk in a landfill? Sorry if that's curt and rude, but you've made an ass out of yourself, I think. THAT was the point jbanes was trying to get across, that you're being an asshole about it, not that he particularly agrees or disagrees.