For those of you not in the know, Bob Roberts is the Yoda of arcade repair.  He's a well-respected member of the amusement community, and has more parts and knowledge than anyone could ever imagine.  Well, in the process of diagnosing the Pac-Man, I was advised to get new game rom chips.  These hold all the data and programming that make a Pac-Man the wonderful game that it is.  Now, everytime I order something from Bob, I get some lagniappe.  Sometimes it's a pen, sometimes it's a chip exctractor.  Nothing of real monetary value, but it is invaluable in customer service points.  Well, when I ordered a set of chips and fuses, I expected the package to be just a padded envelope.  I was surprised to find a small box on my doorstep yesterday afternoon. 

Here's what I ordered -



And, here's what else was included in the box -



Hot damn, moon pies in a Mardi Gras cup!  Now I could have gone out last Tuesday and probably caught a case of this stuff, but since I'm an anti-social hermit, I stayed home and cut down palm trees instead.  This gave me a little taste of the parades without putting up with the traffic, swarms of morons, and lack of restrooms. 

Best of both worlds, baby!

Anyway, this is what the old chips looked like -



The pins were corroded, and some of the legs were barely attached to the chips themselves.  After pulling them and cleaning the sockets, it looked a lot more attractive -



The good news is that it looks good.  The bad news is that it didn't help.  The screen is still scrambled, and the game doesn't even boot.  The next step is to replace the processor chip and one of the sync chips.  Fortunately, old chips are really cheap, so this project isn't as relatively frustrating as some of the other projects I've tackled.  

     Speaking of other projects, I'm nearly finished Dr. Pinkerton's "Pinkyon Particle Procurement Apparatus" (that's not the official name, but I had to call it something).  Looka -



You can't really see it with the flash, but the horseshoe is illuminated by a strip of EL wire.  Also, I'm searching frantically for green glitter to fill up the procurement chamber (the empty Diet Coke 2-liter bottle).  Unfortunately for me, green glitter is a main component for most Mardi Gras costumes, so every place I've looked has been sold out, and probably won't be re-stocked for a few weeks.  To make matters worse, St. Patrick's day is around the corner, and it'll be just as rare then as the St. Patty's parades start taking shape.

    So, that's my quest today.

    Must.  Find.  Green.  Glitter.