How long have you had / known your arcade game

spyhunter

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As for my Spy Hunter cockpit arcade, I've known it it's entire life! And I've actually owned it for approx. 13 years! I think this is pretty unique as most people I see on here acquire their games from recent auctions...

I grew up playing it in my local roller rink in Aberdeen, SD until around 1990 when it disappeared until I called around looking for it in 1997 and then purchased it from my local vending company. They assured me that it was the same one from the skating rink, it had went to a nearby small town for several years and then sat in a warehouse for a few because the power supply was broken. They had considered converting it to another game (why would anybody in their right mind ever consider this of a Spy Hunter) until I called and offered them $500, and they even repaired it for me! Then because I was stationed away from home in the military, it stayed in my parents porch for 10 more years, getting played every few years when I visited home, even in the freezing Midwest temperatures of -10 to -20, it booted right up! Then they got tired of looking at it and I had it shipped out here to London courtesy of the Air Force. Then the 50Hz power grid did not play friendly with the power supply and it sat for a couple more years in my garage and now in my study as I took my time upgrading the power supply, sound and hoped to convert it to LCD, but no such luck. Now it's back 100% and I'm back to being that Spy Hunter I was always so good at as a kid.

SH
 
My first game was my Joust cocktail (free) and I still have it. Got it about 7 years ago...
 
Sweet, didn't know a joust cocktail existed! I would love to have a Q*Bert with the original cabinet knocking device!

SH
 
Sweet, didn't know a joust cocktail existed! I would love to have a Q*Bert with the original cabinet knocking device!

SH

Yep. The story is only about 500 were made, but that can't be confirmed.

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Oh, and I have a Q*Bert, too, but just got that about 6 months ago. I still need to fix the knocker...
 
my first game ever i got when I was 17, it was a converted pac - smb that I gutted sold everything out of ended up making a few bucks from what I paid and put a nintendo in the cab with the controllers hooked up to the joysticks/buttons and such. this was 13 years ago. I have come close to throwing it out over the 13 year but still it remains and honestly im sure one day I will sell all the games I have but that one (which is worth nothing really) is gonna stay with me forever
 
First game I got was TRON in 1992 (I was 22). I sold some baseball cards and bought a very nice working machine for $200. I still have it and will likely never get rid of it.
 
my first game ever i got when I was 17, it was a converted pac - smb that I gutted sold everything out of ended up making a few bucks from what I paid and put a nintendo in the cab with the controllers hooked up to the joysticks/buttons and such. this was 13 years ago. I have come close to throwing it out over the 13 year but still it remains and honestly im sure one day I will sell all the games I have but that one (which is worth nothing really) is gonna stay with me forever

Are you talking about the type of model in your avatar? I always loved the SMB model like that that used to be in my hometown Pizza Hut! I loved the arcade SMB because it was so much more challenging.

SH
 
I got my Kiss Pinball in 2001, still remember the feeling of bringing it in and firing it up! Don't think I'll ever get rid of it, unless I can find an absolute mint one (mine is a 8.5/10)
 
Forgotten Worlds is my longest owned game. Bought it in 1997. Can't bring myself to get rid of it.
 
The Bally/Sente "Gimme a break" I recently aquired was the one that I used to play at Playland back in the early 80's. The guy I got it from bought it at their closing auction in 2002.

The blue Peter Packrat joystick on my Atari System 1 game is the one I used to play at Playland when the game first came out; new CP, though - does that count? :D
 
I have had my Pole Position since 1999, it has seen a few different board sets and is currently running a grouchy PPII board set. I have had other PP cabs, but this one remains.
Even though I have had three different friends (non gamers) offer to buy my prized PP, I won't do it, mostly because I do not want to sell them something that will for surely have problems.
 
When I was around 7, I played the same Elevator Action at this one arcade every weekend, when my parents would take me after they played tennis. It was in a brown cabinet with lit-up instructions behind the bezel, a perfect picture on the monitor, and perfect controls. The sound effects were turned up loud, but the music was soft. After four visits, I was able to pass the first level.

I met a girl I still know today and keep in touch with while I was playing that Elevator Action. She startled me while I was coming out one of the red doors in the game, and I got shot and lost a life. I yelled until I turned around and actually saw her. She had red hair and Twizzlers, both of which were favorites of mine. We've been friends ever since.

My mother was looking over my shoulder the first time I successfully completed level 2 and drove away in the car at the bottom of the screen. She acted like I'd just hit a home run in little league.

That machine stayed there for a year and a half, and I played it all the time. One day, I went, and it was gone. Devastated. About two months later, I went in, and there was a new Jail Break game there. I stared, numb, at the cabinet - brown, same curves, new control panel, missing bezel - it felt like looking at a dead body. It was my Elevator Action, and it had returned as a ghost of its former self. I could still see the floors & doors burn-in. I was absolutely heartbroken.

Jail Break disappeared soon after it had been put on the floor, and I forgot about it. Years went by, and I went to the arcade less and less. The operator held out for another decade, and then vacated the space. There was no word as to what happened to the machines.

