Question for all of the "NEW" KLOV members......

sohchx

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Question for all of the "NEW" KLOV members......

What brought you to become a member of the forums? I ask because I have noticed a pretty big influx of new members coming in over the past few months or so and that's great. I have always found it cool to hear all of the great stories and reasons as to why people choose to get started in this hobby. Welcome to the forums and I guarantee you will enjoy it for many years to come.
 
I'm a 40 year old guy who grew up with the arcade scene, and finally on a whim picked up a Space Invaders Deluxe. I signed up to try and learn what I'd just gotten myself into.
 
Hi there racer x.. im in machesney park il if your ever in the area feel free to check out my arcade.. its kind of packed with my wifes crfting krap at the moment because im redoing her crafting rooms but if oure looking to meet a local klover, here i am. There arent many of us around these parts..
 
if you happen to be having boardset issues i do have a spave invaders test rom and some nos ram chips because i had to fix my si when i first bought it.
 
I recently moved into a house with a lot of basement space. Always wanted some arcade machines, so I started buying and started needing help fixing them. So here I am.
 
Well, I have been into collecting videogames for around three years and after some time I hit a wall. You see, I found myslf with too many games that were by all means "great" but I didn't really want to play them. They were not my taste and being great wasn't making the cut when there are so many amazing games availble. This made me think that I should rather focus on increasing quality: I started to collect boxed games and got a triplehead setup for my PC.

Cue to a month or so ago when I finally decided to count the money I had in my piggybank. It was too heavy for a drawer and I couldn't be lazy and ignore it for long because coins were overflowing from it. Guess what, I had 130€ just in 50, 20, 10 and 5 coins. With that newly found money and the one I had in bills I could buy something big.

Given how I play Mame from time to time making the jump to getting an arcade was unavoidable. The barrier of entry is surprisingly low and even if it's a lot of money for just one game, my search for quality trumps it. In the same vein that I prefer a boxed game to two single carts I would prefer a cabinet over 60 games I was not going to play.

So I discussed the topic a bit on Racketboy and here I am. Nice to meet you! :)
 
I asked someone on an unrelated forum who I know is a gamer for advice and he directed me here.

I'm 45 years old. I spent my kid/teen years in arcades back in the '70s/early '80s. I believe that's referred to as the 'golden age'? Anyway, I joined the Army after I graduated high school in '84. At that point I pretty much lost interest in video games and didn't play any again for many years. So I'm not really familiar with games made after '84.

It never occured to me to buy an arcade game of my own (I didn't even realize this was such a big hobby) until a few months ago. There's an arcade in a local mall here. I took my kids there one day to play some games. I found that they had a lot of their games for sale. They're trying to get rid of a lot of their stuff so they can bring more out of their warehouse. A few of them appealed to me, so I bought one. I figured that was the only game I would buy, I just thought it would be cool to have one in my kids' room. That was three months ago. I just picked up my fifth one yesterday. And now I'm turning the master bedroom into a game room for the kids. Lord help me.

I've also never been into tech stuff, so I'm not up to speed on computers or how video games have changed since 1984. That makes it hard for me to get into this hobby because the terminology is all Greek to me and I don't know how to diagnose problems. But acquiring some games of my own has rekindled my interest in the arcade experience. It brings back a lot of memories from 'back in the day'.
 
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I asked someone on an unrelated forum who I know is a gamer for advice and he directed me here.

I'm 45 years old. I spent my kid/teen years in arcades back in the '70s/early '80s. I believe that's referred to as the 'golden age'? Anyway, I joined the Army after I graduated high school in '84. At that point I pretty much lost interest in video games and didn't play any again for many years. So I'm not really familiar with games made after '84.

It never occured to me to buy an arcade game of my own (I didn't even realize this was such a big hobby) until a few months ago. There's an arcade in a local mall here. I took my kids there one day to play some games. I found that they had a lot of their games for sale. They're trying to get rid of a lot of their stuff so they can bring more out of their warehouse. A few of them appealed to me, so I bought one. I figured that was the only game I would buy, I just thought it would be cool to have one in my kids' room. That was three months ago. I just picked up my fifth one yesterday. And now I'm turning the master bedroom into a game room for the kids. Lord help me.

I've also never been into tech stuff, so I'm not up to speed on computers or how video games have changed since 1984. That makes it hard for me to get into this hobby because the terminology is all Greek to me and I don't know how to diagnose problems. But acquiring some games of my own has rekindled my interest in the arcade experience. It brings back a lot of memories from 'back in the day'.

