The Current Line Up of Machines I Own
I can remember being no more than ten years old, telling my Mom that I would own an arcade machine one day (soon). I day dreamed how I would raise the money to buy a machine, despite not having a source of income, and would browse arcade machine vending websites.
As a kid, I have found memories of being taken to different arcades: in Oak Bluffs: the Flying Horses and another closed arcade, the Sea View Playland on the Cape, the local house of pizza which had a few cabs, as well as the local A&W, Funspot in NH, the Holiday Hill arcade in Dennis, The Ryan's Family Amusement locations, and searching for places with machines in North Reading. This being 2000 - 2010, I caught the tail end of the Video Arcade era.
I've enjoyed the rise of the arcades with the advent of the barcade, and look for them whenever I travel. Barcade in NYC, Freeplay in Providence RI, Bit Bar in Salem MA, Arcadia in Portland ME. I think the business model of paying a cover, with every game on free play, is a great model. And I appreciate greatly the effort that goes into maintaining a fleet of aging machines that are still getting regular use. Replacement parts can be hard to find, and the cabs are well past their intended life.
Owning arcade machines is a culmination of so many interests for me. Video games, electronics, electronic history, and CRTs. Below is a list of the games I own.
The First Two Machines I Bought
The first arcade machine I purchased, what else can it be but Pac-Man? I purchased it for $500 at the tail end of the summer of 2016 with my first sales bonus from driving an ice cream truck. I was told it had originally been in a Ryan's Family Amusement on the Cape before being in private ownership for about thirty years. It had been converted to a Pac-Man Plus. I swapped the marque for an original Pac-Man marque, and swapped the board for a 60-1 board, which contains all of the original arcade classics. The tube does have burn in, and is overdue for a recap.
The Game w/ the Original Marque.
Super Street Fighter II -
POV: Two guys playing your Super Street Fighter II
The second machine I bought, Super Street Fighter II, I purchased in early 2019 for $500 (if my memory is correct). I purchased it in Worcester. I believe this cab was first in an arcade, then in a barber shop, then owned by a private owner before being sold to me. Burn in is very minimal, only noticeable where the health bars are. The colors of the monitor are incredibly crisp, and I've enjoyed looking at the background graphics as others play. I believe this cab was converted at some point too, however I'm not sure from what. It's good to own one of the classic fighting cabs, getting good at it is another story...
Tetris -
Triumphant and Tired after traveling 1700 miles, moving the cab up 4 stories
One more game I bought in October of 2019, for, you guessed it - $500. Although, the true cost was a bit more than that...
Tetris may be my favorite video game of all time, if it can be considered that. To me, it's less a video game, and more a "digital game", if that makes sense. A true "minute to learn, lifetime to master" kind of game, I love the challenge, and the way that it can pull your focus 100%. It helps too that I've found myself to be good at these kind of games.
Being my favorite game, I wanted a Tetris cab pretty bad. My understand is with the exception of some cabarets, Atari never made any official Tetris cabs or cocktail tables. In my experience, finding a good Tetris conversion can be difficult, or at least it was when I was looking. I felt like everything I found sold fast, was priced unreasonably, or was in tough shape. As my obsession with finding a Tetris cab grew, I began increasing the radius of the area I was searching in. Eventually, I asked myself how far I could travel in a day, and came up with 800 miles, one way. Well, I ended up finding one just north of Detroit, MI (coming from Boston, MA). I came through on the promise to myself, and made the trip. I rented a car, and did the driving in two days: 12 hours of driving the first day and 13 hours of driving the second day. I received incredible support on this endeavor, to the point where I couldn't have completed the effort alone.
The picture above is after I completed 25 hours of driving in two days, and then moved the heavy machine up to the fourth floor of my city apartment. Through the help of my Reddit post, I was able to determine the cab was originally a Sinistar. I've obviously much happier with it being a Tetris, which it must have been for the majority of its life as burn in is just from Tetris. Of the cabs I own, this is my favorite, and the one I'd be least willing to part with.
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