This hobby is a disease. How many times have you relapsed?
My name is Scott and I am an addict. My current collection is the 3rd time I have been through this addiction.
The first time I got the fever was in 1993 when I happened upon 3 games a closed business was tossing out. Tempest, Ms. Pacman and Mario Bros. 2 years and 20+ games later I sold off everything when my parents retired, leaving Long Island and I had moved to a small apartment. I was sad but the time had come to move on.
The second go around started in 2000 when a buddy calls me up an says he just bought a Centipede off eBay for $200 and there is a whole games section on there. Within 2 days I had an Asteroids Deluxe in my 2 bedroom NYC apartment. By 2003 it was again 20+ machines. Yes all in a NYC apt! I also infected 2 friends and they had 20+ each in their houses. We bought literally several hundred games off operators, kept a few each and sold off the rest. Due to a career change at the end of 2004 I sold off everything except Asteroids Deluxe and moved to PA. One friend sold off all of his and the other (the one with the biggest house I might add, still has all of his but isn't active in the arcade community).
This brings us to relapse #2 - current generation. If the first outbreak was caused by luck and the second by eBay then this can only be referred to as the Craigslist strain of the disease. One day in 2009 while looking on Craigslist I see a free Pole Position. Oh man, not again! Here we are at Feb 2012 and yep you guessed it, 20+ machines in my basement, a garage full of parts and a dire need for somewhere to put more games.
I keep telling myself that if I sell any the money will just get spent on other stuff. Clearly rationalizing is a symptom of this disease. So is long nights with smoking solder, the 4AM might as go all night mentality followed by the 5AM can't see straight smoking of a chip you put in backwards and set yourself back a week panic. Finally there's next day hangover where you promise to never do it again (last part lightly borrowed from comedian Larry Miller)
Where does it end? :0)
My name is Scott and I am an addict. My current collection is the 3rd time I have been through this addiction.
The first time I got the fever was in 1993 when I happened upon 3 games a closed business was tossing out. Tempest, Ms. Pacman and Mario Bros. 2 years and 20+ games later I sold off everything when my parents retired, leaving Long Island and I had moved to a small apartment. I was sad but the time had come to move on.
The second go around started in 2000 when a buddy calls me up an says he just bought a Centipede off eBay for $200 and there is a whole games section on there. Within 2 days I had an Asteroids Deluxe in my 2 bedroom NYC apartment. By 2003 it was again 20+ machines. Yes all in a NYC apt! I also infected 2 friends and they had 20+ each in their houses. We bought literally several hundred games off operators, kept a few each and sold off the rest. Due to a career change at the end of 2004 I sold off everything except Asteroids Deluxe and moved to PA. One friend sold off all of his and the other (the one with the biggest house I might add, still has all of his but isn't active in the arcade community).
This brings us to relapse #2 - current generation. If the first outbreak was caused by luck and the second by eBay then this can only be referred to as the Craigslist strain of the disease. One day in 2009 while looking on Craigslist I see a free Pole Position. Oh man, not again! Here we are at Feb 2012 and yep you guessed it, 20+ machines in my basement, a garage full of parts and a dire need for somewhere to put more games.
I keep telling myself that if I sell any the money will just get spent on other stuff. Clearly rationalizing is a symptom of this disease. So is long nights with smoking solder, the 4AM might as go all night mentality followed by the 5AM can't see straight smoking of a chip you put in backwards and set yourself back a week panic. Finally there's next day hangover where you promise to never do it again (last part lightly borrowed from comedian Larry Miller)
Where does it end? :0)
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