Recently there was some drama on the arcade forums about a “warehouse” raid that was going to happen in Louisville, KY. Brent, a friend of the Operator and an avid arcade collector, was organizing a clean out of this 100,000 square foot, 120 year old school house. The school was closed down in the 1970′s and sometime afterward it was purchased by the Operator who used it primarily as storage for his thriving business. It turned into a bit of a mad house on the forums, but Brent handled the chaos like a pro and everything went smoothly. I planned to head down to check it out with my friend and fellow enthusiast, Jeff Rothe of rotheblog. Luckily, Jeff had organized our purchase from the space long before the sale announcement, so our games were secure. Our primary goal was to secure the games and just check out the space. I loaded up the kids Friday afternoon and headed to Indianapolis for the first leg of the trip, the next morning we would drive up to Louisville for a 9am meeting and planning session with Brent. We were going a little early to help out with the sale, which started at 10am. The trip was about 5hrs and 15min one way. Unless you drive fast

We woke up Saturday morning to some wet snow, but still decided to take Jeff’s mini van instead of my SUV, it had more space. My youngest would stay with Jeff’s family and visit the Indy zoo, while I took my oldest along for the ride. Never too early to infect him with the collecting bug and I hoped he would enjoy the experience. The ride was easy and the school wasn’t that hard to find. It was huge and it was red. Insert token to continue…

Here it is, the final installment of our “Road Trip to Arcade Nirvana 2010″, documenting the amazing road trip I made with Jeff Rothe back in the summer of 2010. If you aren’t familiar with our exploits from that summer, refresh your memory by checking out the first two legs of our trip here: Part 1 and Part 2. After all the fun we had at the Freecade, and the awe we felt viewing so many rare laser titles at Morgan’s house, I wasn’t sure we could top it. Jeff had told me very little about our next stop, or perhaps I just didn’t remember the details, but we were on our way to see long time collector James Marous in South Vienna Ohio. I didn’t know much about James or his collection, but Jeff told me that he liked vector games and was also a big fan of Showbiz Pizza…hmm, this should be interesting. Here is a map of the final leg of our trip.

On the drive out to visit James’ place, Jeff filled me in on some of the details. Not only did James like vector games, but he has a bunch of super rare titles in his lineup. Some of them I had never seen or played before. The kind of games that just can’t be played in MAME. Rather than ramble on about his stuff, I’ll just let the game list speak for itself:

Armor Attack, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Aztarac, Battlezone, Berzerk, Black Widow, Blaster, Bubbles, Computer Space (yellow), Crazy Climber (deluxe), Cyberball, Death Race, Defender, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Dragon’s Lair, Food Fight, Frogger, Galaga, Gravitar, Gyruss, I,Robot, Joust, Lunar Lander, Major Havoc, Missile Command, Moon Patrol, Quantum, Reactor, Robotron, Space Duel, Spy Hunter, Star Castle, Star Wars, Tempest, Tron, Wacko, Warrior, and Zookeeper. That is 40 amazing games in one space, including every Atari vector (right? I’m not missing any?). I was truly going to be in Arcade Nirvana. Insert coin to continue…

In the much anticipated part two of the “Road Trip to Arcade Nirvana”, I’ll continue our saga with headaches, travel plans and rare lasers. If you missed the first part and want to catch up, check it out HERE . It was tough to wake up early on Sunday morning, especially after that long stretch of drinking and gaming in the Freecade, but we did it. My head felt like I had slept under a train bridge, but Greg and Christy were ultimate hosts to the very end, providing us with coffee and a delicious breakfast before we headed out. We had plans to visit two more collectors while we were still in Ohio, and it was time to get moving. The first stop would be Morgan B. in Hilliard, which was only about 20 minutes away. Greg had plans for later that day, but wanted to visit with Morgan and introduce us, so we headed over in separate cars.

As we drove the short distance to Morgan’s place, Jeff and I discussed Morgan’s history on RGVAC and in the collecting community in general. Back in the 1990′s and early 2000′s, Morgan was best known for his knowledge of Zwackery. Zwackery is an odd D&D style adventure game that was designed by a marketing person at Bally Midway. Zwackery had great potential as one of the early adventure games to hit the scene, but the controls are very complex which make it a difficult game to grasp and play effectively. Morgan had a comprehensive website with all kinds of information and history about the game, but it has been down for a long time. (more…)

Summer is winding down and the new school season is just around the corner, it was time. Time to hit the road and squeeze in one last weekend of arcade fun before fall arrived and I ran out of free time. I would be traveling with my friend Jeff Rothe of rotheblog and this years annual arcade pilgrimage would find us winding our way through Ohio to meet a few noted collectors and scope out their game rooms. I was really looking forward to the trip as it was a chance to wind down and talk shop! A weekend full of arcade nirvana.

