Why do you collect? What got you started?

[enjoyvelvet]

I was driving home with my wife and we passed a Ms. Pac Man machine sitting outside of an old laundromat. I thought in my head that I should go back and pick it up...my wife said go ahead. I brought it home with a family of roaches and $5 in quarters so I actually made a profit. I wiggled a few wires and had it working that night...and that lit the arcade fire (no pun intended) that I can't seem to put out.

 

[airlair]

As a kid in the early 80s the only place I could really go was the arcades. I would save my paper route money up and usually go a couple times a week. I would always try to make sure that we would go when we knew there wouldn't be lines for the more popular games because the older kids would just cut in front of us and it's not like we could do anything about it. Well around 8th grade for me is when the original classic arcades started closing down. The last new games I could remember were Sinistar and Dragon's Lair. Once I got into high school my focus changed to sports. Once I started playing football I discovered my "special purpose" (The Jerk reference) and arcade games were the last thing on my mind. There was one arcade that opened up right by our high school, but it was full of mainly fighting games and Jr. High kids and neither interested me.

Fast forward a couple years to 1989 and my freshman year in college. I'm chilling in my room with a couple friends drinking beers and one of them mentions how he misses the arcades. Well I just happen to remember that my grandmother had a Space Invaders Deluxe in her garage that used to be in the bar that I now own. When I would go down there as a kid she would give me quarters and I would play that game all night. She had a pinball before but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. I mention this and we all agree it would be cool to have a game in our suite. The next time I'm home I stop by the bar to say hello and ask about the game. She then laughs at me and says I should have shown up the week before because she just gave the game to someone. So I just kick myself and laugh at my luck. So I just missed being bit by the bug.

Fast forward to June 2000. I just get back from my two week National Guard Annual Training trip on Saturday, and on Sunday I decide to take a ride on my Harley. Well less than two miles from my house some 16 year old bastard in his mommy's car follows me too close and hits me from behind at a stop light so I'm on the ground. It just so happens that a student driver was behind the car that hit me, and she was following too close and hit him which in turn made him run me over. My bike was totaled and my foot was broke. I managed to get the other leg out. So I was out of commission for a little while and I started to think about finding a safer hobby. Well I remembered the missed opportunity with my grandmother and started scouting eBay. I found a Space Invaders Deluxe, won the auction, and I've been collecting ever since.

 

[YieArKade]

MAME is what got me started. Having access to the many games I remembered from the arcades got me thinking it would be cool to own an arcade game. So I had to decide which game would have good replay value for me. I saw that Mat Mania pcbs were pretty cheap at the time and thought it would also be a fun game to own. So I bought the pcb before I even had a cab for it. (It's kinda funny though, because when I was younger and played Yie-Ar Kung Fu at the arcade, I told myself I would own one of those cabs one day.)

Then I started doing a little research on arcade games and learned about how some games had dedicated cabs and some games were just conversion kits; and how monitors had to be vertical or horizontal for certain games. Also learned how some older games were not JAMMA and had unique harnesses and pinouts that had to be considered. So I bought a vertical monitor game cab, Geurilla War, which has a rotatable monitor and it's JAMMA which is the most versatile harness, and made a JAMMA adapter for using my Mat Mania pcb .

After that I bought some more JAMMA pcbs that I could use rotary controls with. Then I started getting into CPS2 games and decided I needed a cab with 2-joys and 6 buttons per player. Then I see a game for sale that I like and tell myself that I have room for another cab... until the garage got full.

Now I'm trying to stick to games that I'll really play. MAME is a nice "try before you buy" program, but I wouldn't make a MAME cab. It's just not the same. You can't play Super Punch-Out! on MAME the same way as the arcade game.

 

[Paul Olson]

I started going to arcades regularly in 1980, and that has never really stopped. I had played a few here and there before that, but I was pretty young, and that was we moved from Oregon to just outside of Reno. In Reno, nearly every casino had an arcade.

Living in Reno, there are still plenty of arcades to go to, although they are mostly newer titles. I was a truck driver from 1995 to 2005, and it turns out that almost every truck stop and movie theater has at least a few games. I really haven't noticed much of an arcade slowdown in my life. There are hundreds of games available locally to play.

That being said, I always thought it would be cool to own games, but never figured out it was actually possible until about 2003. I wanted to have a MAME cab, so i ended up buying my first cab, a converted Tekken 2, and started getting serious with the whole MAME scene. I still enjoy that even now, but in ~2008, I saw an ad for a Ridge Racer on Craigslist. $200 later, and I owned my first dedicated arcade game.

I still play in MAME regularly, and I now have a garage full of games, but I still enjoy playing games when I am out. I think I am truly a life long addict. I have had most consoles over the years, and currently have a wii and a pair of 360s, but I have never enjoyed those as much as the arcade games.

 

[Raab]

I moved into a new place and realized console games just were not doing it for me.

 

[GoneMad]

Mame did it for me. There are no arcades around here at all and the only way i could get a few of my favs in was with mame. i come across a Commando last fall, and now have 4 as a start. Just the beginning of a long addiction. Soon gonna need more room. Also makes me feel young again.

