Original subtitles

During the early 1980s, you could find a video arcade just about anywhere.

It was the golden age.

It was the popularity, innovation, and earnings that made it successful.

Then the arcade crash of 83 happened, and industry flooded, leaving arcades to

suffer.

And as quickly as arcades emerged, they suddenly disappeared.

Now there's a whole resurgence and birth of collectors converting their garages

into home arcades.

It was the arcade that you could say was the foundation of arcade culture today.

It was definitely the arcade.

Being in that arcade and that bowling alley at that time was just the best.

It was one of my greatest times in my childhood was skating and skating

everywhere to get around, to get to that arcade, to do those things that I loved

to do as a kid.

And just being with my friends, hanging out, nothing beat it.

I think it's just an era that really can't be recreated.

I mean, so that's what draws us back into, you know.

collecting and actually playing the games that we used to play back in the

Being near them just reminds me of just being a kid.

Yeah, I spent a lot of time in the arcade as a kid, a lot of time. And I

know, I was at that age bracket where it just, it really hit me. It hit me big,

you know, because it was something so new, you know, stuff that's never been

seen before.

And I was just at that ripe old age when...

It just really took over my world, and that's all I could think about when I

a kid.

So I was passionate about the games in an imaginative kind of way, and now

it's really about sort of reconnecting with that.

It's one of the things that, for me, the collecting of the games is not only

something that brings back memories.

But the collecting of it is, like, it gets into you. It really does. You start

feeling like these games are a part of you.

People moved away, got jobs, got married, and we kind of lost the arcade

hangouts, and arcades were going out of business at that time. So we lost that

social atmosphere that we had before.

So I thought I'd bring it back in my own home and collect the games, invite

people over.

And so they could enjoy it just like we did when we were teenagers.

And every time they come over, they have the same experience, the same feelings

that they had in the 80s. And so I'm reliving that experience.

I fell in love with Space Invaders. Where I was the person that was kind of

jumping to see what was going on.

And I put my quarter on there.

And when I finally got that chance to play, it was like a rush, an emotional

rush. And I was hooked.

I mean, I couldn't think of anything but Space Invaders.

Just the atmosphere of the arcade, of, you know, the sights and the sounds and

even the smells of it, when it's just really packed and, you know, everyone is

there socializing and it's just kind of more of a social place to be.

We were the first generation of gamers, and the games that came out at that time

were dominoes and the building blocks of game culture.

We, I think, are attached to those games.

Consider them our games for our era.

A lot of the games at that time, they had extra monitors on top and they had

everything turned up so loud.

I have such great memories of that when I was a kid.

Just all the time I had with my friends and I'll never forget it. I'll never

forget that. And having an arcade in my garage.

It's just reminiscent of it.

It sort of takes me back.

Back in the arcade, I mean, I was young when those things came out. I think I

was 12, 11 when the arcade era really, really hit.

It was a magical time, and I've never forgotten it. It made an impression on

that nothing's ever made that kind of impression on me. I can't even put it

words because it's so many things.

It's all about the passion and the love that we had at that first moment that we

walked into our cage, right?

It's that strange feeling you get of wrapping up that magic of being a child

again.

We had a hard time deciding where we were going to go.

which arcade we were going to go to that day, and we'd usually spend most of the

day there.

So we had a choice of either going to school or going to the arcades, and most

of the time we chose to go to the arcade.

When I walk into my arcade, I honestly do feel like I have stepped

back in time, and I even refer to it as my time machine.

And I've even said to some friends, well, if you ever need to go to 1982,

Just let me know.

The house

is filling up fast, as you can see. Every room has at

least two video games and I'm pretty much out of room right now, but I think

I really...

Think about it, I might be able to build one or two more, and I know my wife

wants to get a Dig Dug. You would not be opposed to putting a game in here. Why

not? Another game, like right outside the bed.

If it's Dig Dug, I don't care.

I'm going to bed.

I love you. Good night. Bye.

Dig Dug was developed in 1982 by Namco, and it was later published in the United

States by Atari.

It's one of those very, it's almost a household name, just like Pac -Man and

Donkey Kong.

At the one up, they had a Dig Dug, and she played that. So I'm up with that

game, and she's like, you think you can find one of these games?

I'm like, what do you should say that? I know somebody who has one in their

warehouse that I think I can get. So it's going to be somewhat of a new

challenge for me is to try to get that guy to sell the game and then not only

and get it, because I don't have a truck or anything, but get it here and find a

place for it.

Hey, Vince, what's up? Hey, we're on our way. You at the shop?

Okay, we'll probably be there around 20 minutes.

Oh. You know, look, I'm about 20 minutes away.

All right, dude. See you shortly. All right, see you then. Bye.

Look at that.

Done.

Okay, here's Laurel Creek.

Hey, this is it. All right.

Okay, do I go left or right?

There's 40.

Okay, this way.

