There’s a show in Houston this weekend. They might have some games for sale.
Look for Pinball Jim. If you see him, tell him Yotsuya sez hi. Then feel free to mug him.
Hey there! I started with MAME too. Bought my first real cab a year later (a cocktail from @jawhn) and now I’m like 15 cabs deep. Still have the MAME cab though!
We had a few arcades, pizza places, and convenience stores that we used to play games at, but my favorite place was the laundry mat next door to my school. They had a whole front section that had like 6-8 games, and to get change, you’d have to go to the laundry attendant to get your quarters...
And I tell you what, the one thing that makes me happy is even though this thread is 13 years old, there's still a lot of people who posted in it that I call my friends to this day. The best thing about this hobby is the friends I made. They'll be friends even after the games are gone.
This thread takes me back. I spent the last 30 minutes just reading through the good old days, when our community was still new and small, before friends decided to ghost others for no reason, and before Bret went Full Bret and sold off all his arcade games for pinball machines. Memories!