Future of the hobby

If you can believe it, this shop is still in business!

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The last brick-and-mortar typewriter repair shop in the metro Boston area closed earlier this year. But not for lack of business, the guy just retired.


But there are still plenty of other places that do repairs, you just have to seek them out.

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I still own my personal typewriter I used in Jr High School.
But I'm a hoarder, so this probably does not count for much. LOL :)

KLOV are a special breed of collectors. I'm sure most of us collect more than just items related to vids and pins and jukes. Not like the general public.
Most people are not preservationists.
 
Repair guys are local. I just fixed a game that a guy had been waiting for 4 years to get fixed. I had to retrofit parts for that game. The people willing or able to do that are dwindling.
 
I really don't believe that arcade games will become like jukeboxes for a very long time. Videogaming as a whole is still a huge and growing industry and probably will be for a long time. As long as there are people and pop culture, there will be people interested in this and even diving deep into it.

There aren't arcade repair techs on every street corner, but stay plugged in here, and if this goes away, similar social media. Anything that could possibly go wrong, people here have been able to help, if not directly, then by pointing me to a good repairperson.
 
My son routinely passes on opportunities to play the games we own. He will regret it when I'm gone as I regret not watching all the black and white movies my dad wanted to watch with me. Or maybe, he will be motivated to keep them going and a spark will ignite. Time will tell.
 
You can complain or you can do.

Banning was used to bring repair people together. I know more people who can sling a soldering iron and do repairs than most people. I have taught many how to sling iron.

I am not worried about repairs.

I have an itch to expand what i do but what I do is for fun and I don't want my fun to impact those who do this for a living.
 
Repair guys are local. I just fixed a game that a guy had been waiting for 4 years to get fixed. I had to retrofit parts for that game. The people willing or able to do that are dwindling.
I know that music. I'm the guy in western Illinois who does that.

I still get a call to go to Blair, Nebraska to fix a guy's pinball machines on occasion.
 
I really don't believe that arcade games will become like jukeboxes for a very long time. Videogaming as a whole is still a huge and growing industry and probably will be for a long time. As long as there are people and pop culture, there will be people interested in this and even diving deep into it.

There aren't arcade repair techs on every street corner, but stay plugged in here, and if this goes away, similar social media. Anything that could possibly go wrong, people here have been able to help, if not directly, then by pointing me to a good repairperson.
Video games, yes, but not arcade video games. Home and mobile gaming are bigger than ever but arcade games are not participating in that success.

That's like saying jukeboxes will be around because music streaming services are successful now.

I'm not saying it will be 100% gone, but the next gen does not have any connection to arcades and only a few here and there will find the hobby.

Arcades are of the past. Sure there are a few here and there that get buy by selling food and drink, but the hey day of arcades has come and gone. It's not coming back.

Fortunately the few who carry on will have more information than the repair persons of yesteryear had.
 
If you can believe it, this shop is still in business!

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its probably a front for a meth lab...

the reality is, 2 or 3 generations from now, no one will care about them. Maybe museums, but probably not that either. kids 50-75 years from now will probably have neural implants and not even care about a pacman arcade. maybe the implant will tell them it was a primitive entertainment device.

enjoy what you have, try to get the next generation interested, and maybe they can do the same.. but eventually, no one will care or be interested in them. Somewhere in the world there is probably a museum to buggy whips.. how much longer do you think people will know what a cassette, 8 track, or a vhs tape was.
 
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Video games, yes, but not arcade video games. Home and mobile gaming are bigger than ever but arcade games are not participating in that success.

That's like saying jukeboxes will be around because music streaming services are successful now.

I'm not saying it will be 100% gone, but the next gen does not have any connection to arcades and only a few here and there will find the hobby.

Arcades are of the past. Sure there are a few here and there that get buy by selling food and drink, but the hey day of arcades has come and gone. It's not coming back.

Fortunately the few who carry on will have more information than the repair persons of yesteryear had.

This is all fair. The way I see it… what I meant was I think there will always be people who seek out arcade games because they were the first widespread videogames. The birthplace of love for and of household intellectual property like Pac-man, Mario, Donkey Kong, etc.

If music didn't exist prior to jukeboxes, then the jukebox analogy would work. A jukebox is like an mp3 player, a relic of a specific time period.

And, people still buy jukeboxes.

I agree there will probably be a lot less interest than with our generation that experienced arcades in their heyday…
 
its probably a front for a meth lab...

We have already determined that it's a front for Brazilian Bolivian marching powder, whatever that is. So please stop with the outrageous accusations, presented without any evidence whatsoever!

