The secret time capsule of Bally Midway

In February I got a non-descript email about a private owner looking to sell a couple of arcade games. I always look forward to these emails, but this one in particular soon unraveled to be more than the average Joe looking to sell a Pac-man. It was a short story about a father who used to be employed at the Bally / Midway plant in Franklin Park and had brought his work home with him nearly 25 years ago.

Georgia Roadtrip – An operator’s time capsule

For over two months I’ve been planning my first “real” vacation of the year. In August I got a brief, three line email about a small operators cache of pinballs, arcade games, cigarette machines and pool tables. A death in the family had left a sister and her nephew to sell off a lot of 47 arcade games down south. Naturally, I was interested.

Jillian’s Billards Warehouse Auction in Louisville Kentucky

If you’re like me, you like the variety of broken arcade games that only Jillian’s can provide, you’re in luck. Turns out there is an auction going down in Louisville Kentucky. Mozy on down, before one of the Adkins brothers lifts a leg and marks the building

My Conversion Education

Let’s address a topic that tends to be rather polarizing among arcade video game collectors, specifically… conversions. Some collectors can imagine nothing worse than “soiling” their collection with a game installed in a converted cabinet, and they curse the creation of conversion kits altogether.

But yet other collectors have no such qualms, and they may have even built a conversion or two themselves. As for me, I have a unique fascination with converted cabinets and I’ve documented all that I’ve encountered for over 20 years. Here’s the story of “My Conversion Education”.

“Donkie Buddy”, the fancy bootleg?

I just returned from an awesome trip to Evansville to meet the “Dueling Computer Space” brothers, Ryan and Jason. While I was down there, Jason was showing me an interesting Donkey Kong pcb that I thought I’d share with the rest of you, see if we could get some insights.

Another Turbo Sub Surfaces

Damon Claussen is a rock star collector – he’s got a tremendous collection that includes a Cliff Hanger, Cloak & Dagger, Us vs. Them and, although not super valuable off the charts fun Snow Bros. In July of 2009 he picked up a piece of arcade history, and yesterday he shared a video showing the gameplay. If you haven’t heard of Turbo Sub, this YouTube video will blow your mind.

As long as Pac-man has less scalding than Kid Nation, it’ll be great!

The Namco universe is out of balance. Just last night I was surfing and realized that Phoenix Arcade is now selling licensed vinyl Pac-man family artwork, and now this. 1/10th of the daily funny of dude running through U of M fishbowl chased by cloth ghost, it would be a success.