Come on. Come on, baby.

Hey.

Hey, what do you know?

Oh, yeah.

We got a super tax on for free.

Oh, yeah.

We'll have to fire it up when we get home, but we got to load this bad boy.

Ten years.

Ten years worth here of gain.

The easiest part of collecting is filling up the garage with things.

The hardest part of collecting is once the garage is filled, what do you do

It's like within a couple years, I already filled my garage, and I have no

room.

Some of my friends, they put games in their house, in different rooms, but

got the garage and the garage only, so that's where all of them stay.

I think for me growing up in the 80s, there were two things in my life that

bigger than anything.

It was arcade and skating.

I remember growing up, we used to go over, skate to the bowling alley, pick

some Thrifty's ice cream on the way over, get on the four -player gauntlet

just pop those quarters in for at least an hour to two hours and get to like

level 70 or 80 on gauntlet.

I think just the whole skating culture, living in Southern California, it just

kind of went hand -in -hand with everything in the 80s.

I loved Tron the movie.

I loved the Tron toys.

Going to the Disneyland Starcade, all I wanted to do was play Tron.

Just the light. It had the black light effect.

It had the cool side art.

It had the really cool joystick -spinner combo.

and it was just a really hard game that I wanted to play more of.

I think for me, the Dissotron is my favorite arcade game.

Just the sight, the sound, the environmental effect, the speakers.

I told my wife when the time comes, and I croaked, just bury me in this thing,

throw me in the back, lock up the back door, I'm good to go.

An auction is where you go and you bid on games and the highest bidder wins.

You get there early in the morning and you give the guy your driver's license

and they give you a ticket and that's your number for the entire day.

I think one of my favorite parts of the auctions was just trying to hunt down

that game.

that I always wanted as a kid that I could never afford, and just trying to

one in decent to minty condition that I could add to the garage cave.

And unfortunately, some of those deals are so good that you want to buy more

more, and then your garage just gets overrun with games, and then you're out

room.

I think I've been collecting arcade games now for about 10 years, and I

some of my funnest moments have been at the arcade auctions.

They've slowly disappeared, but some of the best auctions was at Super Auctions.

And, like, twice a year they'd have them over in Costa Mesa at the fairgrounds,

and they would have killer deals.

I remember one time they were auctioning stuff all day, and then they were

auctioning off all the overflow outside.

They were blowing out games for a dollar.

And one time I got super lucky.

I scored 10 games for a dollar.

I remember back in like 81 or 82, the arcade scene was huge.

Everywhere you would turn would be an arcade.

I mean, you couldn't get away from it.

I definitely like introducing these games to my kids.

I've got two young boys.

My four -year -old definitely likes the trackball games. He loves Marvel

Bandits. He loves Crystal Castles. And I definitely hope I can pass this on to

them.

Please go.

Plain and simple, I'm a collector for life. What can I say?

It's all about the video.

Sorry Pac -Man, we don't take tokens here

What? Uh, what?

Hi, my name is, I'm Chief Salvo Carey, I'm 28 years old, I love classic video

games, and I am currently living in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where I have

residing my entire life.

Let's just stay from a parallel world.

I currently own 13 arcade games. I have a twin sit -down cabinet for Virtual On.

I have a single slot Neo Geo. I have a dual -verse cabinet, which has Tetris,

10th Gen Tetris on one side.

uh and uh first person shoot them up i can't read it it wasn't arkanoid cabinet

but it has uh something to shoot them up on now on there now but i can't read

the screen because the screen is blown out anyways i've missed pac -man donkey

kong donkey kong jr super mario brothers mario brothers uh arch rivals uh f

-zero uh ninja turtles arcade game i think that's it

metal slug is

probably my favorite i like this destruction

killing guys when it's legal.

No, I'm sorry. I'm not going to waste my time saving up my hard -earned money on

a pair of dungarees just so I can make myself look a little bit more

by the current standards of what society is saying I should do today. I'm not

interested in looking like some fancy...

faux gamer from the Bing Bang Theory who thinks he knows what's going on and

holds a high score just because he has a 2600 joystick on his t -shirt. Oh, how

cliche. No, that's not what I'm all about. I would rather blow my money so I

get a WonderSwan and then pal version of Last Call Japanese version and have to

learn a whole other language just so I can play a rare video game and blow a

whole month because I am actually invested in my hobby.

I'm here at Comics Convention International.

Uh, Keith Abercary is a 28 -year -old man with the minds of a 14 -year -old

and the body of your uncle.

It stands to reason that the very first game that I ever bought as a collector

was Space Invaders. And it was all torn up and it didn't work.

And I really didn't have a lot of faith that it ever would work.

And then my boyfriend started tinkering around with it. And one day I heard the

sound of it come on. And it was like a light going off in my head. I thought,

okay, this is possible.

