Museum of the Game® & International Arcade Museum® Forums

I'm talking about the people not the games. What was the optimal age of kids between 1978 and 1984? I turned 6 at the end of 78, and turned 12 at the end of 84, and I still feel like I was a tail-ender and almost a little young to remember a lot of the details of the classic era. Actually I remember the era between 1984 and 1991 with a lot more clarity. Starting with playing Ghosts n Goblins at the Melrose Bowl in 1984, Double Dragon and Outrun at the Long Prairie Arcade in 1987 and ending with playing Arch Rivals at the Skill Mill in 1991.

How many of us who were actually there and aware are still around? How many of us are still in the hobby? When do you think the last of us ages out? I just realized I've been in the hobby 20 years and on the forums over 17. I turned 51 two months ago.

I only bring this up because I've noticed that the forums have really been lacking content the last three or four years. I mean there are some interesting spurts here and there, but for the most part, I'm only waking up to maybe a page and a half of *ANY* new posts these days, where I used to wake up to 5 to 10 pages of good quality content every morning. I'm just wondering how long many of us are gonna be around to keep this going? I have met some younger collectors recently, so that's a good sign, but I have noticed that even my own kids like to PLAY the games, but have zero interest in the hobby. I really hoped I'd get them involved, but they really never seemed to be that interested in buying and restoring these things.

My son had a bunch of friends over for his 15th birthday party this weekend, and all the games were on and I saw all the kids playing them when they weren't out ice fishing. So that was pretty awesome. But I also realized that they only get together at our place maybe once or twice a year, and in three years that group of dudes will be graduating and gone. I've still got one more son who will have three years of high school after his brother is gone. So I suppose that trend could continue for another three years after these guys move on, but then what? Go back to having Arcade collector parties? Let the games sit till the kids visit once a year? Or do you start planning the liquidation process? I kind of always thought I'd be in the hobby till I was probably 70, but what if I'm sick of it by 60, or even earlier like say 55? After my youngest leaves for college, I will turn 58, maybe that's the magic number?

I know I hate these types of threads, but I really have been starting to think about this. I guess I never got old before, so I don't know what it's gonna be like. I honestly never thought I'd get to this point, but here I am. I also noticed that we've lost a few collectors over the last few years, and you never know when your time is up. I just kind of wanna get ahead of this thing before I burden my wife or kids with all my stuff. I also want to stay positive about the hobby, and maybe have a little fire reignited in me to give me a reason to want to stay in it. And I guess I just don't want all of this to be cast aside and forgotten when we're gone. But maybe in the end, the future of the hobby really doesn't matter. Maybe only the here and now of the hobby matters and we enjoy what we have, what we've built and try to share our passion with as many people as we can going forward. Maybe the hobby was only placed here for us while WE were here and once we're gone it's OK for the Universe to let it go.
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