John's Arcade, game collecting and restoration

September 14, 2015 10:14 AM

Here is John's Arcade, a resource about collecting, maintaining and playing classic arcade video and pinball machines. But the real reason I'm posting this is his YouTube channel, which is full of long videos (many over an hour) about arcade repair and maintenance. Like restoring an incredibly rare I, Robot machine, or Computer Space, the first video arcade game, or Quantum, a rare Atari game developed by GCC, programmers of Ms. Pac-Man. Or you can just watch him try to break 300,000 in Donkey Kong over several half-hour videos.
posted by JHarris (14 comments total)

I, Robot!

I generally do not get super excited about vintage arcade games, but oh, I Robot! I haven't seen one over a decade, but my love remains strong.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:24 AM on September 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

I, Robot has a special place in my heart just because of "Doodle City".

Instead of playing the game you could buy 3 minutes of time to just play around with the polygons and paint stuff on the screen. That's all.

It's totally Atari and their California mindset and I miss it so so much.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:32 AM on September 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

JHarris, how about a FPP covering GCC? Because there's a great amount of history there and how they perfectly gamed Atari and Midway into development contracts with both of them.

Steve Golson did an amazing talk last year about the history of their work, from Super Missile Command all the way to Ms Pac.

They also kept going after the first videogame crash, morphing into a company that made computer printers.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:38 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

OMG I just watched the entire I, Robot intro. Part two is over 3 hours long... erm.
posted by carsonb at 12:51 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

JHarris, how about a FPP covering GCC? Because there's a great amount of history there and how they perfectly gamed Atari and Midway into development contracts with both of them.

Don't think I haven't been considering it! Unfortunately their website went dark earlier this year....
posted by JHarris at 2:17 PM on September 14, 2015

I have only just gotten back from the classic arcade gaming forums, via your last post about this stuff, and I see this!
posted by marienbad at 2:18 PM on September 14, 2015

This is an interesting thread...
posted by marienbad at 2:19 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love John's Arcade! I have been watching for well over a year now. I love the gusto with which he attacks projects that would leave me paralyzed.
His thoroughness and dorky attention to detail, combined with his enthusiasm, are really endearing.

But I am sorely disappointed this thread isn't titled "Hey Guys! I'm in the basement."
posted by Theta States at 9:04 AM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

There is something so cozy about just watching him give a tour of his arcade.
Retrogaming ASMR.
posted by Theta States at 9:09 AM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is a great post, thanks!

marienbad - thanks for that link. Q*bert was never my thing game-wise but that is 100% fascinating.
posted by mintcake! at 10:37 AM on September 15, 2015

There is something so cozy about just watching him give a tour of his arcade.

"Oh wow this is a 3 hour video, seriously?"

2~ hours later with some fast forwarding

wow, i guess it was a 3 hour video... what have i done?
posted by emptythought at 12:43 AM on September 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Oh wow this is a 3 hour video, seriously?"
2~ hours later with some fast forwarding
wow, i guess it was a 3 hour video... what have i done?

I don't want to think about the hours I have spent watching his restoration videos.... But I always learn so much! And they're good to just have on in the 2nd monitor.
posted by Theta States at 7:11 AM on September 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Watching John be really competent about fixing I, Robot was inspirational. I was trying to decide if he was really that good extemporaneously or if he's just a great video editor and like six hours of his videos later I'm pretty sure it's a fantastic combination of both.
posted by carsonb at 1:57 PM on September 16, 2015

Watching John be really competent about fixing I, Robot was inspirational. I was trying to decide if he was really that good extemporaneously or if he's just a great video editor and like six hours of his videos later I'm pretty sure it's a fantastic combination of both.

I don't think he hides a lot! He often just hits fast forward on his videos and shows the whole thing in super fast motion.
He just got an EM pinball machine and opened it up in real time and fixed his first ever AX relay in realtime using just his fingers. That was astonishing considering the precision I put in to mine. "Read about this online, so here I'll just fudge around with it and HEY it works!"
posted by Theta States at 7:29 AM on September 17, 2015