These can actually live again. And I can have them around me. So one by one, it

was over a period of about three years, I started bringing in more and more and

more. And I actually thought that I would stop at 10 or 20.

It never stopped.

I don't think there's anything more that I love more than those video games.

I first saw an arcade game back in 1978. My sister and I rode our horses to this

bar in town.

And it seems really strange to go to a bar back in the day. Kids were allowed

go into bars.

Anyway, we walked in and we ordered some fries. We were always after fries and a

couple of Cokes. And we sat down and my sister turned to me and she says, look,

there's a Bigfoot on that game over there.

And so we went over and looked at that thing, and it was space invaders.

In 1978, right after that, that was the first flash of the arcades, and they

rose up pretty quickly all over, just about anywhere, and see when gas

had them, malls had them, anywhere had airports had them. It was crazy.

To go to an arcade was a way to meet people, but it was also a way to kind

of... figure out who you were.

The feeling I got when I went to an arcade was unlike anything else that had

ever happened in my life. Up until that point, as kids, we didn't really have

anything other than the Bay City Rollers to kind of give us a thrill.

The world was just kind of emerging from the 50s and the 60s, where everything

was very conservative, and all of a sudden there was this huge boom of color

techno. I was kind of kicking around in a scene for about...

five or six years just kind of watching what people were doing and getting

involved in the forums and whatever, you know, talking about games usually.

And then one day I got an email from someone and he said, hey, I noticed you

were a really good writer.

Do you want to write for a magazine?

Asking a writer to write for a magazine is kind of like asking a singer to get

on, you know, the stage at the Met. I mean, you're just going to do it.

I didn't know really what to expect because at that time, the only magazines

that were out that I was looking at were all about Xbox or what have you, which

is cool, but not really where my heart is.

So he told me what his vision was. His name was Rob Merrick, and he gave me a

lot of information about where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do with it,

and I kind of liked the idea, and that was Replicate Magazine.

It's also full of a lot of investigative articles that go back through a lot of

lost stories in arcade culture that either people have forgotten or they

lost interest in. Well, when it comes to collecting a story that I want to write

about, I go for the challenge every time.

Twin Galaxies, for example, that was a huge challenge with a lot of risks

involved.

The reason being, Twin Galaxies is kind of like the Catholic Church of classic

gaming, meaning that no matter how you approach the subject, no matter what

direction, or no matter what your level of sensitivity is in approaching it,

you're still going to offend someone on some level somewhere.

If I think the next issue of Retrocade magazine might be a little hot, might be

a little controversial, well, God, I certainly hope so, because if not, I've

done my job as a writer.

I can't see a point in my life of never being around video games, gaming in any

sense. It all starts with one, and I've never met another collector anywhere

around who says that they bought...

20 at once if they did they're probably into selling them but for the actual

collector the one who has some sort of emotional tie to them it does start with

one i think it starts humbly and then it grows into this magnanimous thing that

takes over your life you have them everywhere you start moving couches and

start um forgetting that you read because you're too busy playing games or

working on

I do like to see games that have a certain bit of patina on it. I like to

belt buckle scrapes on the little bit on the front of the CPO. I like to see a

little bit of graffiti because I know that, in my mind, how I look at it is

somebody was standing there one time 30 years ago and his bored friend put

Jeannie Loves Joe or something.

on the side of it, and I think it's a testimony to how many people actually

stood and passed in front of these games. I just think it's beautiful, and

think when you erase it, you erase where it's been.

Why would you want to do that?

In my mind, as corny as it sounds, there's not a day that goes by that when

walk home, and I walk in the front door down that little hallway, and I see

those games around me, I'm not home again.

I was at this Donkey Kong home, and I really wasn't sure what I was going to

with the thing. There's a fine line between patina and vandalism.

So either I part it out or I restore it. But I figured Jude wanted a project, so

let's strip this baby down and restore it.

Hey, guys.

I thought you guys wanted to help me.

That's the only way Mom would let me buy this.

She said, why don't you get a project?

This is the family time. Get in the garage. We're going to take apart the

Here, will you take this off and put that over there?

There's you. I need help.

Lay that up over there.

Don't break it.

Let's put it up here.

Because I might need these parts again.

Jude, you're as helpful as you were in the last one.

We're taking

apart the Donkey Kong, Kevin. You can't play in the rain.

Jude!

It's cold, and everybody is in bed. This sucks.

If I'm not in the basement, I'm out here in the garage.

I do most of my, like, real, like, heavy lifting, I call it, workout here. Like,

if it's welding or grinding or whatnot.

So I do a lot of the big workout here.

Like, when I get a gain, it comes out to the garage here before I, you know, go

to the house. Because, you know, a lot of times you've got to clean out all the

garbage and the dirt and whatnot. So it comes out here before I can get it under

control. Bring it back down. Just really anything that's old.

On, like, you know, 80s or later, I like to come out here and I like to, like,

try to breathe some new life into it, so to speak.