Very cool story!! Sometimes I wish that I was in my 40's and got to experience everything in the arcades as people your age did back then. I am only 33 and my time in the arcades started in 83-84 so I missed most of the good stuff. I love speaking to older members and hearing their numerous stories of arcade history from it's early beginnings.
 
Hi there racer x.. im in machesney park il if your ever in the area feel free to check out my arcade.. its kind of packed with my wifes crfting krap at the moment because im redoing her crafting rooms but if oure looking to meet a local klover, here i am. There arent many of us around these parts..

Your wife probably says "My craftin' room is kraped up with arcade stuff!"

Like racer X I am 44 Year old man that grew up around the arcade era. I worked as a tech for several years on various computer equipment as the arcade stuff could never pay what working on the mainframes would pay.

I suddenly found myself on a fixed income and lots of time on my hands. I wanted to get back into fixing stuff and found a guy in Texas who had a Galaga board set for sale (non working). I talked with him on the phone to arrange payment and ask a few questions about that board set, was it complete, missing broken parts, etc. He told me he had 5 original board sets and two bootleg sets he would sell for a low price, about $100 plus shipping. He mentioned several times that these don't work and ask if I still wanted them. I jumped at that chance and upped my bid on the single board set to get the set. He mentioned the KLOV site and said maybe they could help get the boards working. He is a pinball guy so he did not know much about the arcade boards. After looking over the site and doing several google searches, I kept finding myself reading stuff on this site.

I need a connector to put power to the board set and ordered from Mike's Arcade. After getting the connector and putting power to the board, it did not work. So I asked Mike's Arcade to put a word for me here to be able to post. Soon after that I posted my first post asking something like if the connector I wired up was correct and what the voltages should be. That was when I found out that I had to put power to the molex connector on that board set. Not long after that I had my first working board set (dip switch was wrong).

Now I have always enjoyed helping others fix their stuff, in fact I get more enjoyment if I help you fix your stuff than if I just fix it. I always like helping people who are trying and don't like just doing it for 'em.
 
Sometimes I wish that I was in my 40's and got to experience everything in the arcades as people your age did back then. I am only 33 ...



Well, if it's any consolation, I wish I were 33 again.
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I heard about KLOV on the Pod cast GAME ROOM JUNKIES. plus I live in the area of Jeff Waldron a really kick ass Joust Player. I am buying a Pole Position Cabinet off of him soon. So by refrence of two really good sources.
 
I think my story is unique. As a child I grew up in the age of atari 2600 and remeber the opportunities I got as a poor family to go to the arcades. This was the best times of my life and I fell in love with the capabilities of the arcade vs the Atari then Coleco versions.

When I enlisted in the Marines as an aviation electrician I spent hours in the arcades spending the little money I got on street fighter games and the Time Crisis games.

When I got out of the military I always wanted to get a machine or two in the house then when I recently moved to Bealeton I met my new neighbor Scott who helps run the Retro Game Roundup show. At one of his arcade parties I was raving about how I wanted an SF II cabinet and he introduced me to Buffet. After that it was history.

I staffed MAGFEST this year in the arcades as a tech using my electrical and engineering background. Buffet has lent me about 30 games for my basement and I enjoy working on them and restoring them for him. My house has become the envy of my 2 sons friends.

I recently acquired an Afterburner, Neo Geo, and SF II cab of my own and now I have been bitten by the Arcade monster! I enjoy fixing them, restoring them, and of course playing them!
 
I'm 37 years old and I've been playing all sorts of video games since I was nine or ten. The first arcade game I remember trying to play was Donkey Kong but I never really had much pocket money growing up but I would play whenever I could get quarters. Other games followed like Dragon's Lair(my dad would play this two player with me), Rampage, tron, pac man, frogger, spy hunter, Operation Wolf and other classics. All the while me and my dad would joke about owning a video arcade and this continued for quite awhile(this is when you had to be rich to do so). My dad got us an Atari 2600(which I had previously played at friends houses) so we started playing that as well but I would still use whatever quarters I could get.

Then right when I got out of 8th grade we moved to Ohio for a year and I lost touch with the arcade scene for abit. It was a small town and there weren't many arcade games around so I spent my time playing a newly acquired NES. It was a town on the border with Indiana so we'd wind up in the neighboring town shopping so I had brief encounters with Demolition Derby, 720 and Smash TV.

Then we moved to Texas where I got to play with Playchoice 10s. get obsessed by Konami Beat'em ups(like TMNT and the simpsons), Double Dragon, Street Fighter and Tetris. This side to my now obsessive console game playing continued though high school and into community college were I would run into Neo Geos, NBA Jam, Ivan Ironman Stewart's Offroad and even a game about Pirates. Me and my sister continued the joke of us someday owning an arcade even though it was still expensive.

