This was on in the UK last night and featured a collection of fully working, restored (and loads of stuff waiting to be fixed) machines.
..something like 300+ cabinets and pinball machines in total and was valued by the experts at something like $500,000, there is some very rare stuff featured, such as a full sit down Star Wars cabinet.
Thought some of you might like to see it so this is the link if you want to watch it on the BBC iPlayer, via VPN or proxy for those outside of the UK:
> ..something like 300+ cabinets and pinball machines in total and was valued by the > experts at something like $500,000, there is some very rare stuff featured, such as a > full sit down Star Wars cabinet.
Some of the facts in the video are dubious:
"crazy kong which lead to donkey kong" (The bootlegger becomes the bootlegged?)
"it wasn't until 1972 when a table tennis game called pong was released that arcade games became fully electronic" (computer space wasn't fully electronic?)
They say that in London small retro arcades are starting to appear, but there are some that have had old games for years. With some of them downsizing or closing completely, there are less than there were a decade ago.
The "expert" valued it way too high. Even if you could find people who believe the "expert" and pay that, you could certainly build a collection like that for less (and I'm sure he did as he says he's spent tens of thousands in the video).
"As far as I am aware this is probably the largest working collection of classic video games in the uk".
"The entire collection goes towards 300 but there are projects in that with some of them that are just shells as well as ones with quite serious faults"
The biggest problem with that amount of machines is keeping them all working. Most people with large collections either never get that many working or give up after a couple of years.
Owning a Star Wars sit down is a double edged sword, the one that toured with the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_On_(exhibition) was upgraded to Windows 95 to make it reliable enough. £3000 maybe on a good day with someone who doesn't know what they are letting themselves on to.
> Owning a Star Wars sit down is a double edged sword, the one that toured with the > Game On exhibition was upgraded to Windows 95 to make it reliable enough.
At 2:33 You can see a Nemesis (Western edition of Gradius) cabinet.
"Note to Noobs:
We are glad to help you but simply posting that something does not work is not going to lead to you getting help. The more information you can supply defining your problem, the less likely it will be that you will get smart-alec replies.
> And, Atari Time Pilot? How did that license come about?......
Atari licensed a few games for distribution outside Japan. Dragon's Lair, Xevious, Dig Dug, Pole Position. You just have to negotiate a license where the developer thinks they'll get more money than doing the distribution themselves.
In a lot of cases even the Japanese companies we think are responsible for the games actually bought them in as finished games or outsourced development.
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"Collectaholics" BBC programme featuring one guy's awesome UK arcade & Pinball collection.
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