It's in my blood. Like, just breathe life into things from the past. And

my enjoyment.

I'm out here sometimes at 2, 3 in the morning.

Looks pretty good.

Like it says right here, when this sucker reaches 88 miles per hour, you're

going to see some serious bleep.

Let's see. Let's see what happens. Hopefully it doesn't blow up when I plug

in.

Well, I set it up late last night.

and worked on this.

As you can see from the previous footage that just wasn't working quite right.

What I did, I was looking at this and I found a bunch of solder joints that

appeared to be bad. I marked them. I went over them again.

Very tedious with my, you know, I'm up here like this looking at every solder

joint last night.

One of the little things here was

From a previous repair, it was kind of sketchy, so I went over and redid that

and made it a little better. So let's see what happens.

Let's see if when I put this in and fire it up, let's see where the smoke comes

from, basically.

And that's the next step.

This whole game.

Hey, Rich. This is Brian Armisen. How are you? Hey, Brian. How's it going?

When somebody asks you, you know, do you want, you know, can I get your help

picking up an arcade game, you're kind of like, oh, jeez, you know, picking up

another arcade machine.

But when he told me it was going to be from the original drummer of Journey and

that the games that we were going to pick up were taken with the band on

you know, back when they were touring doing Frontiers, I was more than

happy to help him. We just had ourselves a little Journey moment there.

How are you doing? I'm Brian Armitage with Paradise Arcade Shop, and this is

story of how I came to own a very interesting journey machine.

Okay, so here we are.

It's Saturday morning. It's about 630 in the morning. It's colder than the

witch's tit. It's raining and miserable, but we're super excited because we're

about to head down and go get a arcade game, and not just any arcade game, a

journey arcade game.

not just any Journey arcade game, a Journey arcade game that was taken on

with the band back in 1982.

Journey was a band that formed in the early 70s.

Hit their peak of popularity around 82.

It had so many hits back then. Don't Stop Believing, Open Arms, just massive

amounts of hits.

So, how do you make a band like that even bigger?

You release an arcade game.

Right around the time they came out with their Frontiers album, they took this

game with them on tour.

And that is the 80s, my friends.

We are with Steve Smith, and we're down in Ashland, Oregon, picking up the

Journey machine and the Defender from the original 82 -83 tour.

What I can remember, Valley Midway made about 50 of them as a test.

And then the company that we did the licensing deal with went bankrupt.

And so as a result of that, any royalties that would have come in from

Midway would have gone into this black hole of... who, you know, people that

this company owed money for. So we would never get the money.

And, you know, it wasn't a... And then Valley Midway didn't want to deal with

any of these problems, so they never really went into a major production.

Okay. So as far as I know, there was only about 50 of these men.

They were so concerned about what was going to happen to the games. They had

been sitting on them for 10 or 15 years.

not getting played, they were just in storage because they didn't know what to

do with them.

And they were really worried that, you know, they were really worried about

protecting the history and everything that went along with the games, that

just didn't want to just sell them and turn them over to, you know, somebody

without knowing that they would, you know, continue on, that their story and

their history would kind of, you know, continue and move on. I mean, they were

really concerned about that. And they gave us this one to take on the road.

and play, and since I was the only one in the band that was really interested

video games, I inherited it, because I used to play the thing every day.

Gosh, that's unreal.

Signed by Steve Smith.

And we didn't even ask for this.

And there's a platinum record lying on the counter, and Rich Leader told me

his wife kind of is signaling him or something, and I'm just engaged in a

conversation. I'm surprised I'm having this conversation.

We sat there and talked to him and his wife for...

A good hour.

And he reaches over and picks up the platinum record and hands it to me and

says, you know, we picked this out and I signed the back and, you know, we'd

like you to have this. And, you know, this was just kind of one of these,

standing there going, is this really happening?

That's, like, unbelievably nice.

I don't know.

I don't even know what to say. And you're like, thank you to the guy who

you a platinum record.

I remember there was an arcade about a mile from my house we used to walk to

every Saturday morning.

Wherever you would go, you'd find an arcade.

I went to an arcade unlike anything else that ever happened in my life.

These old video games had a special feeling and

power over us that you can't explain.

Unexplainable.

There was a sense of freedom and escape from reality as soon as you were engaged

into the game.

And it just drew you right in.

You controlled something out of this world.

And that feeling we all had on these games gave us a sense of achievement.

And I think that's what keeps us coming back for more.

I think it was one of my absolute favorite games of all time.

I remember playing it in 1976 like it was yesterday.

But when the father comes to the arcade and goes, he looks left by this game. I

mean, he played this thing all hours of the night.

Crazy.

Get out of my way!

Get out! Get out!

After!

You chipped like my grandma!

Talking to a good friend of mine, he says, you know, why don't you bring it

to my shop one night and you can prime and paint and finish at the shop.

