Me! (In a fellow collector's basement... I don't wear clothes this nice in mine)
Who maintains this stuff?: Tony hails from the Twin Cities of Minnesota.
How and Why: My golden age of arcades was from about 1980 to 1990. Once games started to be 50 cents and based on continuing, I couldn't really afford to play anymore, and I wasn't too interested in the fighting games that were replacing my old favorites. It wasn't long after that most were gone from school, from the malls, and other places that used to have them. If I did come across a place with one, I had to drop a quarter on it.
In October of 1997, I create a simple web page for places that still have classics to play. Being new to Minnesota after graduation, I didn't know if any places had a gold mine of classics just waiting to be rediscovered. So I put up 2 or 3 places from Iowa and Minnesota that had a few classic games, mostly Galaga and Ms. Pac Man. I posted a request for submissions to the rec.games.video.arcade.* newsgroups, which were the collector communities of the day. 24 hours later, I had received over 10 mails with places to add and support for the collection efforts. I ran with that motivation, and here we are today.
In the summer of 1998, I moved the outgrown page from my local ISP's home account to classicgaming.com hosting where it had excellent exposure. Classicgaming.com was shut down around 2006, and now the site is run on my own system as arcadelocations.net.
Why is the page so basic?
This page began with what we call a simple hardcoded HTML design, which has changed little in the past 10 years. It was designed to load fast in the days of dial-up internet and be basic, but it's clean and will be simple for your smartphone to display, kind of coming full circle. And you wont see a single ad cluttering up the screen, nor any annoying flash.
What besides this?: At some point I thought it would be fun to get a game or two. They then secretly multiplied. I got my first in Sept of 2000, and now have 8 machines in various states of working. I have also tinkered with building arcade control panels, and a "Supergun" (A JAMMA arcade board interface). I've attended Videotopia in 3 different states, been to California Extreme 3 or 4 times (Which is a plane trip away), and made a pilgrimage to Fun Spot on a side trip while in Boston for business. I have/had some dedication to the classic community.
My weird hobby interest changed from collecting to storm chasing around 2005, so the games have seen better days.
Comments, questions, mindless chatter? Mail me
Last updated Jan 2012. Go back to the Classic Arcade Game Location List.
