First game you bought and when

Well first game, not video, was a Williams Set Up pinball, c1983 for $80.00. Followed by Atari Coin Op built Atari 2600 Kiosk, 1984 NIB - FREE! Actually my first Coin-OP video was Centuri Vanguard, 1993 at $90.00 . More recently, 2015-16 on, mostly Atari Coin Ops.

1635438096081.png
Posted by a collector of:
ATARI, INC.
A Warner Communications Company
 
Some very cool acquisition stories here.

I had a couple close calls…I remember my folks knew the owner of a couple of pizza joints in the local area that actually bought a few games to rotate in each location. One of which was a '73 Williams Jungle Drums EM rifle game. They wanted to trade that for our Sears Telegames 2600 console. I think at that time I had the Colecovision expansion module, so the 2600 was probably boxed at this point. Never did the trade, glad I didn't since I bought the same gun game in the mid 2ks.

This story involves the same operator… again, almost purchased a Looping sometime in '88, thinking he was asking around $300? Guess, I didn't love Looping that much… Mid summer of '89, finally purchased a Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom from same operator- think around 3 bills again. Played a ton of that game circa that summer in anticipation of a Last Crusade arcade game. I guess Atari opted to go for the Batman license instead…
 
My first purchase was a Paperboy in July, 2020. I paid $1475 for it and another $530 for shipping.

I found out that this game was originally from "Crazy Cats Arcade". It was owned by the Beerman Family in Dayton Ohio. When that arcade closed down, the manager bought many of the games from Crazy Cats and opened his own arcade called "Little Greggies Family Fun Center". The game eventually was retired and stored in the managers garage. Years later, sadly, the manager died. It was his little brother, Greg, that sold me the game.

I found this wedged inside the cabinet.

20200910_202100b.jpg
 
My first arcade game I bought was a Bally Star Trek pinball. I know I have posted this in another thread before, but I don't think I went into detail so here is the story of how and when I got my Bally Star Trek Pinball machine. It was the winter of 1982, and I heard there was a local auction of arcade games from the local Newport News Amusements Co who had all the local games on location in the area. The auction was held in a gymnasium and mostly electro-mechanical pinball machines with some solid-state pinballs and a few old B&W games like Gunfight. My buddy Wade went with me to the auction, and we looked over the games and they had 3 Bally Star Trek pinball machines. Anyone that knows me knows I am a big Star Trek fan and I had to have one, but funds were short at the time, and I may have had a buget of about $150.00. I had hope because many of the games were selling between $75-100.00 but when they got to the first of the 3 Star Trek games, I started the bid at $50.00 and when it got to $150.00, I stopped bidding and I don't remember what the final price was, but it was more than I had so I waited till they got to the second Star Trek. Again, I started the bidding and was quickly out bid again. Well, the 3rd Star Trek was near the end of the auction, and I think everyone had noticed I was only bidding on the Star Treks, so I started the bid off again with a $130.00 bid. To my surprise no-one else bid and the auctioneer said sold I could not believe it. I guess they all noticed I was only bidding on the Star Treks and felt sorry for me and decided to let me have it. We loaded it up in the back of my 1977 Ford F-350 crew cab pickup truck which had an electric dump bed and no tailgate. We had no tools to take off the head or the legs, so we loaded it up in the bed and the next problem we did not have any straps to strap it down so in the dead of winter my buddy Wade rode in the bed holding the pinball machine to keep it from tipping over and flying out the back of the truck. We got it home in one piece and I have had it now for the last 40 years. Here's a video I made back in 2013 when I added a new prototype back glass from CPR Reproductions which I show the game still has the auction tag taped to the top of the back box.
 
A few years ago I saw a Galaga pop up for sale locally on CL or Offer up. It was advertised at an auto junk yard of all places. Said turns on but needs monitor. I got down there the next day and it powered up but with garbage on the screen. I guess to them that meant the monitor was bad lol. They had a 1942 right next to it in a KIS cabinet. They wanted $200 for the Galaga and I asked how much for 1942? They said oh that's a real rare game and we want $500 for it. I said how about $350 for the pair? Took em home. That started the bug.
Now I have probably 15 cabinets + 2 pinballs. Still have the 1942. The monitor in it was BAD. Super dim. Tube swapped it recently + installed a 6 way Jamma switcher. It's got 1942, Time Pilot, Time Pilot 84', Gyruss and Commando in it now.
 
I don't get it?

l-intro-1646456156.jpg
 
Sky Soldiers - $50 - May 2009... I saw a speck of yellow paint poking through one side of the solid blue painted cabinet... Many hours later, using a heat gun, elbow grease and scraper, an original Pacman cabinet with stenciled artwork was revealed... this started the sickness...
 
Oh shit. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought it was a Goonies reference...
 
Tutankham, summer of 1989.

I had not seen this game anywhere since at my local arcade in San Jose, California in 1981 or 82.

The high school seniors had dicked around at the waterpark on their grad night in '88, so Grad Night '89 was instead held in our HS gymnasium! They had brought in arcade machines for it, and low and behold--there it was! I was thrilled. I called the game supplier name affixed to one of the games the next day. The guy said he'd sell it for $300, until I pointed out the monitor display was looking janky. He knocked $50 off (my memory was slightly off, edited). I had the display fixed immediately after buying, had bought an original owners manual and reproduced side art (which I never got around to applying).

I enjoyed it for 25 years, maintenance-free until my mom's house burned. The marquee had melted, and I was too overwhelmed to investigate its damage beyond the coin door--I retrieved my converted Graflex flashbulb-lightsaber from the cashbox (the cabinet had protected it). The 'board-up' crew advised that we abandon electronics, that the smoke damage would render everything unusable. I now believe that to be a bunch of bs and think my machine was probably fine, minus a marquee. The fire damage crew we hired would have taken it and everything else we left behind to the dump, their houses, who knows.
 
Last edited:
I may have posted in this thread before....I could search....meh. Ill just post it.

Original Neo Geo 4 Slot was my first buy. I paid $400 for it. Got it with 4 games. Metal slug. Puzzle Bobble. Last Resort. Samurai Shodown 2. This was......early 2015. I always wanted an arcade and a neo geo so I was pretty psyched.
 
Back
Top Bottom