The rest of my Arcade machines arrived this week and I thought I’d give you all an update. I had a lot of people ask where I got them from but until they arrived I wanted to hold off telling you the name of the place. I didn't want to recommend the website only to have boxes full of broken wood and glass show up at my house. The machines are all beautiful though and worked great so I’m happy to tell you I got them from Arcadesmarket.com. I worked with Jose there and he has no clue who I am or that I’d ever be mentioning his shop. In fact there is a very good chance this link will wreck his site. I contacted a lot of vendors and Jose not only had all the machines I was looking for but he was also the only one willing to give me a great deal for buying so many at once. The cabinets are all gorgeous and most have been upgraded with flat screen monitors and modded boards to add a few extra games to each cab.
They came all the way from Saint Paul Minnesota and arrived at my house after about a week on the road.
Unpacking them and moving them into the garage took a few hours.
Once they were all situated Gabe invited some of his friends over. Watching a bunch of elementary school kids playing classic arcade games really did my heart good. My son took to Dig Dug and I have to say this is one of my favorite pictures I’ve taken.
That night after the family was in bed I went out there and just puttered around from machine to machine. I played some Pac Man and some Donkey Kong and went right back to my childhood. I started playing Super Mario Bros and went right back to the Onion in Spokane. It was a burger joint on Division street. We’d go there for dinner and I’d get a buck to spend in the little arcade while we waited for the food to come. They had a Nintendo Playchoice machine that I put every dollar into.
I still have a bit of work to do before I’m ready to call it done. I guess that’s the way it is with these sorts of projects. There’s always something else you want to add or fix. I’ve got a big space in the center reserved for a nice air hockey table and I need to figure out some way to pipe in the smell of crappy pizza.
When we all get back from Australia I plan on having grand opening party for all my friends. I’ve been kicking around ideas for a name and I appreciate all the suggestions you gave me. I think I’ve settled on "Darkmagic’s" which was an idea I really liked that came from a reader. I can see a cool sign with Jim with his arms spread over the logo. That’s another item for the to do list.
-Gabe out