 

[Spunkmeyer]

I would not have any dedicated games if it were not for the advent of MAME. One must wonder how many of these games would be lost forever if people did not have the opportunity to try them once again on a computer, regain interest in them, and then graduate to having their own machines.

MAME is definitely a gateway drug.

 

[cadillacman]

Ever since i was a kid i had "the bug"

When i moved to the chicago burbs i put a want ad up on napervilleyardsales.com
looking for gameroom type stuff.

I got a reply, drove from naperville to lockport to pickup my first score lol, a paif of arachnid dartboards, a wurlitzer jukebox, some no nme cocktail with a necked tube, a mattell electronics "las vegs" pin, and a mr do! in gorf cabinet.

THose were the days.... its been a downward sprial form there lols

 

[sosage]

I started collecting fresh out of High School in 1996. Being out of school with a ton of free time, I went back to playing Street Fighter II, which in turn had me running into a lot of serious players throughout the Bay Area. One day a group from the south bay were talking about holding an Alpha 2 practice session on someones arcade cabinet...that was in his living room. That blew my mind back then, because my perception was that you had to be incredibly rich to have one of these things in your house. They had to be worth tens of thousands of dollars...right?

I investigated a little bit more and discovered I could piece a cabinet together for well under a thousand bucks. I scored an Alpha 2 board set for 400 (this was when the game was the latest SF out...it should have been twice that IIRC), an empty cabinet for 200 and a monitor for 300. Overpaid by a lot for the empty cabinet, but we all have to learn a lot of lessons the hard way with the first machine.

From there I started picking up more CPS-1/2/3 boards. Some when they were brand new. It was kinda nuts there for a while. I should have probably toned that spending down.

It's ballooned to the point where I now have a garage full of non-working stuff. I'm at the point where I feel I collected too many project machines, not enough working ones. I'm contemplating dumping half of the projects just so I have less on my plate when I go out to the garage.

 

[Mupes]

Born in '70, I have fond memories of arcades throughout late childhood and early adulthood. Would spend whatever spare change I had on 'em along with my buddies. Whether it was the actual "arcades" with many games solely for that purpose or hanging out at the 7/11 or doughnut shop or pizza place just to play the one or two games there. HUGE part of my life growing up. Had the Atari 2600 - sold it to help pay for my 5200, but it was never the same as the "real" thing. My buddies and I even got into Sega Genesis, but still...

When I was dating my wife in college (early '90's) we used to hang out at Malibu Grand Prix - not to drive so much, but because they had a killer arcade. The one game we had in common was Black Knight 2000 pin (she never got into the vids). We told each other that if/when we got married, we were going to get a BK2K pin for our 5th anniversary. Well, we got married in '94 and my mom and stepdad got a Pool Sharks pin around 1997. I called the guy they got it from and told him to find me a BK2K. About 2 months later, we had it! That was awesome - still think it's the best pin today (imho).

After that, I had always wanted a Frogger or Joust or Ms. Pac or DK or something, but never really pursued it - we have 3 young kids. Finally, this past winter I started looking on eBay and CL and doing some research and decide one of my boys and I can build a 60-in-1. Well, I found a Birdie King I thought would make a great 60-in-1 "host" but once I got it, I couldn't bring myself to do anything, but restore it (hey, I rememebered playing it at Putt Putt Golf and Games!). That was 6 months ago (Feb). Now, I feel like a crack addict!

The 60-in-1 (I still haven't bought a xxxx-in-1, but plan to) still has a place for me and those of us who can't house eleventy bajillion games, but I'm philosophically with the die-hards - there's no substitute for dedicated original games. My wife has been very supportive of the "hobby" so far, but I've already had to create a list of games (see my sig) to help control my habit. Otherwise, I think I might have some real issues!

Steve

.... I discovered my "special purpose" (The Jerk reference) ....

Priceless!

 

[p1899m]

From the first time I ever stepped into an arcade I thought, how cool would it be to own one of these machines. I was always in awe of them and that feeling never really left. Sure consoles eventually drew my attention away from the arcades but in the back of my mind there was always the thought that someday I would own a game of my own. Like many others I went through the phase where I thought you had to be rich to afford an arcade game.

When I finally moved out of my parents house into a place with some friends and got that first feeling of freedom I sat down with one of my friends and wrote out a wish list of all the things I wanted that I couldn't have while living in my parents house but could now make a reality living in my own place. I honestly have no clue what else was on the list but I do recall saying that I needed an arcade game. Specifically a Donkey Kong. That was the true beginning that lead to the search for the Donkey Kong which in turn lead to other games, finding CAX, finding the KLOV forums and so much more.

So this is why I originally collected and what started me in the hobby. As time went by my understanding and motivation changed somewhat.

 

[kspiff]

Masochism.

 

[ModCity]

My parents traveled often for work in the early to late 80s and we would usually take a two-week RV trip somewhere in the country once a summer, so I fell in love with these machines in hotel and campground game rooms. Some of these game rooms were massive, as in 25+ games and pinball, and some places would have only one machine tucked in the laundry room (got sick of Donkey Kong because very often, if they only had one, that was it).

