Several of us area collectors met up for some friendly chat, fun and competition a few weeks before Christmas. A collector named Kevin was in from Iowa on business and was also there. We began at Glen's house who lives down the road from me. His main interest is in class pinballs so it was a nice change up. Then we ended the night at The Vintage Vault Arcade and Gameroom for some vids (video games), music videos, pizza and foozball competition. Several of our kids joined us for the fun, after all, a gameroom is not a museum, it's meant to be played. I just loved seeing a warm body in every machine on drivers row... priceless. Merry Christmas everybody!

Several of us area collectors met up for some friendly chat, fun and competition a few weeks before Christmas. A collector named Kevin was in from Iowa on business and was also there. We began at Glen's house who lives down the road from me. His main interest is in class pinballs so it was a nice change up. Then we ended the night at The Vintage Vault Arcade and Gameroom for some vids (video games), music videos, pizza and foozball competition. Several of our kids joined us for the fun, after all, a gameroom is not a museum, it's meant to be played. I just loved seeing a warm body in every machine on drivers row... priceless. Merry Christmas everybody!

Sometimes they come... sometimes they go... sometimes they even get driven in snow. I'm no stranger to picking games up during snowstorms, but it has certainly been awhile. Fellow collector Keith was over at the Vintage Vault Arcade and Gameroom last weekend. I made sure Christmas came a little early for him this year. I didn't think it would fit, but the project Zaxxon arcade game was crammed into and hanging out his vehicle for a 1+ hour trek home. This is called dedication my friends. As you can see from the picture, it was snowing pretty good. Goodbye Zaxxon!

A bit of pre-Christmas fun opening up the arcade for gameday. The new LCD monitor got a good karaoke workout. Only casualties were a broken bar on the basketball hoops again and missing upper left diagonal direction in Robotron. Took 10 minutes tops to fix both. Funny thing is I topped my Robotron record with 214,000 tonight at the same time. Gamedays are always fun, arcade games are meant to be played.

 

It is now going on 2 years that the new Vintage Vault Arcade and Gameroom has opened up. That marks 2 years since I have moved into a new house, with its blank canvas basement which eventually became the arcade. For 2 years now I have built, added, and redesigned the arcade. There was always one thing missing, one thing that I had a vision of having in the arcade. That was a large flat screen hanging above the snack bar area.

Many years back I programmed a media jukebox, complete with thousands of music videos. Thats video my friend, not just a bunch of MP3's. I played this on a nice little 21 inch LCD computer monitor that stood on the bar top. It worked, and during gamedays people would use it to put on their favorite videos and do karaoke to. However, the dream of having a large flat screen mounted to the wall never went away. Could I have went out and charged up something expensive on the credit card and get it done? Sure, but where is the fun in that. Plus there was always other priorities with the money.

This year I decided I was going to get a steal...er I mean a deal on a large flat screen. What is the best time of year to get a deal? Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Yes, I braved the crowds and went out on Black Friday. And yes, I found the deal I was looking for.

Today, that dream of having this large flat screen has now become a reality. What I have hanging on the wall is 40 inches of flat screen goodness at a blazing 1920 x 1080 resolution (blu-ray standard). This panel also has a vga input, to hook up my computer media jukebox to it. I have also ran cable from an HD satelite receiver up to this bad boy. Today, this arcade and gameroom just got a little bit sweeter. Shazam!

This is not only the time of year to enjoy friends, family and turkey, but also a time to reflect on what I am thankful for. It didn't happen overnight, but I am thankful for my new home which provided me with lots of space and a blank canvas to build the gameroom of my dreams. I am thankful for the ability to buy and sell games, which funded all the new games that came into the gameroom. I am thankful for my family for being supportive of this.

...In the form of wall art thanks to the kind donation of a fellow collector named Keith. Keith has been out to the basement arcade with his family several times now.

Keith has a project Gorf arcade game in the works and replaced out the marquee. He knew I have an overhang in my gameroom and that I decorate it with leftover marquees from arcade games. He shipped this out to me on his own dime so thank you Keith for the second piece of art you have contributed now (He also gave me a Mr. and Mrs. Pacman pinball backglass a while back). A few things have changed, including the addition of a driver row. However, the basic arrangement and many pieces in the collection remain the same.

If you scroll down a few posts you will see that I have recently rearranged my driving games into a "Drivers Row". So I had to pick up a little bit of memorabilia to add to this fine collection. Can you guess what it is? Take a closer look at the picture now... It's a checkered flag! So you might ask, "What does that have to do with anything?" Well, let's check Websters dictionary, shall we?

checkered flag –noun (in automobile racing)
1. a flag having a pattern of black and white squares, used to signal that a car has crossed the finish line and completed its race.

You can dress up a gameroom with signs, lighting, posters, toys and yes, oh yes, checkered flags.

I picked up this 4 foot by 8 foot trailer recently. It had no sides, terrible wiring, a rotting floorboard and was a sun-faded pink in color. It was project to be sure, just like most games I pick up. This trailer needed a major overhaul.

First thing I did was strip it down to just metal and painted it a nice rustoleum black. Then I rewired the whole trailer and added new turn lights. Finally I laid down new wood flooring and then constructed a nice, tall wood cage to keep those games from falling out when flying down the road with my next Craigslist pickup. I mounted 4 thick tie downs into the frame and have a gate assembly on the back end for loading.

Best of all, this is a tilt trailer which means you can tilt it back to load and unload some of those larger driving games. Now, who is going to sell me the next cheap project game so I can give this hauler a workout?

A couple of weeks ago I won a 2005 Golden Tee Fore from an arcade auction. Scroll down a couple of posts to see that entry. Anyways, this game had a beautiful monitor and worked great. However, these Golden Tees have an optional Tournament Play LED topper that can attach to the top of them. My game, did not have this.

Lighted signs belong in an arcade just as much as quarters do. Plus, the Golden Tee sign has a cool retro LED look to it. The search was on and I shortly found one for sale. I got home from work one day and seen the delivered package with the sign in it. Immediately I got to work installing the topper sign. I hooked up the serial cable which allows the sign to communicate with the game, and then hooked up the power cable. I fired up the game and there you have it! The sign scrolls several minutes worth of messages and phrases advertising the game. It says much more than just the 2 pictures show below. When you walk into my arcade, this lighted sign draws your eyes right to it. The game now screams "Play Me" because I have this cool retro sign, therefore I must be fun to play. You must excuse me, I suddenly have the urge to play some Golden Tee.
Click here to see more pictures of the Golden Tee Fore game and the arcade auction I went to.

Over a month ago there there was a crazy Tuesday night auction. That auction is where I picked up a Crazy Taxi.
You can read about my Crazy Taxi and that arcade auction here.

I moved the Crazy Taxi down into the Vintage Vault and did some rearranging with my drivers in the arcade. What I have now is a sweet, sweet looking Driver Row. From left to right, there is a Sega Rally Championship Deluxe, Emergency Call Ambulance, Crazy Taxi, Vapor TRX #1 and #2 {linked}, and San Francisco Rush the Rock.