Pacman, Ms. Pacman and Galaga are easily the most identifiable arcade games of the 1980’s.   They were both manufactured using the same cabinet style, however not the exact same cabinet.

Originally, in 1980, Pacman was released in it’s iconic cabinet (and yellow color) and took the world by storm.  Ms. Pacman was it’s successor in 1981, originally marketed to appeal to the female gamer (thus the blue, yellow and pink colors).  It really didnt matter as Ms. Pacman quickly overtook Pacman as the most popular game ever because of it’s changing maze and better game play.

Also in 1981, Galaga was actually an experiment in reusing the same game hardware and appeared to be released in cost reduced form – as the cabinets were actually made from pressed cardboard instead of the original multi-ply wood design.  Over the years, Galaga machines have suffered from age. Most of the time, cardboard cabinet has absorbed so much water that it mushrooms and de-laminates to a point of no-return.  As a result, we typically will use Ms. Pacman cabinets and convert them over to Galaga, or go the route of the “reunion style” and put both Galaga and Ms. Pacman graphics on the cabinet.  This emulates the 20th Anniversary Reunion arcade games that were re-released in the early 2000’s, but at a much reduced cost.

All cabinets of this style hold the 19″ vertically oriented monitor.  This means that the 4×3 monitor i s turned 90 degrees so that it sits taller than wider.  This is the orientation for many games of the early 1980’s such as: Galaga, Pacman, Ms. Pacman, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Centipede, Millipede etc.   Also, the monitor in these cabinets are laid down almost flat – like a table.