After I moved back to Georgia in 1996 I continued to randomly wander into arcades and play games when I had quarters and play random games when I could find them or get to the mall which had a Tilt up until a couple of years ago. I thought I would only see old games as collections or DLC but that old joke was still in the back of my head as I started to collect console games.

Then one fine day I started to investigate after a friend of mine pulled a hodegpodge machine off the side of the road, gotten it fixed and then I found that the things I used to mess with back in the '90s weren't that expensive anymore. The idea of getting one started here but culminated when when I ran into the Arcade Room at Anime Weekend Atlanta. A few months after that I bought my messed up conversion from ebay with the idea of trying to fix it myself but ended up with the same repair guy my friend went to. Durring this time I signed up here for advice and to find more four player boards and discovered how stupid I was for not waiting and buying a local machine(live and learn).

I'm still here to get advice and learn things so help me out ^^
 
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Oh yes I remeber these very well:

Demolition Derby, 720 and Smash TV

Very good memories.
 
At age 7 my first memories of arcade were on Sundays my grandfather would pick me up and take me to the Huntington Mall for lunch at Morrisons Cafe. I would eat as fast as possible then he would give me a $5.00 bills to go next door to the Gold Mine and play my heart out. In 32 yrs old now and still get that funny feeling in my gut thinking about it. i love arcade games and now that I'm somewhat grown i want to get into collecting. i haven't bought one yet but have been thinking about it for about 3 years now. I finally decided i didn't want to be on the outside looking in on this forum. there is so much information about arcades and pins that it's has overwhelmed me to the point all i have thought about for the last 3 weeks is buying a arcade or pin to start my collection. i'm not looking to buy the $1000 arcade game and be done. i want to build an inventory and start trading up to get my perfect collection. it may take years but i am determined.
 
I have been playing video games as long as I can remember. Just about any money I got growing up would immediately be spent at the local arcade. Those were great days that I remember dearly. I had missed playing all of those games from my youth (I'm 34 now) and found out about people making mame arcades and thought that was awesome. I had been wanting to make a mame machine for the longest time. In 2011 I had decided that it was time and decided to make a New Year's resolution that I could actually keep for myself. I was talking to a good friend of mine about my idea and he thought it was a good one. His father had also happened to buy Snoop Dogg's old house which he had left a couple of arcade games (NBA Jam and NFL Blitz) with the house when he moved out. My friend offered the games to me (for free, like I said he is a really good friend) to help me get my collection started and as a reference to build my own. When I got those machines to my house, my kids did not really understand the idea of arcades. I then took that as my duty to create an arcade that all of the neighborhood kids could enjoy and get an experience of what an arcade was. At the same time I started looking on craigslist for games and found out that you can find games for reasonable prices. The collecting began. I started looking for my favorite games from my youth and by the end of 2011 I had got quite a collection started, (in chronological order) picked up APB, finished my mame cab,Donkey Kong, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Pacman, and a Ms. Pacman cocktail cab. Looking for a few more to really feel like I have all of my favorites which are Centipede, 720 and Paperboy. I found KLOV, when researching how to fix various things on the APB cab. I've been lurking ever since.
 
I was talking to a good friend of mine about my idea and he thought it was a good one. His father had also happened to buy Snoop Dogg's old house which he had left a couple of arcade games (NBA Jam and NFL Blitz) with the house when he moved out. .

I remember when Snoop still lived in that house back in the late 90's. They aired an episode of MTV cribs and you can see those machines in the background.
 
Myself, I've always been a huge 8 and 16 bit game collector...I pretty much think the 80's and early 90's were the greatest times to grow up.

I'm 30 now, and want that great part of my childhood preserved. Classic Gamer through and through and always wanted a Mame Cabinet, and a classic TMNT cab. Could never find the TMNT cab, and finally found one at the right price. This resource is probably the best for fixing arcade cabs, so that is why I joined. =)
 
When I got out of the military I always wanted to get a machine or two in the house then when I recently moved to Bealeton I met my new neighbor Scott who helps run the Retro Game Roundup show. At one of his arcade parties I was raving about how I wanted an SF II cabinet and he introduced me to Buffet. After that it was history.


Buffet helped me get my Operation Wolf after the Crab Town meet when I mentioned I need one to test and fix several boards. He also did a demonstration on how to tell if the optics in the gun is working or not. He is kind of like a crack dealer with arcade games.
 
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