Dammit!!! RIP big Y! Good memories of him and his cool Simpson's avatar.
Yoalpster Died? Anyone have any More information?
- Thread starter Phetishboy
- Start date
JamBurglar
Well-known member
Rest in Peace Yoalpster
Do you have the link on it? I know Shawn had a ton of cabs. The least we can do is make sure that they don't end up in some scrapper's hands. I know he planned to sell some, but he really liked getting them up and working.
EVB
Well-known member
Well that sucks. Really sorry to hear this.. 
Damnit, I just heard this. I am so sorry to hear the news, and my condolences to his family. Shawn and I were close friends in the way that everyone here is: our love of games created an instant bond the first time we met. I've been talking with Shawn here at KLOV and meeting up with him at auctions for a good seven years now. He was always offering to help out with things, and we traded Neo*Geo carts for variety. He was a great guy and a dedicated collector, and I think we're all going miss him, especially the Kansas City area guys.
I wanted to share an interview I did with him about five years ago at one of the Grandview auctions. The lines with the > are my questions/comments. Any typos, misspellings are on me, since I was dictating this from an audio recording. There are a few 'editors notes' for clarification here and there too.
We did this interview standing out back in the parking lot of the Grandview building next to his Thunderbird with the giant Beast Busters marquee in the back window of the car.
I wanted to share an interview I did with him about five years ago at one of the Grandview auctions. The lines with the > are my questions/comments. Any typos, misspellings are on me, since I was dictating this from an audio recording. There are a few 'editors notes' for clarification here and there too.
I've been to the Maple Leaf Festival before, some of you Kansas guys have probably been too, the only difference is that nowadays there are no arcade games there>When did you start playing?
Oh... I started cracking at games a long time ago. I'm 37 now and um, I actually started, I remember my next door neighbor got an Atari back when it was the old black wood sixer and it cost him 169$ and we played Space Invaders and Asteroids to an ungodly amount of time. I started listening to Dr Demento around the same time, it was around 78-79 and just started cracking at games. And when I got older and got into junior high, i started hitting up the roller derby and stuff like that and we'd go on 4H trips and stuff like that and I didn't put the skates on, I'd just sit in the arcade and play Solar Fox until my hands bled. And just had a great old time doing that. After a while I got my first Atari, it was the cheaper model when it came down in price 140$.
>So you were there for the Golden Era?
Oh god yeah it was so fun. Even in my small town where there's only like 100 people in your graduating class, someone actually opened up a small arcade and we had about 25 machines and a couple of pool tables and they sold hot dogs in the back so I got to crack out to the Centipede and I remember games that I can't find anywhere except the KLOV list, like Slither and some other ones. They had an original Missile Command there, and a bunch of other ones, it just kicked ass. They had a Stargate, the sequel to Defender, which was so cool fly into those boxes and end up in another area, it was so cool.
>How did you go from playing games to owning arcade games?
Well... I've been a game collector, at a young age, just on Atari in between my cousin and my collection we had like 150-200 Atari carts after a while. I remember when the crash of the video games hit and mom would go in to KB Toys and pick them up for less than 3$ a piece. They were in a front bin in front of the store going 'PLEASE GET RID OF THESE'. They were all in the original boxes... One Christmas I got 19 carts!
>(laughing)
And that was just the start of it. From then I've have relatives who'd send my like five or ten and then I'd get somebody else's collection when they moved and it just started from there. Then I started getting into Commodore 64 and I started collecting games that way. Moving on up to actual arcade games, was just a natural progression. I was always interested in getting a machine but never could and finally I had a roommate that had a Rygar that brought it to my porch. Another friend of mine told me about some auctions and I took him to the auction and that was it. At my first auction I went... oh god, I don't remember... 2001? 2000-2001 I was working really good and I had a good paycheck and I got my taxes back...
>So you had plenty of cash? (laughing)
I said 'I'm not going to spend more than 500$' on either one game or a bunch. I spent 400$ and I got four games out of it. And so it was beautiful.
>You'd say that games and collecting arcades are a big part of your life now.
Oh yeah
>It always has been?
Pretty much yeah. Enough to where I got the packrat habits of my father and the gaming habits just from everybody else.
>I get the packrat habits from my mom's side, I have that problem too (laughing) Now when you're playing your collection, would you say it's more about the games or more about the social, the community aspect of it. Knowing people and interacting online, that kind of stuff.
