Why do you collect? What got you started?

[SuperGunGuru]

I also got started thanks to emulation. I grew up playing a lot of late 80's and early 90's JAMMA games and during summer vacation from school in 98, I was bored and started seeing if I could find out any information for the game WWF WrestleFest....it was one that I had spent a lot of time on, though I can't say why it was that particular game I searched for. I ended up coming across an emulator called "Raine" which emulated Taito and Technos made arcade games, including WrestleFest. I was totally floored that I was playing the actual game on my computer just as I remembered it in the arcade. Before long I discovered other emulators, including MAME. I remember anxiously following the new releases and how excited I was when Mortal Kombat was emulated. As time went on there were other games I wanted to play, but they weren't emulated yet. From there I basically ended up getting a "super gun" system and started buying JAMMA boards to play on the system for games that weren't emulated. It was about 4 years later that I took the plunge into full size machines as a hobby and I haven't looked back.

 

[kspiff]

Uh oh. Pinball is next. Then you get a divorce and give in to wife's threats to take games if you don't give her everything else. And 10 years later you're in Chasing Ghosts 2 showing off your pornographic lithograph collection.

 

[Malice95]

Like many of you I played these games as a kid in the early 80's. 81 to 84
is around the time I played before I focused ALL my attention on girls and cars!

I used to be into halloween.. by into it, I mean putting on a HUGE yard
display every year that would get local news attention... pneumatics,
electronics, sounds, fog, things popping out of the ground, actors, etc. Real
full on pro haunt stuff. It covered my yard and the yards of the neighbors to
the left and right of me. It was my hobby making things for it year round.
After about 4 1/2 years I just got tired of it. Just woke up one day and
decided to sell everything. I found another haunter to buy everything for 3k.

While cleaning up my garage afterward I found a shipping tube with
plans for a mame arcade cabinet I bought about 5 years ago. I never built
the cabinet so I figured.. what the heck lets give it a go. While hanging out
on BYOAC reading up on the latest in MAME, I came to the conclusion that I
really didnt want a mame cabinet, I wanted to save/restore arcade games
and recreate that experience from my youth (turned 40 this year).

I took my 3k and started building my collection.. my first arcade game was
a galaga in a galaxian cabinet. Then I found KLOV.. I've gone from 0 to 20
games in my basement arcade over the past year. I am really happy with my
current collection and I cant see parting with any of them. I am also totally out of room.

That 3k is long gone many times over. Dont tell my wife! Now I am
refocusing my efforts from acquiring games to full restoration of all the games
I have and learning the skills to ensure they stay working for the next 40
years.. like pcb repair and building up a cache of spare parts.

I hope this winter to really get the arcade feel going with carpet, drywall on
the ceiling, lights, paint etc.

In the pics it might look like I have room but there are 5 machines in the
garage in various states of restoration.

 

[XY4u]

I don't know if I can out do Gsealock here goes. Collecting and playing helps me to remember my youth but I also like to share or create those special times with others.

 

[incrediblegamez]

Uh oh. Pinball is next. Then you get a divorce and give in to wife's threats to take games if you don't give her everything else. And 10 years later you're in Chasing Ghosts 2 showing off your pornographic lithograph collection.

Im not to the stage of 10 years later/chasing ghost segment but i can confirm the first part plays out to perfectly!

 

[TonyH]

I started by getting the wife what I thought was the coolest Christmas present she informed me later it wasn't. Fast forward a few years I realize I enjoy the hunt more than playing. I have built a good portion of my collection around my childhood memories.

 

[Scott C]

This is a good thread...

I grew-up during the golden age and played in arcades from 78-88 (not as much in the last couple of years). Needless to say I played Space Invaders through Operation Wolf (1987). That being said, my collecting really started when my father traded an old computer for an UR Pac-Man in 93' that worked, but had partial screen collapse (G07). I was already rediscovering the classics playing cheesy PC based knockoffs of a few titles like Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. It was another year or two before I discovered emulators, but the bug was planted when I looked inside the Pac-Man trying to figure out how it worked, how it was built, what was wrong with it and when I played that first game after it was repaired. The G07 repair was actually done by another collector and KLOV member that I found in the Internet in RGVAC way back then. Within another year or so I acquired my first three games, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong and Mario Bros, from that same collector.

