What inspired your jump into this hobby?

frdmrckr

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Donor 2012
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I was just curious how some people got started? what inspired you to try this hobby?

I know for me, my uncle was one of those lucky kids that won a pengo machine in a box of cereal. It was at my grandpparents house forever, and i used to like listening to it at a very young age. I remember looking up at it in admiration. Then my uncle moved out and took it with him, and put it in his garage. I never got to paly it or anything. Parental excuse? "It didnt work." then in early 2000's he passed away, and my family sold it without telling me. I was so bummed. So my holy grail arcade is a pengo machine.

A month or so ago, i bought a shinobi. (yes, im the one that keeps posting about shinobi.)
But im looking to pick up some of the more classics. A ms. pac man or a donkey kong would be fantastic. But i would trade it all for a pengo. ha ha
 
Finding 2 cabs on the side of one of the busiest streets at rush hour during cleanup week 11 years ago. Arkanoid and Playchoice-10 dual monitor.

Before that I had gotten into Mame and was eventually going to build a cab. Still haven't done that--instead have saved about 40 cabs.

Before that was big into collecting home games from Atari 2600 to Commodore 64 to Amiga to Atari ST and through Super Nintendo from garage sales.
 
I just remember playing the games when I was younger.
I guess from there after looking at a Ms. Pacman/Galaga Reunion arcade that someone locally where I was at was selling I pulled the trigger and the addiction began.
And like everyone else does I paid way too much for my first one.
Now I have 7 children, and counting................:)
 
My parents wanted to know what I wanted for graduating college last may and an arcade was the most fun and impractical thing I could think of. I now have 3 games and cant wait to get another!
 
Ricky Schroeder.... (for those who don't know, google "Silver Spoons")

ricky-schroder-03.jpg


Always wanted one, buddy got one for free from the local namco, his dad was sick of looking at it so they offered it to me, free delivery as well. (I had to completely rewire it, replace the flyback, and get a jamma board for it, that was about 12 years ago).
 
MAME... I was thinking about Robotron and Donkey Kong, did a web search on them and found MAME at around version .37. I got a dumpster-bound cab from TNT and used it to build a MAME machine. Started getting dedicated stuff shortly after that.
 
Before that I had gotten into Mame and was eventually going to build a cab. Still haven't done that--instead have saved about 40 cabs.

Thats what i was going to do. Ive been looking ito for years now. Just never had the cash. Spend 50 bucks on my shinobi (not a bad find IMO). spent a bit more fixing it up to be nice and playable. Now im building a harness adapter to mame it, but still play original hardware. (Need to play pengo. lol)
 
I was a console collector before this but always wanted to own an arcade machine. Eventually a customer caught me surfing KLOV at work and said he had two arcade games in his barn that needed a new home. It's all in my VAPS. I still have them too, I haven't gotten to the "downsize" phase that everyone tends to go through. I now happily collect JAMMA PCBs when I can find them (and afford them).

Anyhow, after the first two machines, I got in touch with some classic centered local collectors and saw how much I missed out on during the early years up until 1987. I bought more than half of what I own through two local collectors and managed to make my own deals for the rest.

I learned a ton about repair and have been able to do and fix electronics outside of the hobby. It's been great fun.
 
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Nes emulation led me to mame. Bought a dead cabinet at a tuesday night superauctions to turn into a mame cabinet (strangely enough going to an superauction at the same place tonight 12 years later).

Ended up buying a couple more working games out of the newspaper bargain box before I ever got the mame cabinet going. Gone through several hundred games since then, have owned as many as 40 at once and as few as 1.
 
Wife saw a Super Pacman in the Nickle Ads 20 years ago, on Christmas eve. Went and got it for $100, and then started buying more and then ended up buying games and putting them on route, and in our home. Had over 300 plus games then. Sold the route then moved, and started buying again. It is addicting, and I just can't stop. LOL
 
I think I always wanted to own them, but I never looked into it. I just assumed only Silver Spoons types actually owned them. I put together a MAME rig in 2003, but never had space more than one cabinet. In 2008, I liquidated all of my other hobbies, and started buying dedicated games. I still spend a ton of time and money on the MAME cab. I like to customize more than I like to restore, so that is a good outlet for me. I will finally have the money to buy my remaining must have games this year, so I am really looking forward to seeing what the future is for me in this hobby. Maybe I will actually try to get good at the games I own. :)
 
Finding a Defender in the middle of a pile of bricks, in a cafe I used to frequent as a kid, offered the equivalent of $140 and taking it home with me on the back of a truck. This was in 1985, collection is now at 17 and climbing.

