Maybe there were two versions of a dedicated Mr. Do!

For seven years I’ve been writing about a weird Mr. Do! cabinet, a white cabinet with illustrated artwork. There have been a number of cabinets with the same shape, and the artwork is similar, including a pink themed Ladybug. In Aug. 2009, I had an indication that this style of cabinet was licensed and product by Tehkan.

Today, I have a different theory – with some new photo insights.

18 Arcade Games in a trailer in Zionsville

Have you ever gone out and purchased an entire collection from another collector? Last fall I got an email from a gentleman in Zionsville – proposing such an idea. He had been consistently attending US Amusement auctions in the early 90’s and had amassed a great collection of classic games. I was excited, but cautious, one thing he told me caught my attention. The games were being stored in a trailer…

I’ve become a black hole for Zaccaria arcade games

If you have never taken the time to browse ZZZaccaria.com, I would set aside 30 minutes and immerse yourself in the world of Italian arcade games. The cabinets are beautiful – vibrant primary colors, intricate designs, curved plexi marquees – exquisite. Sadly, adding a Zaccaria section of your gameroom here in the states may be tad difficult. Fortunately, at least one of the Zaccaria games was imported to US and distributed in the 80’s – Quasar!

One of the coolest classic Japanese imports from Taito

The best arcade cabinets were from the late 70’s to very early 80’s across the board. From Atari to Midway, to Universal and Sega there are a ton of cabinets that were decked out head to toe in full artwork, colors blazing. Taito was also in the mix, possibly on a smaller scale as the majority of the games were developed in Japan and imported to the US. This week, I managed to snag a classic Taito that I first fell in love with 4 years ago, funny enough, through a warehouse raid that took place in Belgium.

Oh baby! A rare find in Chicagoland

Last August (2012) I got an email from an individual in Chicago looking to sell three Pac-man arcade games. I love Pac-man, I have two Pac family games in my collection currently. The list was a Ms. Pac-man cocktail, a Jr. Pac-man conversion and a Baby Pac-man. The seller was nice enough to take and send some photos. One of the photos in particular caught my eye…

Atari could have revolutionized social gaming in 1981

In late 1981 Atari conducted a ‘World Championship’ event at the Expocenter in Chicago. If you aren’t familiar with the history of this event, a quick Google search will turn up a number of items online. This article is probably the best.

Rife with mismanagement, shady dealings and lost profits, the championship event is widely considered to be a colossal failure – not ET Atari 2600 bad, more like Pac-man bad.

But why did this event flop so hard? Atari was part of Warner Communications – a tremendous distribution asset. They had Lee Peppard, who would appear to have had some cursory success in event promotion. They had a number of things working in their favor, including the brand recognition and consumer base.

There is at least one key area where Lee Peppard / Atari obviously failed…

Artwork options for designing your multi-deco

As of this writing, it is my understanding that a small new batch of multi-deco kits are in development from Dave Widel. For those of you lucky to be on the list to get one of Dave’s awesome kits, you might be thinking about the right DECO cabinet and possibly even artwork. Here are some options.