In search of Puckman...

 Hi folks!

I don't know if some of you remember playing Pac-Man in the arcades in 1980-1 ? Well, after 40 years...maybe some of you have forgotten or were too young or even not born (for those who were not born before 1981, you missed the greatest arcade generation!)

Well i did play Pac-mAn back then but the very first Pac-Man arcade i've played was called "Puckman" (yup...PUCKman, not Pac-Man). Here's a picture of the cabinet:

Now that's the one i've played and remember!

Long story short, these cabinets...errr...rather the marquee in particular, was sometimes the object of vandals as they removed a part of the letter "P" to make an "F" and that story is as old as this cab. And because of this, these cabinets were removed in the following months.

But thing is, this particular cabinet has a unique artwork which was made by the company Willis Industries Inc., as many still put this as a "bootleg" (in fact, it is a bootleg as the artwork was not endorsed by Namco). But the artwork, who made it ?

Now that's a great question! Usually since "bootleg" artworks were not endorsed by major companies, Willis Industries never published who were the authors just in case of a lawsuit, but the artwork on this cabinet was signed by the artist, check this out:

 P.PEAK ! Errr....to many of you, that doesn't ring a bell but to some (at least old as me or older) who played and collects Exidy arcades like Death Race, Alley Rally and Score (plus Spiders from Mars) were done by the same man: Pat "Sleepy" Peak.

There is almost no information regarding this author but he was well known for the artwork he made for Exidy and he did some great artwork, especially for the 70's as many arcades back then had simple artwork. But let's go back to the main subject: In search of Puckman.

I'm not looking for an original cabinet as these are very, very limited now since some people gotten the idea of scrapping the artwork and repaint the cabinet yellow and putting the all well known Pac-Man artwork that everybody knows. That's a real shame as i find this Puckman artwork "unique" (as all Pat's artwork), but rather i'm looking for anyone who has one with the proper sidearts, marquee and bezel (not the CPO as it's very easy to replicate).

 

 The marquee

Marquee and bezel (also CPO)

...and the sideart. 

So if anyone has this cabinet and the original artworks (marquee, bezel & sidearts), could you PPPlease take (center front) high definition pictures, pretty please ??!!!!! Because i want them to be preserved for historical purpose and i have a project in mind in the future.

So now, just need to wait and see if my call will be answered one day (hopefully before i die).

--- Sly "Waka, waka...peeououou...plok!" DC ---