I am a Mad Scientists of sorts when it comes to video gaming. Ever since I was young, I have been looking for ways to enhance the gaming experience at home. I started with an Atari 2600 (actually a Sears Telegames) back in “the day”. Then I got an Atari 800 home computer system, which was the closest you could get to original arcade games without actually having an arcade machine. But something was still missing…
…what was missing was… The cabinet!!! the video game ports for the Atari home computer systems were the most accurate ports for the original classic video games… Pacman, Donkey Kong, Frogger, etc… The list goes on…
Since we lived in Panama, there were very few arcades that I could visit. But we did go to the US for summer and Christmas vacation so I got to visit some nice arcades on these occasions. So I wanted to figure out how to enjoy the arcade experience more often.
Starting with simple ball-top attachments for the original Atari joysticks… you all remember those? Blister City… but we still wore those things out…
And eventually ending up with a full-size scratch-built arcade cabinet with a TV stuffed in there connected to my Atari 800XL, holding the joystick down onto the control panel with one hand, and playing it with the other… remember, this was back in 1985!!! Way before the MAME craze started…
Well now, decades later, I have been able to recreate the arcade experience at home… way beyond my wildest dreams… enter Arturo’s Arcade Lab!!!
http://home.earthlink.net/~asumner/artsarcadelab/
I currently have about a dozen “keeper” games in my collection… most of which I have done some kind of work on to make them functional and presentable. From full cosmetic restoration to complete internal overhaul, I keep experimenting and finding ways to get the most out of these machines.
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