Whether in a pizza parlor, corner store, or full-fledged arcade, growing up during the birth of classic arcades there was that one spot that was your favorite. Undoubtedly, you probably had a favorite game that used to eat all of your hard earned allowance that paradoxically provided you with unbridled joy along with never-ending frustration. Life progressed, years passed, but you never forgot that place – that game. Now, imagine driving past that sacred spot years later and seeing your beloved game abandoned by the dumpster, left to rot, and waiting for an unceremonious burial in the city landfill. Sometimes fate sneaks up behind you, other times it confronts you and slaps you in the face.

Casey Wales might not have realized it was fate when he salvaged a 1981 Galaga arcade game beside the dumpster of his childhood stomping grounds at the local bowling alley, but this would be the beginning of a journey that would eventually lead to Casey to create Robot City Games. An independent video game store would be cause enough to celebrate, but the classic arcade that fills half the store is what truly sets this establishment apart. At Robot City Games, the gamer battle cry of “know your roots” has been perfectly executed to allow us the opportunity to revisit our youth and pay respect to the icons that started it all by simply dropping in another quarter and pressing the start button.

It would take years before that Galaga pulled from the trash would take a place of honor among those other classic arcades. Casey would call T.V. repair shops and look online for help, but for years the knowledge needed to fix these games eluded him. It wasn’t until several years and a random internet search later that he was able to find a plethora of resources along with plenty of people eager to help before he brought his Galaga back to life.

By that time, Casey already had a store that had morphed from an anime/manga store into almost an entirely video game-centered store. He had the perfect place.

“I had this video game store with tables in the back to host card tournaments (Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh) and there was room for a few games. The Galaga went back there, the Donkey Kong I got out of the garbage the same time as the Galaga needed a new power supply and cap kit, that went back there.. I found it was pretty easy to find new games. We lost some card tables and I had a whole row.”

Growing up, aside from the bowling alley, Casey was able to visit Chuck E. Cheese on occasion, where his father knew the manager. The manager would take him to the back room where they kept huge barrels filled with tokens and allowed Casey to fill his pockets. Making sure he always wore plenty of pockets on those days, he’d use the tokens to spend time playing his favorite four: Galaga, Centipede, Pole Position, and Donkey Kong. He owns all of those titles now, including 22 other titles that fill his store.

When asked about the reaction from customers regarding the combination of classic arcade games saddled next to modern-day video game consoles, Casey responded,

“A lot of people just look at them and act like it’s a museum, they do that for the older console stuff as well. It’s always a positive response. The ambiance of having them on does a lot for the store. I guess a lot of people who play modern games and call themselves “gamers” think of it as their subculture’s roots. We get a lot of people in to see if we have the newest … game for (X-Box) 360 and come back later with their kids to show them how games used to be. We get a lot of 40-ish people bringing their kids in and a lot of college kids bringing their friends back to play.”

Currently Robot City Games’ 26 games includes a combination of classic titles like Q*Bert, Gyruss, and Crystal Castles, along with some lesser-known titles like Galpus, Crater Raider, and Satan’s Hollow. In addition to classic videogame posters, custom-animated lights and space invaders line the wall. In the future, Casey would like to expand Robot City Games to a different space in the same area that would allow the store to double in size and allow up to 50 arcade games!

From the earliest video games ever created, to the newest releases for X-Box or PS3, you have an opportunity to literally be surrounded by video games. Just make sure when you come to play, you have plenty of pockets and plenty of change. You may be there a while.

Robot City Games is located in Binghamton, NY. Follow Casey onRobot City Games’ Facebook Page, or check out Robot City Games’ website.

One of the most visible elements of a pinball machine is the backglass or translite – the large piece of pinball art that attracts new players. It’s the first thing the people see and many times, the artwork and the theme it represents alone could be a large enough factor to attract or repel pinball players to drop their quarters in the machine. In the pinball community, there have always been a few titles that have had the stigma of horrible backglasses. However, one hobbyist is trying to remedy the situation.

A sexier version of the Miami Vice ripoff

eBay seller pugsotoys5zpt, has designed replacement translites for some of the worst offenders of bad backglass artwork.    During the 1980′s Gottlieb tried a new design strategy for their pinball machines: photo realism. While perhaps not nearly as soul-crushing to look at back in the 80′s, now the designs SCREAM atrociousness! Thankfully, many of the updated offerings from pugsotoys5zpt include replacements to those awful Gottlieb machines: Raven, Hollywood Heat, Genesis, and Goldwings.

She can flip my cards anytime.

