so what is it that made us different from *the others*?

vintagegamer

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so what is it that made us different from *the others*?

What I mean is, when you went into an arcade BITD, there were a bunch of other kids or individuals playing games all around you. They were dumping as many quarters into these machines as we were, and loving the time spent with the games.

I still know some of the people my age who were in the arcades when I was, but today they don't own a single arcade game. And they don't come running to my house to play mine. I mean, they will if they are over, but they won't call or text me out of the blue and say "Hey can I come over and play Robotron???!!"

So my reason for this thread is this: why do we still have the urge to be around these games, have them in our homes, fix them, keep the tradition going, where others in our generation have zero interest? Is it something in our DNA? Is it because we're retarded? Is it because the others are sheeple and let the next latest and greatest things carry them away? I have to ask this question because I think about it alot. I don't know anyone from my childhood or during my time growing up who took on this hobby. The only other freaks like me that I know of are you guys. :D
 
Back in the day, I had to go 10 miles to get to our local arcade.

I went there to escape the cold, hard reality that life was a series of people and circumstances looking to fuck you over 24/7.

Now that I'm older, things are different. It's 7 feet to my Zoo Keeper. :D
 
all of those other folks of which you speak are still playing games, just not arcade games. i bet they've all mastered angry birds on a smart phone, at least. they just have other hobby's at home than playing with ancient electronics.
 
I didn't have much cash. So I would save and go to all 5 7-11's we had and skate around and play pin and arcade games, but I wanted to make that quarter last and I would make sure I was focused and really enjoyed playing. Most kids would throw a quarter in and almost walk away thats when I would swoop in and finish the game no matter how bad the game play ect..
 
i do it because i like tinkering and repairing... nothin' like taking a stab a broken machine and get it working again. i'm not sure i'd have picked up more than a cab or two if i didn't have the feeling that i can fix it if it breaks (and enjoy doing it, usually.)
 
Most people have a hobby or collect something we just choose these. My buddy's never play mine either,another reason is I think a reluctancy to grow up.
 
why...

Everyone I know has some form of obsession. For us it may be games for them - cars, work, stamps, coins, comics, dvds, music, whatever.

Breakfast club comes to mind "demented and sad, but social" :0)
 
I was 18 in '81 so legally "grown up" but I really enjoyed playing video games and was interested in electronics, programming, etc., but collect now because I just know the next time I play I will do better than the last time. It's a love/hate relationship.
 
No...I think you had it right with "Retarded", seeing as most of us tend to put more money into the games that we'd ever see back out of them. Kinda like when you were sinking your quarters into them in the first place...

It's ok, it's fun to be retarded!
 
Nobody can beat my scores if they can't play my games :)

Oh- I am not hardcore enough to pee on myself to keep from walking away from an excellent game of Tron...

but I am hardcore enough to use my bus fare to play two more games and walk home 4 miles instead.
 
Rejection from females......for most of you....especially those who can run a decent score up on a game.....:p
 
Why do I collect games Now? Fun factor. I am the type of person who grabs friends and create fun. It's my nature. I enjoy finding and fixing games and a Lot of my friends Enjoy playing them. We eat and drink on or near the machines. We sit around and chat. I don't mine the Spill factor. It's not the value of the machines nor what I can sell them for. It all about the fun these old arcade machines can still produce.
 
I think more people do not own games because their wives look down upon it and give them shit for even thinking about it.
 
There are probably as many reasons for collecting video games as there are collectors.

For me it wasn't just owning a video game that triggered it, I had a Battlezone I picked up in 1983. For me, it was being able to own something that I had actually worked on BITD.

ken
 
Growing up, our arcade was always in the mall, in various incarnations. It started out at a Yesterdays and wound up as Tilt (I think there might have been one other name in there somewhere).

As I look back on my early years of playing games in our arcades, I'm still amazed that my parents ever felt like it was cool to just let me hang out there. At first, they'd leave me in there if they needed to shop in the mall. You could smoke in our mall at that point, and I just remember the odd mixture of people all huddling into that little, smokey arcade, all the noise and "newness" of it all. It was right in the transition between the old guard ('84 and older) and the flood of mid-eighties games, and there was no comparison between home and arcade versions. Even then, I was a sucker for all things video gaming, and I could never imagine having an arcade game in my home. That was just something I saw and drooled over as I watched Silver Spoons.

As I got older, the arcade was a place where my parents would just drop me off and come pick me up whenever I called them (which was usually when it closed or I ran out of money, whichever came first). It was the first place where I could be out and about, and on my own. So, naturally, arcades, to me, are immediately associated with independence.

Oddly enough, being able to acquire them now almost feels like I'm a "grown up" and living out something that I saw as unattainable when I was young. Most people would see collecting arcade games as something childish.
 
We didn't grow up...or they are still in the game for getting laid. Arcade games are not pussy magnets.
 
That was the fad everyone gravitated to, back in the day. It was trendy to be playing a game of Pac-Man while "Pac-Man Fever" was at the forefront of people's minds. The fad lasted for a while and then died like every other fad does. Everyone wore headphones and had a walkman too...but do you see that nowadays? Nope. You see everyone on their smartphone and touch-devices.

We just choose to keep the nostalgia alive because that's how we're wired. It's our way of preserving a simpler time in our lives and reminding us of it daily.
 
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