Well, actually, the interaction I have online is just through the KLOV boards, and through members like yourself and a few other people. Just discussing games and actually having a place where I can say 'hey this was fun' and what's really surprising is that I'm actually one of the older members there. Because I don't consider myself but about 30 years of age even though I'm 37 I know I lived through that. Everyone says 'I'm 31, I'm 28, shit I'm 19', and I'm like FUCK!
>Heh, I'm starting to feel old and I turn 25 in a week
You'll catch up... [I have, I'm 30 now
>Looking back at a younger age and then comparing that to now, do you see any similarities between 'us', the community now, and the people who were out in the arcade back in the day?
Kind of a double edged question... The people that are at the auctions these days, they're either dealers, there's a small handful of collectors that are always scouting and 'wow' about it but um, for the most part, it's like bar owners and game dealers, and they're not really into it. They've got the trophy wife, and the bar downstairs, and they need their Golden Tee to finish up the collage of football, or whatever their testosterone can handle at the time. Or they actually own a business somewhere and they want a couple of machines 'oh that'll get quarters'. But for the people that really crack out on it, they're a whole 'nother breed. They're usually smiling, got the game shirts on, with a Pac-Man belt or something, and they walk in there and they are containing their joy, cause usually they've got a family with them. But if they're single, they'll walk up to a machine, and just go 'WOW' put their hand on the side of it and remember when they were 13. And I think it's the whole allure of it, because things were so much better back when you were 13. Mortgages, and jobs, and bullshit.
>Well, I'm still in school, so I've got a few years.
Even with school, it's still not that whole 'ice cream shop roller rink 13 thing'. Back when cartoons were cool and video games kicked ass.
>I asked that same question out when I was in California [CAX 2006 - FMonk], and a lot of people said 'I think it's the same guys now as then', but Kevin [Radarcade, aka krakboi - FMonk], he had a really interesting point, he said 'oh no man, when I was a kid the arcade was full of scary punk rock guys you didn't want to get close to, and now it's all nerds'.
True, true... I think all the nerds were at the door, afraid to go in where all the punk surfer guys were. Joysticks the movie, there was a guy with a mohawk, and sure it was trying to be a titty flick, the cheerleaders were all lifting their shirts and stuff, but there was always a punk or two, who if they couldn't play, they'd beat them up, or throw a knife in their face and go 'beat it punk' and the kid would run off. It was always the kid on the bike that got away...
>Is there anything you want to say about the whole thing [collecting and the collecting community]?
Umm... I don't know if I can verbally say it as well as I did in one of my actual posts (on KLOV), it was talking about how gaming for me was like closing my eyes and going to the Maple Leaf Festival, it was just some dumb little thing, I was in band and we marched in this small town. And they had a malt shop there and we went in there and I remember the music, I remember playing Dig Dug, I remember the girls with the lip gloss, and smelling that smell, the rides that were outside, and the whole atmosphere, just cool as hell. That's what I feel sometimes when I get into the zone of an actual original classic game. And the rest of them are just competitions to beat my friends at.
>(laughing)
We did this interview standing out back in the parking lot of the Grandview building next to his Thunderbird with the giant Beast Busters marquee in the back window of the car. 
I didn't know him and honestly I don't know if I ever interacted with him but I wanted to thank you for posting this. It was a very cool thing to read as he paints a very clear picture of what this hobby meant to him. We all got into these games for different reasons but in the end it all comes back to the fact that there's a good place in all of our memories that is triggered when we step up to one of our games. Thank you for this post. Rest in peace, Shawn.
Radiac
Well-known member
So very sad. I saw him at Grandview once, but didn't get the chance to talk to him. I know he was highly regarded here and will be missed.
RIP yoalpster
RIP yoalpster
cadillacman
Well-known member
found a pic from back in the day... the url gave me chills.
went klepto and got more...
still sad....
went klepto and got more...
still sad....
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That URL is chilling...
Sad news. RIP.
So weird, I just thought of him on Friday and I couldn't figure out why. I think I was thinking of when I first came to KLOV and was trying to remember old avatars. His comic book guy one always stood out to me. RIP my man.
hucklebuck73
New member
+1 Thanks FMonk for sharing the interview and Phet to bringing it to our attention.
R.I.P. Yoalpster such sad news
R.I.P. Yoalpster such sad news
