Saldo

Sorry if this has been discussed before (I'm sure it has) but is it just me or are price on eBay getting ridiculous? Case in point, there is an auction out there for 3 sealed Parker Bros games: G.I. Joe, Spiderman, and Star Wars ESB with a buy it now of $550 plus $22 to ship (to my zip code). These are rarity 2, 3, & 4 games and I understand that sealed games are harder and harder to come by but am I off base here? I contacted the seller (who might very well be a member on this site) and they were very honest about why the price was set as it was. They stated that supply and demand rule and that video game collecting has becopme more main stream in the last few years so the prices on sealed games has been driven up. I'm all for sellers being able to get as much for their products as possible, but if they truly believe in the supply and demand model than why not set the price at $1 to start and let the buyers drive the price to where they see fit? That seems to be true supply and demand to me, not setting a sky high buy it now price. Anybody else feel the same way? Am I off base with the true value of these games? Oh and BTW I already own these games sealed so I'm not complaining because I want to buy them!!

Cheaper than spending $200 per cart would be to scan the labels as .jpg files at high resolution and use photoshop to get rid of the spottiness. Print out the fixed .jpg to full size on photo-stock, then remove the old label with a heat gun and glue the new one in place with rubber cement. Voila, new looking Activision game cart. ahhhhhh - but it wouldn't be original then would it! this would make a big dent in the value of your cart if it were a rare item. but if it wasn't rare - sure thing. But if I want pristine looking Activision carts this may be the way to go, and I do professional looking work so most can't tell the difference when I am done anyway. I think this is fine for your own collection, but the minute you try to pass that cart off on ebay as original it now becomes fraud! I'm sure people are probably doing this very thing right now and passing them off as the real thing. If the work is really good is there a way to tell if it is counterfit? I know in the comic book world rare and valuable comics can be sent out to restoration companies that clean, mend, and add in missing pages. These however are labeled as restorations and are usaually sold as such with full disclosure.

Sea Wolf brings back some memories for me. I remember playing that one back in the day. Nice start to your collection. I've always wanted to build a game room but it will have to wait until my next house. The one I'm in now is big enough, but it was built in 1928 and the basement (the only place to really put a game room) is a bit damp. Plus it is used as our attic since we converted the 3rd floor attic into a master bedroom suite. I guess I could start off with a MAME cabinet though....

WOW, very cool! That definately took some time to put together. -Sal

I must agree that most of them were winners in my book. When I think arcade I think Atari!! Being a late 1970's and early to mid 1980's arcade goer I too liked most of the vector games. My all time favorite has to be Star Wars. I just lovde that game, still do. Others that jump to mind as ones that I dropped most of my quarters on are: Lunar Lander Red Baron Tempest Asteroids Tank Gauntlet -Sal

Rus - pics are a good idea. When you first posted Warrior I had no clue what game it was until you threw up the pic. I suppose looking the game up in Mame would work, but it is nice to have the pic right there on the post. - Sal

Getting in a bit late on this..... Warrior - I remember this one from the boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ Pengo - I would say the Dream Machine in the South Hills Mall in Poughkeepsie, NY The others I don't recall ever seeing: Mappy Bagman Make Trax Venture - Have it for the 2600 got it back in the day Pac-Land - Seen it in MAME. 1984 I was a freshman in college and was probably the start of the end of my days of hanging out in the arcades. I needed money for more important things like beer and hanging out in bars!

Only 2 that I can recall: Tempest 2000 Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun (still sealed) I probably have a few others that came with PC game compilations that haven't been opened yet.

Tempest - WOW, what a collection you got there! Just one question, what is that thing below your Guitar Hero? - Saldo

Peter's LunaCity is a fantastic arcade that shows what money can buy, heck the building alone was probably 100K or more. Then there are the games....boy does he have some great games and memorabilia! Climber's game room shows what an average Joe can do. They both make me jeolous! I'd love to visit them both!!!

Fred, Just to clarify, are you open on Saturday & Sunday to walks ins, or is an appointment needed? I thought it said on the website no walk ins. - Sal

Dream Machine - South Hills Mall, Poughkeepsie , NY - Long gone. The mall has recently been leveled to build another mall!! Space Port - Newburgh Mall, Newburgh, NY - Closed probably within the last 5-8 years. The Boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ - That was a yearly trek made with my family in the 70s and early 80s. Don't remember the arcade names now. I haven't been down there in about 14 years. Lloyd's Shopping Center - Newburgh, NY - Closed in the 90's - I think this is where I played my first video game...PONG and later Space Invaders Also, like others have stated various shops and diners which all seemed to have a game or two. One local diner was only about 2 miles from my house, so it was an easy bike ride to pump some quarters into their Asteroids machine!