Well, I never had that problem before.

Wow.

You didn't by chance wax the side of your game, did you? No.

It'll stick. I think it's just so cold.

I could grab the blow dryer or the heat gun.

Grab the blow dryer. It's going to happen.

Look it's Steve -Anne!

Well, we finish up the game and I turn around, and of course, my son, Jude, is

nowhere to be found.

Jude!

Jude!

Jude! Jude!

Where is that kid?

I'm George Lutz, and I played the longest arcade game in an arcade in

of 2013 on the game Pubert.

I got into Pubert because I was good at it when I was a kid.

And when I was 10 years old, I could actually play for 10 minutes on a

which was a big deal for a 10 -year -old.

And then 20 years later, when I got back into it again, I remembered that, yeah,

I was pretty good at this game.

by what your score is.

So you get a man every 14 ,000 points.

You divide your score by 14 ,000, you know how many you've gained, and then

subtract what's on the clicker. That's how many, you know, that's how you know

how many classes you've got left and how much break time you have.

And then, yeah, when I'd go off and take a nap, lose about 150 men, it's about

35, 40 minutes, I could actually take a nap. And, yeah, I had my friend clicking

the death. The longest I ever made it without taking long breaks and actually

going to sleep.

60 hours.

I'm being here, but I'm so tired I get all...

Is that

it?

No.

43 ,000.

43 ,000.

Yeah,

yeah.

Tubert is a puzzle game.

There are...

and you have to change the colors of the tops of the cubes to have them all

match to move on to the next board.

And then while you do that, you have to avoid a snake and some other enemies

that chase after you.

The creator of Q -Bert, Warren Davis, said that he wanted to make Q -Bert a

difficult game and that it was a corporate decision to make it easier.

Q -Bert actually only goes to level 9.

That's where the difficulty maxes out, and then it just goes level 9 forever

ever. And everybody's always making jokes. Hey, did you get to level 10 yet?

And, you know, when I'm really hallucinating after three days, I start

I'm getting to level 10.

I like that. It's funny because that's like, you know, Don Hayes, they call him

the robot because he's the best at all the games.

And then John McAllister, they call him the machine.

I could be the Borg. That's it. I like that. The Borg.

Right.

Warren Davis said that when he designed the game, he liked the idea of it being

very simple controls, just one joystick, no buttons, because then you could

actually hold a beer in your other hand while you play. And I like the way he

thinks. I think that there are two trends in the arcade scene today.

There's the sense of nostalgia for the past, but there's also a new trend of

the...

The bar and arcade combination.

And I think it's a very successful thing. I think pairing beer and arcade

is a wonderful idea. The beer is really good, but definitely everybody's having

a lot of fun playing the game.

I don't think I'll be playing Q -Bert anymore. I think that I'll be booking

new shows with my band and playing some music.

Playing music helps your skill in video gaming. I think that

the rhythm and the timing and the coordination,

the hand -eye coordination of interacting, watching your

bandmates and interacting with them.

It translates well into the acting and reacting to the programming of the game.

I said Ed can unplug the game when I'm done. And he got it!

Boom, there it is!

Rock and roll!

New world record!

New world record!

High five!

Rock and roll!

Rock and roll!

I'd just like to thank my sweet Lord Satan for granting me the power

You are so metal, man.

Do you have anything you want to say about that little orange guy behind you?

Yeah.

Thank you, bro.

Get it out of there.

Jenny, I love you so much, baby.

Our lives are going to be amazing.

Will you marry me?

We're open.

Yeah.

10 a .m. Saturday.

We're working off the hangovers. We got our ham and cheese sandwiches, our rock

stars. We're going to go do some arcade gaming.

Okay, so our destination, our first destination of the day is Game Over.

the new bar arcade opening in Lincoln City.

get to play some games, hang out, BS, and move on down the road.

Chris has the perfect setup. He's located in a tourist town, so he's going

get the mom and pop that go to the casino and drop the kids off at the

So he's got a perfect setup for not only the 21 and over crowd with his bar set

up and serving the alcohol, but also catering to the younger crowd. I

when I was younger, we used to go to arcades all the time.

This actually used to be an arcade here in Lincoln City.

And we used to go every time we were down here.

It was just kind of a cool childhood memory to go to an arcade every time

come to the beach. That's what we did. So my name's Jenny Johnson.

Me and Chris Donner, my boyfriend, we are starting this game over arcade.

We bought some games and then kept buying them and kept buying them.

And now we're finally able to open up a place where other people can enjoy them.

I got bit by the arcade bug, and now I can't stop playing and collecting.

This is what we grew up with, is arcade games. When I wanted to play arcades,

the graphics were always better going to the arcade than the home console.

So nowadays, if you want to still play an arcade game, it seems like you're 21

and over, and it's just much nicer to go and have a beer and play those classic

games.

The Willamette Valley is just growing in its popularity of plastic arcade gaming

meets bar.

