| General and Gaming > Classic Video Games |
| Why I’ve Transitioned to Arcades and Pinballs |
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| dashv:
I’ve been struggling to stay onboard this console generation. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great games this generation and the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro are impressive pieces of kit. But the now dominance of digital, delisting of top selling games, half done nature of most releases, and scarcity of new product due to underproducing has honestly taken most of the fun out of it for me. I’m NOT abandoning video gaming, collecting, or anything like that. But I am certainly getting a stronger by the day feeling that there’s no point collecting for this generation and beyond. Most of these discs will be incomplete coasters 10 years from now. At the same time I’ve been finding some good deals (some locally!) on arcade/pinball machines. I think I appreciate most that the games are finished. I also like that I can tinker with the hardware and craftsmanship a bit. Installing a software patch is kind of blah. But taking in a cabinet that’s had some mild abuse and restoring it to its glory days appearance is pretty fun. Finding the right parts for a good price reminds me of searching for games on my wishlist. Troubleshooting technical issues takes me down surprise researching rabbit holes where I learn some gaming history or some electronic/software stuff I never knew. It’s been a fascinating experience. Not saying it’s for everyone. But a few folks that follow me on twitter and Facebook have been wondering what the heck is going on with me so I figured I would share. Anyone else on here collect Pinballs/Arcadess? |
| tripredacus:
I've been involved in the arcade community for some years now. I do not own any machines, but I was once one day away from buying an R-Type. I had to cancel the buy because my car died the morning I was supposed to make the buy. Alas, I doubt I will ever find such a deal again. I currently play in two pinball leagues and the place I go to play pinball has over 70 machines! They have some arcade games there, modern ones like TWD, Monster Eye and Jurassic Park, BBHD and some sit down twin racer. For old arcade games they have a multi-pac (or some equivalent multiboard with Pac-Man and Galaga at least) and a House of the Dead. I remember when I was a kid, I never cared for pinball and always played arcade games. I have barely any memories of pinball so I do not think I had played it much, if at all. My first real memory of playing a pinball game was maybe 8 or 9 years ago, and since then I never looked back. One side effect seems to have been that I totally stopped being interested in arcade games, not sure why. I have one spot in my house where I could put a pinball machine and hope to get one some day. |
| bikingjahuty:
Arcade cabinets and especially pinball are sort of the last frontier for me in terms of collecting. I'd love to get into both, but unfortunately I lack the space to own any. At this point I probably could have had a decent sized home arcade, but sadly I've had to bite my lip on some incredible deals and pass on them. Probably the most infamous example of this was when I long running family fun center place similar to Chucky Cheese or Dave and Busters went out of business in 2015. They had tons of arcade cabinets, but oddly only a few pinball machines, most of which went out the door for under a hundred bucks. That really hurt seeing some of those go for what they did. But anyhow, assuming someday I can actually have a home large enough to house some arcade cabinets I fully plan on getting some. Same with Pinball machines, but unfortunately pinball is insanely expensive, especially for the 90s Williams machines which are the best imo. On top of that the area I live in is ultra competitive for both arcade and pinball due to there being many barcades in my area as well as a handful of pretty prolific arcade collectors that are always on the lookout for cabinets, even ones they already own. Still I'd love to get into the hobby someday if I'm able to. |
| mark1982:
Should check out Last Gamer's Youtube channel if you haven't yet. https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLastGamertube/videos The guy probably has the most insane collection I have ever seen. ( I believe he is the Guinness world record holder for video game collecting from the last I saw - Console and Arcade ) He has some interesting videos on arcade cabinet restoring - from the motorized mechanisms to the decal artwork. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV3aemF8j2g |
| oldgamerz:
speaking of pinball there is a pinball collection for the 6th console generation, but the PS2 version is the blue disc type of video game. "Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection" also for PS1 there is some more 1: Pro Pinball: Big Race USA (1999) 2: Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey (2000) :) I like the console version of pinball, but I used to have a Pinball mini arcade machine growing up |
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