Kinda Sad Arcade 'News'

Phetishboy

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Some of you remember the dude who recorded like 14 tapes full of arcade sounds back in '82 - '86 or so? Then started selling MP3s of the tapes? I just went to his website on a whim (try to clean out my no longer used bookmarks) and saw that he sold off all of his arcade machines and consoles. First Hirschburg, now this guy. The hobby claims another one. That really makes me wonder how long any of us can really keep this up without going crazy.

http://www.coinopvideogames.com/games.php
 
Some of you remember the dude who recorded like 14 tapes full of arcade sounds back in '82 - '86 or so? Then started selling MP3s of the tapes? I just went to his website on a whim (try to clean out my no longer used bookmarks) and saw that he sold off all of his arcade machines and consoles. First Hirschburg, now this guy. The hobby claims another one. That really makes me wonder how long any of us can really keep this up without going crazy.

http://www.coinopvideogames.com/games.php

Based solely on the fact that I NEVER want to have to move my games up the stairs, I'll be around until age or a falling game do me in.

As far as going crazy, I would venture to say most of us are already at least partially nuts.
 
I have always figured myself to be in for the long haul as well, but restoring and maintaining these things can get a bit overwhelming. I've got a basement full of 'working' games, yet at least 3 of them are down or being repaired at any one time. First I had my Tempest go down (several times) then my Satan's Hollow. Got my Hollow back up and running, then finally got my Tempest working after almost a year, then my Sea Wolf went down, got that working, then my Burgertime started having issues. Now the tube on my Space Wars is going bad. I've also lost all sounds on my newly restored Rampage. Add to that the 12 projects in the garage (down from 15 earlier in the year) and I can't really get away from this hobby once I get home. I also have shelves of monitors and boxes of parts and artwork laying all over my shop. His little "Left the Hobby" page really hit home, yet I would never go to that extreme.
 
I don't see it as a sad thing really because selling his collection made his life a bit better and possibly brought new people in to the hobby. His flyer collection and availability to the great recordings live on.
 
I don't see it as a sad thing really because selling his collection made his life a bit better and possibly brought new people in to the hobby. His flyer collection and availability to the great recordings live on.

You don't find it sad that a guy who loved arcades so much he actually recorded hours and hours of him and his friends playing in them BITD suddenly up and liquidates his whole arcade machine collection? I could give a shit less about where the games went or where they're living on, I just think it's sad that THIS dude found this hobby so overwhelming that he sold the very things he idolized since youth. It's the thought that a guy this into arcade machines got to a point where he had to get rid of them all to be happy. I feel sad for him and for anyone else who gets to that point, not for the collection being broken up and dispersed. I am sad that he can no longer walk from his kitchen or bedroom into his sweet arcade and become immersed in 1982 again. That's all.
 
It's definitely fun to play the games and have a nice setup, but if we didn't work on them I don't think it would be as "fun" or "challenging". Isn't that what keeps us coming back and searching for new stuff?
 
It's definitely fun to play the games and have a nice setup, but if we didn't work on them I don't think it would be as "fun" or "challenging". Isn't that what keeps us coming back and searching for new stuff?

Not me. I just want to play them and have a nice set-up. I'm tired of working on them.
 
Not sure why people decide to just "quit". Why not down-size a bit, but hold on to a core group of games? Why not take a break... step away... rather than liquidate?

To each his/her own I suppose...
 
This is a bad hobby if you're too compulsive. Really easy to gridlock yourself into having to move shit to work on other shit. I think he should have kept his favorite game and maybe a multi-game, but I guess everyone's different.

I would have preferred ditching the flyers over the actual games.
 
This is a bad hobby if you're too compulsive. Really easy to gridlock yourself into having to move shit to work on other shit. I think he should have kept his favorite game and maybe a multi-game, but I guess everyone's different.

I would have preferred ditching the flyers over the actual games.

Me too. Flyers seem cool at first, but I end up either selling or losing almost every one I pick up.
 
No, I don't find it sad at all. Here are the guy's own words:
The End of an Empire

September 18, 2010

After four years living in Oregon, I came to the realization that twelve years of collecting video games blinded me from important activities and hobbies that were second nature to me, like writing, artwork and other hands-on projects.
The impulsive nature of collecting allowed me to live a life of clutter and distraction with reckless abandon. Somewhere along the way I went too far, and suddenly I felt like I had no space, both physically and mentally, for anything else.
I tore down my empire in order to save myself and the relief has been immediate. I sold my entire collection of coin-ops and consoles - including my Atari 2600, Colecovision, NES, Famicom, GameCube, GameBoy Advance, The Wii and Nintendo DS collections.
I still collect video game flyers avidly, and will continue my archiving mission at The Arcade Flyer Archive.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He felt it had gone too far, did something about it and is now enjoying a sense of relief. That he recognized that it was becoming a problem and had the sense and courage to do something positive about it is a good thing. And most likely his selling the collection gave other folks an opportunity to enjoy those games.

Not me. I just want to play them and have a nice set-up. I'm tired of working on them.

I too would much be playing them and letting others enjoy playing them instead of the almost constant maintenance work involved with keeping them up and running.
 
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I personally have no regrets in selling off all my restored stuff, i still have a few projects to finish, plenty of chassis to rebuild and enough contacts to keep me going for years in this hobby if i choose to do so. It's hard to leave (if there is such a thing) but there's more to life than trying to carve out time to polish a pile o shit game that nobody wants to play.

I still love you Phet and will always find the time to be with you in your hour of of arcade need and comfort you when you're down.
 
It's not any different from any other hobby that people get out of. I have gotten out of arcade collecting twice before, and one time I went nearly 8 years without owning a single game. These are just games, nothing more or less, and in the scheme of things they are not that important.

I've watched my 911 being driven away by a new owner, with nothing in the garage to replace it. I've walked away from the marina after selling my boat and having no boat to replace it. I've hung up my hockey equipment after years of playing. It can be traumatic but in some ways it's a huge relief, especially if it becames too consuming. There are always new hobbies to explore, new challenges, and that's what makes life interesting.

Just a thought, but maybe you should just sell off all the project games and keep the ones that are mostly working. Then after a while re-evaulate your interest in the hobby and take it from there.

There are not a lot of people that last past age 45 in this hobby.
 
Dude lives in my town, and one time I actually got his copy of Gameroom Magazine along with mine. As I recall I hadn't heard of him so I googled his name so I could email him or whatever, and found out who he was. At that time he said he had already sold off most if not all of his games and I was pretty new to the hobby so I missed out on whatever he sold. That was actually in 2009 I do believe so I don't think it was as recent as his blog post implies. Maybe that's when he sold the last of the games or something though.

Honestly I can totally understand where the guy was coming from with his decision. However, I doubt I will ever go that route because the balance I have with this hobby and the rest of life just keeps improving with time (i.e. spending less and less time on the maintenance side of the hobby), and I have absolutely no desire to expand into other related hobbies like console collecting and arcade paraphernalia collecting. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks and these games are certainly a relatively unimportant aspect of life so good for him for reaching a place of contentment.
 
I think the keyword is 'balance' here. Also having 'multiple' hobbies and being able to draw a fine line between those other hobbies

I starting collecting in 1990 and hit a lull in the late 90's and moved to pins. At the same time I play guitar so I can juggle back and forth between this and pins. Then I hit a rut and became bored w/ playing and went back to vids.
It's all cyclical for me....

I guess another aspect for me is I enjoy fixing these as much as playing... especially true for pinball.
 
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