You mix the alcohol, the youth, and it's just really a great organized place to

come to to have a good time. I mean, just in a 100 -mile radius, we've got

Josh's place down here, Level Up, in Eugene, Oregon. We've got Christmas

Game Over in Lincoln City at the coast.

DJ's Place, the Coin Jam down at Salem, Oregon. And then, of course, everybody

knows Ground Control by now, located in the heart of Portland, Oregon.

So four great classic barcades all within driving distance from one

The Willamette Valley is going to be well known for not growing wine, rather

coming for barcades. Classic gaming and drinking app.

what you might call a bar arcade, but really a bar and an arcade in one. We

about 90 arcade games in pinball. They range from about 1979 until

current, present time, 2013.

You know, we wanted it to be kid -friendly. You can't really have 100

games and say, oh, kids, you can't play. You know, that wouldn't really be fair.

We open up to all ages until 9 p .m. After 9 p .m., it's 21 and over, and it

becomes more like a nightlife scene, which is, in my opinion, kind of really

what we're about, because then you really get the crowd, people coming and

hanging out. You'll see later.

It's a great vibe for people to hang out and just really be comfortable.

Enthusiasts like me that have been into this for a long time, it warms my heart

to see other people get that same enjoyment, especially kids.

Everybody, you know, and this is a great venue for that, and I'm really proud

that that's what we are.

This is essentially the future of the arcade industry, incorporating alcohol

video games.

You incorporate the bar and the arcade to make the barcade.

You know, they're going to spring up like wells everywhere, and it's

you can't make all of your dollars off of arcade anymore.

It's the sad truth about it, but arcade games don't make what they used to.

and they never will again.

Console has just essentially destroyed that. So you throw in a little bit of

alcohol into the mix, and all of a sudden you have a viable entity that can

and be profitable.

Where was I in 1982?

1982 was a good year. I was 14 years old, just started Discover Girl, really

into the swing of being Richie Knuckles.

You spent a lot of time at the arcade.

In 82, I was eight years old, and my dad used to take me and my brother to all

the arcades.

I opened up an arcade as an excuse to be able to play more video games.

30 years older, and I've been able to reconnect with, you know, a person that

was 30 years ago. And that's crazy.

Just by doing this, you know, it's crazy as it sounds. But the moment I got this

carpet in here and I moved them all in here and I got some music playing and

stuff, it was like something happened.

I feel like, yeah.

When I first walked into an arcade in the 80s, The sounds of the arcade, I

think, are what made the biggest impression on me. And I was always

get back to the arcade and hear the sounds.

There would be what seemed like a chaos of noise at first from all the different

games that actually was a sort of symphony after a while.

I remember opening the arcade doors and the sounds just blasting in my face.

I mean, those things were loud.

i remember you know going in and you just see it seemed like hundreds of

when when you're a kid you know um we had so many arcades around at the time

they were they were just popping up everywhere walking through an arcade

ago was so realistic you walked in you see mounds of people waiting to play

video games walking into that arcade you know just as a kid it was just very

impressionable i definitely remember they were always crowded always people

there This was a huge part of my life. I spent a lot of time in the arcade.

Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender, Pac -Man, Donkey Kong, all these games. It

was the golden era where, as Walter likes to say, where new games were

I remember seeing Star Wars for the first time. I remember seeing Robotron

the first time.

Asteroids, Pac -Man, Ms. Pac -Man, all those games. I saw them when they came

out. That same sensation that we as collectors want to relive time and time

again with every drop of the quarter into these machines.

You pop in the quarter and instantly it just takes you right back.

I would just put quarters in those all day long.

You know, you always had a fistful of quarters and you're trying to choose

game you wanted to play.

My mom and dad would drop us off at the arcade.

I still have fond memories of my mom and dad dropping us off there and giving us

like $2 for the whole day.

You know, you just go to the arcade and you make that $5 last as long as you

could.

The crowds were huge at the arcades and stuff. I just remember quarters being

lined up on the games. It changed my life.

I'll never forget it. And the arcade was alive.

If you were a kid in the 80s, you remember the arcade.

What you did in the 80s was go to the arcade.

I started to realize that playing these things just

sort of brought me back to...

You know, being a kid again. Once you own a piece of your childhood,

it's very hard to let that go.

The 80s, the early 80s, was a special

time to be a kid.

Steve Hertz rules.

Steve, that's all there is to it. That's my whole interview. This party, I

thought it was a coke soaking party, but it turned out it was for video game

nerds. Right. I didn't think I was qualified.

No, you're definitely qualified.

SC3 is Southern California Classic Collectors. We are a collectors group in

Southern California that is mostly with vintage and classic games from

the 70s and 80s. We get together twice a year to collect games and

talk about games, play games, and sell games.

The guys brought table and a whole bunch of consoles and just kind of...

you know, fill up our backyard full of old school game.