😬😬😬

But seriously, the guy is retired but loves working on typewriter stuff so he keeps the place open. The family has owned the business for decades and I think he owns the building, which is near historic Bethlehem, PA. I love the vintage sign.

Just to make the point that things that are seemingly obsolete like typewriters or jukeboxes will probably always have some kind of a fan base and support system.

Whenever this question comes up about the future of the hobby, I think of a book I read some years ago called The Revenge of Analog (2018) by David Sax. He goes into the unlikely resurgence of interest in LPs, board games, traditional photography, flip phones, independent bookstores, and more. These are more than just fads. People crave tangible, real-world experiences and meaningful interactions, even if they didn't grow up with the specific artifacts in question. His term for it is false nostalgia. I think this trend will only get stronger, especially as modern tech keeps overplaying its hand and trying harder to degrade our lives. When people realize that they don't have to live inside their goddamn phones, a whole world of possibilities opens up...

So I'm optimistic. Having done the library arcade three times, it's clear that the games are timeless classics that span the generations. Little kids and teens love 'em, which seems weird but there it is.
 
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We've done a ton of these threads in the past;

Real talk:
The only thing that worries me is how my kids will fare in life after I'm gone.

I really fear how cruel the world is; however this place has taught me that strangers can still be really great people.

Just wanted to share that.
 
We have already determined that it's a front for Brazilian marching powder, whatever that is. So please stop with the outrageous accusations, presented without any evidence whatsoever!

😬😬😬

But seriously, the guy is retired but loves working on typewriter stuff so he keeps the place open. The family has owned the business for decades and I think he owns the building, which is near historic Bethlehem, PA. I love the vintage sign.

Just to make the point that things that are seemingly obsolete like typewriters or jukeboxes will probably always have some kind of a fan base and support system.

Whenever this question comes up about the future of the hobby, I think of a book I read some years ago called The Revenge of Analog (2018) by David Sax. He goes into the unlikely resurgence of interest in LPs, board games, traditional photography, flip phones, independent bookstores, and more. These are more than just fads. People crave tangible, real-world experiences and meaningful interactions, even if they didn't grow up with the specific artifacts in question. His term for it is false nostalgia. I think this trend will only get stronger, especially as modern tech keeps overplaying its hand and trying harder to degrade our lives. When people realize that they don't have to live inside their goddamn phones, a whole world of possibilities opens up...

So I'm optimistic. Having done the library arcade three times, it's clear that the games are timeless classics that span the generations. Little kids and teens love 'em, which seems weird but there it is.
Oooo! Like Reed Richards owned the Baxter Building.

Maybe this guy is a superhero?
 
I agree.

I am probably half the age of most people on this forum, so I feel like my POV is somewhat different.

Catalogue everything. Not spread across esoteric, difficult-to-search or paywalled forums (among numerous other factors) that may go down sooner rather than later. Use BOOKS. The best way to catalogue, archive, immortalise, and share information since time antiquity. Write books. And make them public domain. Stick them on amazon, kobo, wikimedia commons, internet-archive, etc. Throw them on every forum just for the hell of it.

There will be a time where all the "big arcade guys" who have a business in repairing and/or selling stuff will want to retire, or will pass away.

I think the arcade community will see a shift in the next 5-10 years, and perhaps it already is seeing one. Perhaps there already was one when there was a general transition from 70s electro-mechanical games to electric games of the 80s. People around my age will (and are) be nostalgic for the late 90s/early 00s - Naomi games, Lindbergh, Neo-Geo, etc. People will want and care about those most.
Books indeed...

A few years ago, something happened to the Dragon's Lair Project website and more than a decade's worth of repair tips, posts, how-tos, forums, etc. were all gone forever. From a laser games perspective, it was probably the preeminent place to go, but especially for DL and SA. It's a huge loss we'll never get back. :cry:
 
Books indeed...

A few years ago, something happened to the Dragon's Lair Project website and more than a decade's worth of repair tips, posts, how-tos, forums, etc. were all gone forever. From a laser games perspective, it was probably the preeminent place to go, but especially for DL and SA. It's a huge loss we'll never get back. :cry:
It's unavailable via the Wayback Machine?
 
100+ years from now, a negligible amount of people will have a home arcade. The few remaining arcades that exist will be in museums. That's the reason I find the obsession with preserving every last Asteroids Arcade like it was the holy grail of Antioch is beyond silly to me. There's probably still 5,000+ Asteroid machines in people's collections. In 100 years, maybe 200 of those will still exist. So, go, put your arcade Jason board in, or turn it into a MAME cabinet, or whatever, if it makes you happy. There's a very small likelihood that your machine isn't one of the 4,800+ put in the dump in this coming century.
 
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