I am happy to wait for an eventual Pac Man Jr core, but while doing a deep dive on Pac Man games, I seemed to remember one called Professor Pac-Man as seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Pac-Man
Apparently in the real hardware world, some parts are insanely difficult to replace. I can see why: The wiki states "Only 400 cabinets were made; approximately 300 of these were returned to the manufacturer and converted to Pac-Land cabinets the following year."
I'd bet some of those remaining cabinets could use a MiSTer core if no other hardware replacement was possible. From a PRESERVATION standpoint, let's hope this one isn't too tricky to do. I don't know the hardware differences (if any) to other PacMan games, but if conversions were made to Pac-Land, that may be a place to start.
Any fans of the Prof. here?