Question:
...there are many reason why having a "real" arcade game is rewarding,
but similarly to your pinball analogy, some games can only be played on
the real thing.
Answer:
I started my obsession with my atari 2600. You can
also thank chucky cheese and Fun n Games. Chucky cheese used to have
all the new games when I was a kid. I could not go to a mall without
playing an arcade game. I remember playing Tron at a store called
Uncle Bills in Cleveland, Ohio. You can play all the emulated old
games you want, but the controls, sound, speed, and feel are just
never the same. I have never been able to play an emulated version of
Pac-Man and say this is exactly how the arcade game played. Video
games are my sports. It is my favorite past time and my stress
reducer. I play all the current games too, but they don't replace the
classics. The games in the past can be picked up and played by
anybody. I got my first arcade about six years ago. I had a very old
dude hit me while I was riding my bike. Well let's say I have ended up
with back pain and my very own Tron machine. I wouldn't trade Tron for
anything. After that I picked up a dead commando and an old robby roto
machine. Very CHEAP! There was a lot of stuff on the net that helped
me learn how to work on games. Bob Roberts put up with me bugging him
every time something came up. Bob, info on the net, and my love for
games taught me how to work on games. Doing a cap kit on the commando
machine for the first time was a little scary. I converted the roto
machine into a jamma cab with 15 diff games. Since there is a door in
front it works great for a multi jamma cab. Then my parent's nebior
across the street threw out a galaxian cab on his tree lawn. Which of
course I grabbed up and did monitor repair to get working.
Then I picked up a Chinese hero machine that I drove over 3 hours to get. I
even got a job with a vending company for 2 years. I've moved on and
now I'm back to my hobby again. Recently, I bought 4 games in a bulk
deal. (Bionic commando, bad dudes, heavy barrel, and bottom of the
ninth in an old zaxxon cab. I restored the zaxxon cab back to the
original game with the flight stick. Still looking for side art:-) I
am now working on an old midway cab that had three layers of black
paint and Ms Pac art underneath, which I am restoring to a galaga cab.
Trust me, I tried to do everything to save the Ms Pac art. It was the
hardest thing for me to sand off the paint. I tried all the different
methods of saving art. It was sad, but at least a good looking Galaga
will come out of the deal. I have spent over 15 hours sanding off
the paint. I am now in the process of filling in holes and cracks with
bondo. All this rambling says one thing. Arcade collecting is an
obsession. I would call it my passion. If you check this newsgroup
It just depends what you're into. I'm 36 and have never owned an x-box or
playstation, the first nintendo was the last home system I owned. I was
still going to arcades when home systems were coming out (and still go to
them) because I like the look and feel of the stand up machines. I don't
have games now so much for the nostaglia factor, I have them because I
really like to play the games... and so do my friends. I throw a lot of
parties, it's great to see 40-50 people packed into my arcade room all
playing vids and pins and having fun. I personally would much rather play