I remember a very small arcade in my hometown in the back of an old-school Midwest cafe. Probably six or seven games tops, but the only two I remember are Omega Race and Track & Field. Right about when I was 14 a small baseball card shop/arcade opened right next to my parent's office and I'd hang out there after school until it was time to go home. They had Rough Ranger, Black Tiger, Time Pilot '84 (still a favorite), Tron, Gauntlet and Superman.

Of course, as the NES arrived I was growing out of my first game phase and became a strictly casual, at-home gamer.

My interest was also re-piqued by MAME, where I found Yie Ar Kung-Fu after 15 years of not seeing hide nor hair of a machine (or many other machines, for that matter). Then, last year, 11 years after graduating college, I decided if I was every going to actually own a machine - a dream of mine as a little kid playing them - I might as well do it. And lo and behold, a YAKF shows up on eBay. Good price, waaaaaaay too long of a drive, but I got it and brought it home. Fixed it up a bit and have had a blast playing it. Even set a short-lived record on it.

Since then I've floated around this forum reading up on all things arcade and finding the hobby even more fascinating then I had originally thought. The collection is now growing slowly, but steadily.

I'm not a restorer, but I can do minor repairs and I love having working machines for people who come over and "get it."

I guess ultimately for me it's a nostalgia thing, but the kicker is it's just as much fun now as when I was young, maybe ever more so.

 

[DLP]

It was 1993 and I was sitting around waiting for my girlfriend at that time to get ready. On the coffee table, there was a want-ad magazine. I flipped in open looking for DJ gear and stumbled on a single ad in the Arcade Game section with someone selling a Hyper Sports. I used to play the shit outta Hyper Sports back in the day, so I called the guy up and the next day I met the guy, paid too much, went home with a Hyper Sports, and my life has never been the same. haha

 

[PacMarv]

Hooked for Life

I worked repairing games in 1982 at the Huntintington Beach Pier in CA. My boss would pay me "gas money" by giving me left over parts from conversions. I was in college and I bought an Atari Pool Shark. That was honestly the weakest game I've ever played. I gutted it and turned it into a Black and White Rally-X. My roommates and I played the tar out of it.

Fast forward 29 years later and kids in college...I'm still collecting. Love the hobby. Just wish I had more time for projects and more room. Who doesn't want that!

Marv

 

[jehuie]

I started collecting because I thought it would keep me young. Doesn't seem to be working.

 

[MadocOwain]

As a child of the 80s, I was always playing any game I could find. My uncle bought some arcade games (new) for his basement so I got to grow up around cockpit Star Trek, Battlezone, Star Wars, and Pac-Man!

Fast-forward to 1997, I was browsing around this new-fangled thing called "eBay" to see what kind of things people were buying and selling there. Found an auction from partygt for a Space Duel game, remembered how much fun I had playing it as a kid and decided to bid. I won the game, got it home and soon ended up being sucked in to the world of arcade game collecting. Space Duel was followed quickly by Omega Race mini and a Gyruss cocktail, the rest is history..


M.O.

 

[groffdaddy]

Way back in 2002 I was browsing ebay at work and decided to search for Altered Beast. I found one in Arkansas with a starting bid of $200.00 so I bid $205.00 figuring someone would outbid me. Low and behold I won the auction. I never even thought that I could own an actual arcade machine. I loaded up the family the next day after work and drove 9 hours straight thru. Talked with the guy for an hour and turned around a drove 9 hours home and then went to work.

He actually referred me to KLOV back then but I only used it to reference game info in the database. Decided to check out the forums early last year and have been addicted ever since.

 

[smalltownguy2]

Yeah, what Frizz said.

MAME is a gateway drug. Instead of having all the games with one cabinet, I NOW want all the cabinets with one game.

Don't even get me STARTED on the gradual slide towards pinball addiction. It's a whole other beast all together.

 

[OregonPacman]

I grew up with what are now classics. For a long time I went without playing them. At one point I started making occasional trips to Omaha with one of my high school buddies and played the large number of classics they had at the time. A couple of years later this same friend and I were sitting around watching TV and suddenly decided to drive to Denver (a good 2 hour drive) to see if we could find arcade games to buy. After visiting a home rec room type supplier and a few operators we did indeed come back with a Street Fighter 2 (him) and a Final Fight (me). That was back in the summer of 2000 or 2001. I can't remember which. The place we got the Street Fighter was so crammed with games that we had to move 10 machines and pull them outside to get to it. You could walk through the first 4 rows or so but after that, you had to walk on top of the games to see what was in the back. Of course, thats where the SF2 was. The guy had another room that was completely crammed with games so tight that you could not have put another one in it and could barely open the door. Another place looked like some kind or arcade junkyard with monitors and parts all over. There were many rows of games but the chances of getting a working one looked pretty remote and we didn't get anything there. The Final Fight came out of a store front that had a sign saying they sold arcade games to the public. Nothing great in there but I did get my game.