Scott C.

 

[gwarble]

That right there is classic.

Thanks, since you enjoyed it (and i got rep points from someone, whatever those are for) i just stumbled on another text file layout (who needs google sketchup (just kidding gozer, good work), from 2002 and 03:

       gwarble's newer place (3/03 to ???) (games in living/dining room)

main floor of the apt:

 _____________________________________________________________________
|         | | | | | | | | | | / -           /      |                 |
|         | | |upstairs | | ||pap-\         \      |                 |
|         | | | to bedrooms |\ason|          \ tv  |                 |
|         |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| \__/            \  _-|                 |
d-_                             -  \           \-  |                 |
o  '.                          \ co \         _____||                |
o    \                          \ uch\       | dig ||                |
r____|_____                      \    \      | dug ||   backyard     -
|          |                      \  _-      |_____||    (porch)     |
| k        |                       \-              ||                |
|  i       |                                       ||                |
|   t      |                                       ||                -
|    c     |_______________________         _____  ||                |
|     h    |     |     |     |     |       /     \ |                 |
|      e   |smash|robo |gal  |joust|      / pap-  \|-----------------|
|       n  |  tv | tron| aga |     |      \  ason /|
|__________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_______\_____/_|

       gwarble's new place (from 3/02 to 3/03) (games in living/dining room)

main floor of the apt:

 __________________________________________________
|          ||robo ||     |smash|c |          /--_  |________
|          || tron||galaga  tv||o |          \     |        |
|          ||_____||_____|____||u |           \tv ||        |
| k        |                  ||c |            \_| |        |
|  i       |                  ||h |                |        |
|   t      |    ________      ||__|                ||       |
|    c     |   |        |                          ||       |
|     h    |   |dig dug |             _________    ||       |
|      e   |   |________|            |  couch  |   ||       |
|       n  |                         |_________|   || p     |
|__________|                         |_________|   ||  o    |
d-._                                               ||   r   |
o   '.                                             ||    c  |
o     \                                            ||     h |
r______|                                           ||       |
|_______________________________                   ||       |
|          |---|  closet  |----||         _________|        |
|          |---|__________|----||_____   |         |        |
| bathroom |    stairs down    ||     |  |  desk   |        |
|          |    to bedrooms    ||joust|  |         |        |
|__________|___|_|_|_|_|_|_____||_____|__|_________|--------|

granted not as classic as the first one, but enjoy

- gwarble

 

[fatherpain]

Well I was about 10-14 years old during the golden age of gaming...These games were everywhere....malls, car washes, arcades, liquor stores and 7-11's. I used to walk and take the bus all over town to play these. There is something magical about these games that most have forgotten. I don't have nostalgia for much of that time of my life other than these games and mebbe 80's music. My wife blessed me with 2 amazing sons, so my answer is two-fold. Nostalgia and because I think my kids will get a kick out of them.

Ok ok... a 3rd reason could be I suffer from mild OCD, lol. But seriously without the kids, I probably wouldn't have allowed myself to get sucked in

Tom

**Whelp** looking back on this 14 years later, sadly the reality is neither of our sons took an interest in Dad's arcade games…

So it ended up being all about nostalgia and a touch of OCD

 

[vintagegamer]

I'm a year older than Fritz, but my story is similar to his.

I was raised on Atari, Intellivision, and arcade games being everywhere. I also got heavy into cars.

One day around 2000, I went to meet up with a friend to head out to a car show. While waiting I could see a box like shape in his garage with a cover over it. I could tell by its shape what it was.. I said what do you have there, and he replies "Oh it's one of those confounded video game things. The kids moved out and left it." Trying to keep my poker face on, I said "You want it gone?" He said you'd want that?? Go get your truck and 50 bucks and it's yours.

I left my Chevelle at his house and ran back to mine like a 5 yr old to get my truck. Loaded the game and brought it home. My then wife says "What are you going to do with that, noone will play that. " the game was Asteroids.

25 years later, that wife is gone, and I still have the game.

PS: new wife told me to add that SHE likes it, LOL

 

[jawhn]

25 years later, that wife is gone, and I still have the game.