Andy.
 
I first fantasized about making off with the Missile Command from the local laundromat under cover of the night and keeping it in a large hole in the backyard where nobody would ever know...

About five years after that, I bought a Star Trek from a local theater selling off their games.

Many games later, I later found that the Missile Command I dreamed about was stored at the laundromat owner's property for a while, unrepaired, and then junked.
 
Acade Collecting

For me I was 12 or 13 and I bought my first game for $100. I put on location in our family restauraunt and began making money to spend on more and to add to my vending machines.
The vending machines started when I was 12.
 
I remember playing MK the first time at the local bowling alley where I was on a league every saturday morning. After my first game I was hooked. I owned MK on just about every home gaming system or console including, game gear, game boy, sega, sega saturn, n64, sega dreamcast, xbox and xbox 360. I soon realized that none of these home ports were as authentic as the arcade. I always dreamed of owning an actual mortal kombat arcade machine but never thought I would. Many many years later, and I took a break from MK and forgot most of the players moves. I was browsing craigslist for stuff and figured I would type in MK. Much to my surprise an MK2 arcade game showed up locally for a good price. I got it and have 7 games including a jukebox rowe change machine and even a dixie narco pepsi machine from the 80's.
 
I grewup druing the Golden age, when my Fav games were no longer found in the Arcades the only way i figured i could play them again (and forever) was if i collected them.

I can remember like yesterday walking into our local arcade and plunking a quarter in Defender and then i realized "MY" Defender had be changed (converted) to a Double Dragon. I was confused and pissed off!

I slowly watched all of the operators in our small town slowly convert some of my fav games from the late 70's early 80's into crappy conversions.

A small percentage of my collection was de-converting those games as i went back and bought them from the same operators. Thank God that the biggest Arcade owner in town that when he converted a game he was smart enough to kept "most" of the orginal parts and labled them in boxes. That was cool, finding the Orginal glass Space Duel marquee, or the Boards to Zaxxon, or all of the Galaga parts including a complete control panel, power supply, and pcb's

Now i still collect because the games i like and remember as a kid aren't in the Arcades anymore but it's more than that for me now, now i see the games almost as art...
 
My Story

As a kid, I spent life in and out of Children's Memorial Hospital (Chicago) for my various heart conditions. They had a few console like most hospitals do for kids to enjoy, but one time they had mentioned to my mother they had a Ms. Pac Man cocktail. Well mom already knew what that was and had them bring it up to me. I was hooked ever since.

Late December early January my buddy had me look up CL ads for TV's and somehow stumbled upon an empty showcase cab. I figured it was great for Mame. Bought a bunch of useless junk (or so I thought at the time) to actually run an arcade, power supply, jamma harness, joysticks etc. Wrong Arcade VGA card (didn't work with my current pc). So I kept looking and found a guy in Indy with a NFL Blitz 2k Gold board - wiring - power supply - fully populated control panel from his showcase etc.

Since I picked that up, Mame has been on a back burner. I did build a temporary one but it's only to satisfy my niece. She has a short attention span at times... so many games in one cab is great for her.

I'm up to 11 games and some extra boards right now. Sold a few also. Of course I did find a Ms Pac standup.. that well is in excellent condition - I always wanted the cocktail version for the memories. Finally found one of those last weekend thanks to the help of a fellow KLOV'r!

If a great deal comes up, I try to buy it. All thou I am personally out of storage space, I do have good friends and a great Sister that for some reason let me store games at their places.
 
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Played Mame before it was Mame.. Only played 5 games, Namco ones if I remember right. Then I got big into Mame on the PC. This Sparked the arcade interest.

Surfing Ebay for pics of arcade stuff didn't help. I didn't realize at that point I could buy an arcade game.

Oct. of '98 I pulled the plug and won a Magic Sword game from Cali and had it shipped to me. I got all new art and made it the best damn game I could. The I discovered it used to be a Robotron and learned of the horror of CONVERSIONS!!!!!

So in my case, Mame & Ebay re-awakened my arcade fever that I had as a kid. Wow! Just realized I have been at this for 14 years!
 
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