SC3 is awesome, guys. If you're in L .A., even if you've got to fly in for

thing, get in here, go to Disneyland, come to SC3 at the same time.

Tons of arcade games, tons of people buying and selling and trading,

competitions and all sorts of stuff down here. You've got to get out here.

One of the best arcade video gaming shows in the country.

In 2006, we had about 40 people show up, and now we get over 200.

And it continues to thrive and get bigger every time we have these shows.

And it's a lot with people coming to appreciate the classics.

Come on in. Check this place out.

All in honor of Podfucky.

I want this show, baby!

I can't do this!

I want to fill

my guts out with some round cheering.

I'm Richie Knuckles, this whole position.

I'm here to take you around and show you around the arcade.

Follow me, I'll show you around this place. This is our first location. We

opened this place up five years ago, and as you can see, this one's more spaced

out and wide open. What we like to do in this area is have our events.

We hosted the Kong -Off, we hosted the Tron -Off, we host the

ClassicArcadeGaming .com contest every single year, as well as other small

contests.

Four years ago, right after the movie The King of Kong came out, we were doing

really well, we were selling games, and we had a lot of people come in, and then

all of a sudden, People started coming in and talking about this movie they had

seen, about Donkey Kong.

And right about then, we got a phone call from the Today Show. And they asked

to come on. And I met Bill Mitchell.

Bill Mitchell put me in touch with the guys at Twin Galaxies. And before you

know it, we were, like, injected into the middle of this whole competitive

gaming industry.

We started doing contests at Twin Galaxies. We started doing contests at

ClassicArcadeGaming .com.

And then things just took off from there.

Anytime someone wants to break a world record, they call us.

I'm Richie Knuckles.

I'm Jordan Adler.

And you are at the 1 -Up in Denver, Colorado, lower downtown.

The Kong -Off 2 is being done at the 1 -Up. The quality of the 1 -Up, the

quality of the machine, the quality of the staff, the family that runs the

business, his dad and himself, his mom, his sister, all the people that are here

at the 1 -Up, the family that's here, I have nothing but great things to say to

the point that I feel like I'm part of the family.

So we're here. We're here at the 1 -Up.

Some are here for the fun, for the money, for the glory.

Actually, mostly for the money.

But all kidding aside, we're going to have a good time.

This is the beginning of something remarkable.

Twin galaxies here alive, reborn as the one up in Denver.

It's going to expand and probably have many locations around the world before

long.

will be doing live events, live content, where people will prove themselves, not

only for their skill sets, but for their ability to handle the pressure that

comes only from going head -to -head against your peers and your rivals.

And that's a unique kind of championship, and that's really what's

our forte.

Twin Galaxies is going to become the official scorekeeper for the world in an

even bigger way than it's ever been before.

We are becoming the lightning rod for the big, big thing.

And the level of history that's about to be unfolded by all you folks and the

communities that you're now going to generate is going to be beyond belief.

With everything that's positive that's going on here, there's no room for

anything negative, nothing you've seen online, anything that's silly. Face it,

when we all get together, I mean, we all get along better than anybody.

And that's exactly what we have. The whole world's going to be watching.

God help us.

You got to keep your clothes on.

I saw all the cool things that Richie was doing and Jordan and basically the

management of Twin Galaxies. And I said, you know what? I am going to support

Richie because it's not easy to take 30 years of history, of blood and

sweat, of people that it's almost impossible to recognize the countless

volunteer hours that have gone into Twin Galaxies.

And then to take that and move it forward. And not only that, but to make

monitor, to make it to where it's a viable business model. Because you can't

just keep throwing money at it.

You get to take home your machine.

Let's hear it!

Let's hear it!

Come on!

Get it up!

Have a great tournament. If you'd like to call out the Michigan model.

It hasn't dawned on anybody yet.

You're in Twin Galaxies now. This is now the center of the video gaming

universe. You're already going to get better.

As we wind down here to the start, I'm going to take your own life. Be careful.

Sorry for taking so long. Is everyone still pumped?

In the old days, the games had to really get by on their actual gameplay.

They had to be fun. They had to be intriguing.

There had to be some real meat to the game.

So the games of 30 years ago actually had many, many layers to them. So many

layers to learn and experiment with.

and unravel and study and master so many layers of the gameplay to master

that that's why now, 30 years later, 35 years later, many of these games, you

see new world records, new escalating world records, because people are

the game and learning them deeper and mastering deeper and deeper levels of

gameplay, which manifests with higher and higher scores.

How do you think it went? I think the competition was a great success.

You know, at the last Kong -Off, there wasn't a million -point score.

We've had three million -point games so far.

The kill screen number, I think, is a double -digit kill screen.

And we also have the highest live Donkey Kong score in history.

Anywhere you are in the country, and you love arcade games, you love to drink,

you have to make 1UP a stop before you leave.