WOW! That's a nice setup you got there Fred and local to boot. I'm across the river in Clintondale (North of Newburgh) just 15 minutes away. I'm really going to have to stop by and check it out in person. At first I didn't think I'd recognize any of those older games ( I'm more of a mid seventies to eighties arcade goer), but I do remember many of them. I do like the Whacky Pack stickers you have framed on the wall!!! I don't know of any kid who grew up in the 70's who didn't buy Whacky Packs! Later - Sal

Yeah, same problem here. I subscribed through their website a long time ago, issue 4-7, never got a one. I e-mailed many times and received no reply. Of course since they are a quarterly mag I gave them benefit of the doubt and waited three months before questioning the fact that I didn't receive a single issue. When I brought it to my credit card company it was too late to dispute! It's too bad because I did buy issues 1-3 else where and I enjoyed them.

Ack....what a site that deadmalls.com is, I too got lost there for about an hour (hope the boss isn't tracking this!). The South Hills Mall and Dutchass Mall in N.Y. were two of the Malls I frequented. I don't remember an arcade in the Dutchass Mall (I'm sure there was one though), then again we didn't go there as frequent as the South Hills Mall. It was away from the general population like the posters state and did pretty good during it's heyday, but South Hills did kill it. Now South Hills had this great arcade called the Dream Machine. There was a full size version on one end and a smaller version on the other end. The full sized version had it all!!! I remember the main section had all the video games then you would go up a few steps to the next level and they had the pinballs all line up. I attended several birthday parties there which were always fun. They also had a promotion every report period if you brought in your report card you would get a token for every A you got on your report card!! There also was a store which I forget the name of that used to sell all of the console carts of the time. Atari, Odyssey 2, Intellivision, and later on Coleco Vision, and NES were all represented. The cool thing was they would let you try out the games before you bought them.

I always used SAL which is short for my first name, Sal. - Saldo

Yes sir, Disney Quest is a great place for a classic game fix if you are going to Downtown Disney. I hit it every time I go down. I remember the first time I went was on my honeymoon and didn't know what the place was. What a surprise when I made it to that floor with the freeplay games!!! I was in heaven (oh yeah and being just married too !). Anyway highly recommended, plus they have some other cool things going on in there like some virtual games and stuff like that. You could easily spend a day in there. - Sal

Check this site out for some vintage Christmas Catalogs: Wishbookweb.com Not all years are covered, but they do go back a ways. Also, people actually collect these catalogs (thats what people say about vintage video game collectors I would imagine!) and they are quite expensive. Check a few out on ebay. - Sal

1 Jim Beam dispenser.....check ! and a couch (as Jamie requested) right next to the Jim Beam dispenser ! Seriously, Climber great job. Looking at those pictures of you and your friends using that room is what it is all about! I haven't gotten into collecting arcade games yet, but I've always said I would when I had the space. I'm in the process of buying a larger home and figure I'd start off by trying to build a MAME cab once we are settled. Oh and Jamie...don't make him give up collecting, just go out and buy the equivalent value of jewelry the next time he makes a video game purchase!!! That should slow him down a bit! Remember you guys are going to get married so you have to learn to compromise! Good luck with your rec room and future together. You guys look like you are having fun and that's what really matters. - Sal

I just stumbled onto this post...WOW does this bring back memories. Thanks for the link to Peter's page and LEDHead!!! I thinkI still have my Battlestar Galactica Space Alert at my parents house somewhere, have to pull it out the next time I'm over there. I do remember playing the heck out that damn game! Yeah, while everyone else was buying Football & Baseball I was the only geek with the Space Alert!!! Great job Bomberpunk, Very cool! - Sal

Paranoid, Back to your original idea about trading old stuff I think this site might be doing what you have in mind: http://freecycle.org/ I've never used it but I read about it in a magazine. While not devoted to just technology only, it might be a place to start. If enough "technocrats" find out about it it could work out well. - Sal

ze_ro - You've done an excellent job for 31 weeks, I'm sure everyone won't mind taking a little break while things calm down on your end!!! I'm just glad that you were busy and that nothing bad had happened to you. Hope you get paid overtime for all that work you've been doing!!! - Sal

I was thinking the same thing when I noticed the standings throughout the week had not been update daily. He usually is very good about staying current. I figured he was probably extremely busy. I hope that is the case and that he is OK. - Sal

Sniper, Ha!! . Actually I always play til the last minute when I think I have a chance at bettering my score. Most of the time I usually don't!!! I was getting into a groove with this one and decided to keep playing. I got that score on the very last game I was going to play for the night, plus it was getting close to the cut off time. - Sal

217,000. Hope I made this entry in on time. It's 12:48am EST by my watch, 12 minutes to spare. - Sal