In the beginning...

In the beginning, there was the arcade, and the arcade was good.

...and expensive. So, after the quarters were gone, there were the mall stores with the Atari 2600's, the Intellivisions, the Colecovisions, and even Target with the TI's and Atari 800/400's.

On the weekends, there was the Bump and Tilt. It was $10 back in 1984, and we got to play all day long - for free. Robotron, Pacman Plus, Sega Turbo, Galaga, Omega Race, Amidar, Kangaroo, Centipede, and more.. all set to freeplay. Pinball games I forget to this day, except for a Black Knight.

Later, there was Nintendo and others at home, and a few arcades, and an addictive phase to Cabal - the only game I've completed on a single quarter. A Wizard pinball at the college laundromat.

And finally, marriage. Which meant MAME .30ish and on up through today.

Which eventually meant, I realized that keyboards and gamepads sucked for classics. Enter byoac.com (Build Your Own Arcade Controls).

But wait! Enter kids too! Enter no time to solder! No time to tinker. No time to use the ton of parts I'd eBay'd for myself.

Then, came the arcade auctions I never knew existed. Where I got myself a working game for $25. And that's where I realized that I could work on real games and get them going about as fast and cheaply as I could get MAME running.

So, fast forward to today. I have a 1 year old and a 4 year old. I have 2 working games at the moment, a bunch of boards to swap into them, and 2 on the verge. And my MAME CP is, sadly, still incomplete.

I am a complete tightwad gamer. I search eBay for deals, and I'm not interested in "pristine" original games. I just want to play!

Here's what my current KLOV sig says...
--Working - Jail Break, Neo Candy Cab(rewired for JAMMA), Top Score (Gottlieb EM Pinball)
--Projects - Lock N Chase, Sega Turbo, Roadblasters, MAME (with Gateway Destination 31" monitor), and my pipe dream - convert the Jail Break cab to a "multi Konami with Rotating Monitor"
--Wants - k4600 daughter cards for the Lock n' Chase, cabinet for the Roadblasters kit, baby sitter so I can cap kit my Turbo and hacksaw my Jail Break cab.

Enjoy my blog!