Fast forward to 2003, when a few machines got put on location in the same mall. I called to see if this operator had any for sale - turns out, it was the same operator from the old arcade. "I've got some older stuff lying around, but it's mostly junk. You can come take a look if you'd like."

I took a 30-minute drive to a small shop with a DDR and a couple of Area 51 and Leathal Enforcers games sitting around in various states of repair. In the back room, the operator - who had quite a bit of patience - showed me about 10 machines he had that were busted. If I remember right, 3 of them were Street Fighter II games. One, which looked out of place, was Tetris.

In a little brown cabinet, dusty and dirty. Not working.

I squinted my eyes.

Couldn't believe it. I asked him what he'd converted it from. "Jail Break, I think, years ago. That one's been at the Pizza Hut downtown. It's the only one I have left over from my old arcade. I still have the parts, too. Some guy was gonna buy them, but he never came through." He looks through a storage closet, and out comes a Jail Break marquee. "Oh - wait. You'll love this!" He pulls out a dirty Elevator Action bezel, control panel, marquee, and most of the PCB parts. "This is what it originally was. If you wanna buy it from me, you can probably convert it back."

That's what I did. Still sitting at my parents home is a very familiar, re-built Elevator Action. And, whenever I play it, I eat a Twizzler or two.


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...okay - none of that happened. But wouldn't that have been cool?
 
Aww. Nice story. I really wanted to believe it!

I think I've told this before on here, but I guess it's been a while. There's a slim chance the Tempest cabaret that I have is the very first arcade game I EVER played. I'm not sure how old I was - it could've been anywhere from 8 to 11 - there was this Tempest cabaret in a kids' barber shop in my home town here in SoCal. My mom used to take myself and my sister there regularly. They had it set on free play. There were days I'd get my haircut and play for hours while my mom took my sister to the nearby mall (times were different then, I guess, I'd never do that with my kids today). Man, I could play that thing forever. Eventually, the shop disappeared and I started getting my hair cut somewhere else (that didn't have arcade games set on free play). But it was singularly because of this experience that I started seeking out and playing arcade games the rest of my life.

Several years ago, after I started collecting, I looked for any trace of the shop on the internet. There's a place with the exact same name (EJ's Little People) up in the Sacramento area, and I think I read a blurb that they actually did used to have a Southern California location.

If they are one in the same owner, it's possible that they closed up, moved up north, and sold it there. It had to go through at least one other person before it got to the guy I bought it from, who was in San Jose, because he doesn't own a kids' haircut place, and says he just bought it from another guy.

I think I haven't called them up because, besides sounding like a crazy person on the phone, I don't think it's very likely. And I'd prefer just to think that it might be true rather than know that it's not true at all. :)
 
Aww. Nice story. I really wanted to believe it!

I think I've told this before on here, but I guess it's been a while. There's a slim chance the Tempest cabaret that I have is the very first arcade game I EVER played. I'm not sure how old I was - it could've been anywhere from 8 to 11 - there was this Tempest cabaret in a kids' barber shop in my home town here in SoCal. My mom used to take myself and my sister there regularly. They had it set on free play. There were days I'd get my haircut and play for hours while my mom took my sister to the nearby mall (times were different then, I guess, I'd never do that with my kids today). Man, I could play that thing forever. Eventually, the shop disappeared and I started getting my hair cut somewhere else (that didn't have arcade games set on free play). But it was singularly because of this experience that I started seeking out and playing arcade games the rest of my life.

Several years ago, after I started collecting, I looked for any trace of the shop on the internet. There's a place with the exact same name (EJ's Little People) up in the Sacramento area, and I think I read a blurb that they actually did used to have a Southern California location.

If they are one in the same owner, it's possible that they closed up, moved up north, and sold it there. It had to go through at least one other person before it got to the guy I bought it from, who was in San Jose, because he doesn't own a kids' haircut place, and says he just bought it from another guy.

I think I haven't called them up because, besides sounding like a crazy person on the phone, I don't think it's very likely. And I'd prefer just to think that it might be true rather than know that it's not true at all. :)

That's still a cool story!
 
I haven't had any for that long, but I bought a Vanguard game last year from a guy that bought it when he was in high school in 1983. He owned it for 26 years, moving a bunch of times with it (including back and forth across the country). The guy was from Florida and happened to go to high school with Billy Mitchell. He even showed me his high school yearbook with Billy in it. It was pretty funny.
 
I built this in 2005 and It took me 3 months to build It.Nothing but the best cardboard was used.Money was no object when this was built.
 

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I have the original Marble Madness that I actually played BITD at Arnies Place in Westport, CT. I bought it when they auctioned off the contents of the closed-down arcade in, I want to say around 1992? Needless to say, its my keeper in my collection! It even had a few Arnies Place tokens in the belly....I always wonder if they were put there by me at some point.
Jay
 
I built this in 2005 and It took me 3 months to build It.Nothing but the best cardboard was used.Money was no object when this was built.

Have you put it on Craigslist yet?

I think we should have a KLOV "caption this for Craiglist" competition.
 
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