What's great about here is the 1UP.

It could bring back the fever in the past.

It was a part of the 1980s.

Video games were great, but arcades were greater. It was a place where people

came to gather, to play, to perform, to show, to stand up, to stand in the red

zone. I mean, in each generation there'll be some superstars who they

their whole time practicing with an out -of -the -day job trying to get the

world record on a classic arcade game.

Selecting is going to be for nothing if we all can't pass it on to the next

generation.

It's awesome because now I have a four -year -old son, and I just remember I

about four or five years old when my dad was taking me to the arcades.

Now that I have these games, I kind of recreated that atmosphere that I had and

sharing it with my son.

As he turns on that game and he pops in the quarter, I see the excitement

and the smile on his face.

I can only imagine that's how I looked as my dad looked at me.

What a cool feeling.

I can see myself being in this hobby for a long time,

maybe forever.

I have a nine -year -old now.

It's fun for me to watch him play these games and kind of live vicariously again

through him, watching him when I bring a new game home. And he digs it just as

much as I did the first time I saw it. People in the following decades can't

appreciate the arcades and the culture because they didn't really experience

80s. So this is the only way they can be reintroduced to the games and possibly

from hearing their father's stories about how they spent their youth in the

arcades. And so it's bringing that back a little bit. I like to see the younger

people get into it and enjoy it as much as we did.

I can see myself having these games forever, seriously.

I can't imagine them not being in my life.

It's impossible.

I don't see it stopping anytime soon.

I really enjoy the hobby, enjoyed it for years, and there will probably be a lot

more years to come.

So if I were to sign the bottom, I'd dedicate this one to my wife.

Restored for you, Rachel, the love of my life, and in honor of my childhood and

all those awesome years.

I'm going to fire it up.

Yeah! Woo!

Woo!

She doesn't know it's fixed yet.

Let's see her reaction when I start up a game and she comes to the door.

said so much to Nick now is because Dad got it for me.

We don't really do like Christmas presents or birthday presents, but

see something we like for each other, we'll just get it. So the fact that he

it for me and he has the whole writing on the back means more than anything.

So that's why I think I like it so much.

This is the rebirth of the golden age of gaming.

When I got older, I started missing the nostalgia of the games and of the social

life I had with the friends. So I started collecting my own games to bring

both the nostalgia and a new social group of people that enjoy what I enjoy,

which is playing the classic games.

I'm really passionate about, number one, the friendships that I have, about

keeping the history and culture of gaming alive.

So those are the things that I really, really love.

It's as big a part of collecting the arcade games as the arcade games are. I

mean, as passionate as we are, the nostalgia and all that, you and I have

developed a great friendship finding these games, preparing these games. I

it is just a blast. If someone were to come up to me and say, Walter, we want

you to kind of create an introduction that summarizes what the Video Craze

is all about.

Well, if I actually was given that opportunity, here's what I think I'd

I'd point out that years and years ago, we all found video games together, 30,

40 years ago, when we started playing them. And that was during what I call

Top Gun era, the time when all of us would meet in the arcade and we'd go

high score, world records.

And that's the thing we had in common at that time. We're all trying to beat

each other's world record scores.

And that's really the only thing we shared in common in the arcade back in

old days.

But now in this modern era, I like to call this modern era the era of

because we've all banded together not only to enjoy these games from our

childhood, but also to preserve them, to renovate them, and to safeguard our

historic video game legacy.

And then doing that and using games as the main thing to have in common, we've

bonded and created a big community, a community of the heart, where actually

we're not involved in the Top Gun era anymore. We're all involved in

these games.

and creating a society that reveres the legacy of the video game history and

preserves them for future generations.

So for me, the video craze is really all about the amazing global culture, this

worldwide community that has grown up around our video game legacy, which

to share games from a heartfelt basis and also preserve them for future

generations to enjoy.

So to me, this is a remarkable thing.

that we've turned video games into a community, and we share our love for

as we learn to love each other as fellow human beings.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Scene 42, take 7.

A piece of side art missing?

Not a problem. All we do is put a bird on it.

Let me get a drink of water, please. Sure, I'll keep my foot clean.

Okay.

Rachel!

Oh, hey!

Oh, I can't breathe!

If I want to bring any more games in, I have to remove Caldwell.

My neighbors think I'm freaking crazy.

Teresa,

you might have to play a couple games before you go to bed.

No.

I'm going to sleep. You play all day. Go upstairs and play.

I don't know if people that are into this have some sort of

disorder or what.

Chuck, thank you for giving me so many great memories, so many good years of

being in the arcade.

You meant so much to me, buddy.

I'll never be the same.

It's a wrap.

Have you seen the video, Grace?

Yes. It's quite intense, right? The director is so cool.

Very low key.

Yeah, he's a little bit introverted. But tomorrow, I have a feeling, after a few

beers, I'll get him going. That's it.

I don't know.