While a few arcades still exist in the wild, they are typically filled with redemption machines and kiddie rides. You might get lucky and find a random pinball machine or arcade game, but who knows if it will be working properly. Today’s arcades are nothing like what I remember from back in the day.* These days, the very best classic 80′s arcade collections are in the hands of private enthusiasts. This trip would prove just how true that really was. (more…)

It’s true when you hear someone say, “You snooze you lose”. I was reminded of that when I returned to a local operators warehouse to check on some inventory I was interested in. Last time I was there I had found an Atari “Touch Me” game. An older, medium sized Atari, similar to the portable electronic game, Simon. An odd find for sure. I tipped off a local collector and he picked up the game for a reasonable price. While talking with the shop technician, we asked if he had any other games. He promptly led us through the back to check out the warehouse. What we found was a small treasure trove of old electro-mechanical games. Unfortunately I only took a couple of pictures.

This one is a pretty cool looking Sega Combat EM game. According to Marvin’s site, you control a tank and blast away at targets with only 12 shots. I really wanted to grab this one as it was in great shape, just didn’t have the extra money or space at the time. My friend was interested in these…

A pair of 1974 Midway Chopper’s according to Marvin’s site. Amazing to find one, but two was unbelievable. Even stacked on top of each other, they still looked to be in great shape. A fun variation of the typical helicopter themed EM game such as Whirly Bird.

While trying to climb over stuff to see what was there I saw a few Davy Crockett’s, a Midway Dog Fight, Fun Land (or Play Land?) and a couple western themed EM shooter’s. There was also a Pitch and Bat or two and a handful of older pins. Unfortunately for us we waited too long to follow up. A collector off the RGP forums (Mark the fireman in Hoffman Estates ~ I don’t like you!) swooped in and picked up 8 or 9 of the best games in the warehouse. Lesson learned for me. If you find something good you’d better make the deal and haul it away, don’t wait or hesitate, you’ll be sorry later. Oh well, I won’t make the same mistake again. Mark, if you’re reading this, I’d like an invite to play Combat once you get it working

If you’re an arcade collector or just a fan of the classic game, you already know about the much anticipated Tron Legacy, sequel to the Disney film Tron. The hype has been building for some time, but as opening day gets closer the viral marketing campaign continues to grow. Take a look at this…

This was the reward for completing the Arcade Aid challenge and guessing all 56 video games hidden throughout the city. I managed to get about 47 without help, not too bad. The ENCOM employee badge arrived in about a week and has an employee ID number, scan code and cool holographic sticker. For a give away item, this thing is fantastic. Yes, I’m a Tron fan and will wear this proudly. (more…)

Thanks to Jason V (meatloaf) for loaning me his Q*bert upright to use during our last Halloween party, it was a big hit. Not only did he drop it off, but he even let me keep it for a little while longer, just to enjoy. Since my Q*bert cabinet is currently in lots of pieces waiting for a restoration effort, it was nice to actually play this unique game.

My kids love the game and it looks great next to Mad Planets, so I’m going to have to get a jump on my project this Spring. (more…)

Fellow collector “Steve23″ has been cleaning out his warehouse full of arcade stuff and trimming down his collection. He generously offered to send another batch of arcade paper work and some miscellaneous parts. (Missed the first donation? Check it out here.) Luckily for me he has a customer in the area and was able to piggy back a couple pallets worth of stuff along with a part shipment. I just had to head out to the facility to pick it up. I grabbed an enclosed trailer from Uhaul, which has to be the roughest riding trailer I’ve ever pulled, and headed out. I couldn’t take any pictures at the business, but here is a shot of all the stuff unloaded in my garage.

I haven’t had a chance to go through every thing, but skimming through the piles there were a couple interesting items. (more…)

I recently made the road trip from Chicago to McLean IL, to meet up with my good friend Jeff at the Arcade Museum. What is the Arcade Museum? Just a little piece of arcade nirvana located right off I55 on your way south to St. Louis. If you don’t find what you’re looking for at the next St. Louis Super Auction, you can at least pop on over to the Arcade Museum and get your fill of classic gaming at its best.

John Yates, the avid collector responsible for the museum, has created a cozy little place to play a bunch of true classics. When we arrived there were a handful of customers playing games and a few volunteers working hard moving new games into place and keeping the ones on the floor working 100%. (more…)

Anyone familiar with my little game room will also be familiar with the constant battle I’ve had with water. Water from the window wells, water from the drive way, water from ice, water ruining carpet, etc. Well this time I have something new, a leak in the ceiling, yeah! (more…)