I would like to officially announce the imminent opening my new videogame/arcade museum!
After 15+ years of talking about opening a museum, I have finally gotten serious and built one. I've been working on it all year, but didn't want to announce it until I was CERTAIN that I'd follow through. (I didn't want to be another heart-breaking "dan of earth" story.)
I have completely renovated a beautiful old downtown building in McLean, IL to house phase 1 of this project. It's only about 2,000 square feet, but should be large enough to attract visitors and gauge the feasibility of phase 2, 3, 4, etc. I have plenty of room and games to expand in the same building if it's warranted.
I'm opening for a "sneak preview" tomorrow and will be open in a pre-launch mode every weekend, *NEW HOURS* Friday 5:30pm - 9pm, Saturday 9am - 9pm. I will keep it open later if people are playing and want to continue. I say "sneak preview" and pre-launch because I'm not 100% finished with the thing and therefore not ready to officially launch it. There are still a few games broken or not ready to go, I haven't finalized a name, haven't made any of the signs or done any marketing. Once all that is done, I'll be open 7 days a week.
For phase one I have chosen mostly videogames, and focused on popular games rather than rare ones. Also cabarets have been favored over full-sized games in order to squeeze in more titles. I've got about a dozen minis in there. At capacity it will have about 65 games. Right now there are roughly 55 working I believe.
Of course as a collector, I'm dying to have a room full of rarities and prototypes (and will in the next phase), but that won't pay the bills as collectors are a relatively small market segment - regular Joes would rather play Galaga or Donkey Kong than Jack the Giant Killer or Strategy X.
I recently also compromised my rigid standards and added a FEW modern games and pinballs for people who bring kids that won't give classics a chance.
There is no admission at this point. I may have a nominal admission charge in the future, like 2 or 3 bucks, just to try to keep this thing open. The games are all 1 quarter/play (except Star Wars cockpit, Spy Hunter s/d and the pinballs).
I hope some of you can make it down to check this place out. I think it's worth a reasonable drive. Oh, and while you're here, I'll be happy to take you through the warehouse to see some pretty rare and unusual stuff. I'm also happy to open the museum anytime you want if you can't make it during my weekend-only (pre-launch) hours. Feel free to email me and make an appointment: [email protected]. I live above the museum (like Flynn!) so it's no inconvenience.
It's located at 107 S. Hamilton St., downtown McLean, IL 61754 in case you were wondering.
Let me know your thoughts….I'm very interested in what you all think. I could also really use some help from you guys and have some ideas…but I'll save them for another time (and thread).
Hope to see - and meet - some of you at the museum!
John Yates
VintageVideogames.com
After 15+ years of talking about opening a museum, I have finally gotten serious and built one. I've been working on it all year, but didn't want to announce it until I was CERTAIN that I'd follow through. (I didn't want to be another heart-breaking "dan of earth" story.)
I have completely renovated a beautiful old downtown building in McLean, IL to house phase 1 of this project. It's only about 2,000 square feet, but should be large enough to attract visitors and gauge the feasibility of phase 2, 3, 4, etc. I have plenty of room and games to expand in the same building if it's warranted.
I'm opening for a "sneak preview" tomorrow and will be open in a pre-launch mode every weekend, *NEW HOURS* Friday 5:30pm - 9pm, Saturday 9am - 9pm. I will keep it open later if people are playing and want to continue. I say "sneak preview" and pre-launch because I'm not 100% finished with the thing and therefore not ready to officially launch it. There are still a few games broken or not ready to go, I haven't finalized a name, haven't made any of the signs or done any marketing. Once all that is done, I'll be open 7 days a week.
For phase one I have chosen mostly videogames, and focused on popular games rather than rare ones. Also cabarets have been favored over full-sized games in order to squeeze in more titles. I've got about a dozen minis in there. At capacity it will have about 65 games. Right now there are roughly 55 working I believe.
Of course as a collector, I'm dying to have a room full of rarities and prototypes (and will in the next phase), but that won't pay the bills as collectors are a relatively small market segment - regular Joes would rather play Galaga or Donkey Kong than Jack the Giant Killer or Strategy X.
I recently also compromised my rigid standards and added a FEW modern games and pinballs for people who bring kids that won't give classics a chance.
There is no admission at this point. I may have a nominal admission charge in the future, like 2 or 3 bucks, just to try to keep this thing open. The games are all 1 quarter/play (except Star Wars cockpit, Spy Hunter s/d and the pinballs).
I hope some of you can make it down to check this place out. I think it's worth a reasonable drive. Oh, and while you're here, I'll be happy to take you through the warehouse to see some pretty rare and unusual stuff. I'm also happy to open the museum anytime you want if you can't make it during my weekend-only (pre-launch) hours. Feel free to email me and make an appointment: [email protected]. I live above the museum (like Flynn!) so it's no inconvenience.
It's located at 107 S. Hamilton St., downtown McLean, IL 61754 in case you were wondering.
Let me know your thoughts….I'm very interested in what you all think. I could also really use some help from you guys and have some ideas…but I'll save them for another time (and thread).
Hope to see - and meet - some of you at the museum!
John Yates
VintageVideogames.com
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Best of luck to you!
