My very first arcade game in 1981

shertz

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Let me tell you a story....

I was going through some old boxes out my parents storage and came across some old polaroid photo's of me when we owned our first arcade game in 1981.... Pac-Man cabaret.

The first time I saw a Pac-Man cabaret was at Pizza & Stuff in LaVerne, CA (still there) and was blown away. I was only 6 years old and my older brother, sister and I were the BIGGEST Pac-Man fans ever. I would wear a different Pac-Man shirt every day of the week and we would have every kind of Pac-Man collectable imagined. So to see the game I loved so much in a smaller size was very exciting. My parents got the name of the operator who owned the game and called to see if he would be willing to sell it. If I remember correctly, he wanted $1500.00 for the same Pac cabaret at Pizza & Stuff. So we begged my parents to get us this game so they made us work for it if we really wanted it. We had a "Pac-Man Fund" jar where we would put in our allowance money to save up for this game. I remember going around town with my red wagon (no joke) and collecting news papers to raise money.

Well, after about 10 months of this going on, I guess my parents figured that since we were still saving our money for a Pac-Man game and we still wanted one badly, they took the plunge and bought the cabaret Pac-Man game that was at Pizza & Stuff!! (insert "you're a spoiled brat" comments here)

These pics were to prove to a classmate that I owned a Pac-Man game. And even when I showed him the pics, he STILL didnt believe me. I didnt like him well enough to invite him over to prove I owned it lol ;-) The pic you see in me in my PJ's showing off my awesome pecks lol I wish I had a shirt on.

After the Pac-Man "fever" wore off by 1983, we then sold the game for only $500.00. I wish I still owned the game. Oh well...

Hope you enjoyed my story...

pac.jpg

pac1.jpg

pac2.jpg
 
Sucks it was sold, but yeah, who else had a arcade game at home back then??
Not many I'd bet.

BTW: are those underwear or shorts.... JK. :)
 
Cool story, Shertz - my parents had a lot of money when I was growing up and I was a spoiled brat too, but what a lot of people don't realize is, you don't get that money when you graduate and move out!

As Bill Cosby said on the Cosby Show - paraphrased - YOU are not rich, son. Your mother and I are rich.

But they did get us a pinball machine one Christmas. Sadly, it was only a home version although back then it still attracted a lot of neighborhood kids, as did the (non home, real) fooseball table we got later on.

Unfortunately my mom thought Pac Man, Asteroids and all the other games I wanted to play every time we went for pizza or (back then) even to the grocery store, were a huge waste of quarters (remember, in 1981 you could buy a week's worth of groceries for a quarter:rolleyes:).

I love the Polaroids from back then, and this one has a great back story - who didn't have a loud mouth in their class or grade who triple dog dared them to prove something, and then when they saw proof, they poo-pooed it?!?!
 
Damn Steve,
First off you are one pampered kid, prob got everything and hell I'm not sure those were even PJ's look like powder blue undies to me, blah blah blah hibbidy jibbidy yadda yadda....Ok now that is over thanks for sharing man that's so cool you have the pic to go along with the story. By the way I wish you still had that game or at least the cab I need a good empty cab..LOL

All joking aside man WOW i keep looking back at the pix and cant get over how clean, new, coin door, its just a thing of beauty. Again thanks for sharing.
 
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Great story, I probably had that kind of money in my Colecovision with all the games and specialty controllers I had for it! I would have killed for a donkey kong in my house when I was a kid...
 
Awesome story, thanks for sharing the pics. Have you ever tried to track it down? Maybe it's in someones garage somewhere waiting to be restored...
 
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