Not only 80′s machines are in need of an update. The Bally/Williams classic The Shadow is oft chided as an example of a poor backglass design because of the prominence of Alec Baldwin’s face. The updated translite shows a shadowy figure surrounded (in shadow) by other film characters.  Another modern fare is World Poker Tour, which has definitely taken on a more sexy tone.

Since many of these designs are themselves photo-realistic, it may mean that in 25 years they too will be in need of updating. However, for now, these translites are a welcome replacement. Visit pugsotoys5zpt’s eBay listings to pick up a new pinball art design today!

We have been saved from this monstrosity!

Two more classic arcade game minimalist designs are now available as physical posters to hang in your gameroom. My Dig Dug and Burgertime designs are two of my favorites and would look great hanging next to your Gauntlet minimalist poster.  Both designs are professionally printed by the folks over at This Old Game with solvent inkjet on thick poster stock. Posters are both 16 x 20″. Signed and numbered to a limited edition of only 30 posters, they are available for only $19.99 EACH.

DIG DUG POSTER – $19.99
Signed/Numbered Limited Edition of 30 

BURGERTIME POSTER – $19.99
Signed/Numbered Limited Edition of 30 

Episode 17 of the podcast brings you an interview with Dan Nikolich from the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown! Preston and Patrick talk about all of the new innovation and competition arising in the world of pinball along with Preston’s efforts to start a new competitive pinball league. Listen to the show for your chance to win a prize pack from the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown. Also, hear all about the Gameroom Junkies’ latest warehouse raid of forgotten and neglected classic arcade games. Lastly, we share with you our first-ever google voicemail message for a lot of laughs. This episode of the podcast is brought to you by Back to the Arcade. Visit them for all your gameroom needs and tell them we said “Hi!” www.backtothearcade.com 

Play Podcast Episode 17 – Pinball Showdown

I follow some interesting folks over on Twitter. One of those people is Tighe Lory. You may recognize his name as he gained some notoriety a while back for building a custom arcade cabinet to house the classic Nintendo gaming system – Virtual Boy. When he’s not busy creating custom arcade cabinet designs, he can probably be found in his gameroom playing his favorite titles from yesteryear. Recently, through Twitter, I have been following his progress on his attempt to lose weight. However, this isn’t your typical fad diet. This does involve diet, but also a lot of fun-filled exercise as well. Tighe was gracious enough to take time out of his busy workout and gaming regimen to answer some questions for me.

GRJ: Tighe, over the past few months you’ve been trying something pretty interesting in your gameroom – playing arcade games to lose weight. How did you come up with that idea?

TL: I know that I have had the idea even before I got my Propcycle.  I think it first occurred to me back when Propcycle was new in the arcades.  Back then I was in great shape and didn’t need to lose weight.  I am certainly not the only person to have thought of using Propcycle to lose weight.

GRJ: What’s Propcycle? I’d never heard of it before.

TL: Propcycle is an arcade game released by Namco in 1996, it was part of a series of large simulator games made by Namco at the time, others were Alpine Racer, Alpine Surfer, and Aqua Jet.

In Propcycle you are a young lad in a steampunk style future. Part of the Earth (Solitar) has taken to the sky. This happed because someone accidentally activated an ancient forgotten nuclear reactor.  You must pass 3 training stages where you prove your ability to fly into balloons and pop them with what Namco calls a Laperopter (flying bicycle).  Then you have one chance on the final stage to save Solitar and shutdown the nuclear reactor and return it safely to the earth.

The gameplay is very similar to Pilotwings 64 on the N64 and Pilotwings Resort on the Nintendo 3DS.  The big difference is that you must actually pedal a stationary bike to propel your character on screen.

GRJ: How did you come about owning this game?

TL: I drove out to Syracuse to buy it from KLOV member chas010.  I had to completely disassemble it to load it into the trailer and bring it home. Once I got it home it was quite the task getting it into my basement and reassembling it.

Even then it was missing a seat, control panel and the fans that simulate wind were broken.  But I have it back together and working now.

GRJ: What’s your daily routine like as far as gameplay and other steps toward weight loss?

TL: My routine started out just with Propcycle and limiting calories in the beginning, I started at 306 pounds on February 3, 2012.  Before starting my metabolism was really low so Propcycle helped me get it going again.  I get up at 5:00 AM and ride Propcycle for 30+ minutes then do 15 minutes on an Elliptical.  Then during my lunch I would walk 2.3 miles.

I use the Android/iPhone app LoseIt to track my calories, and Endomondo for tracking my exercise.

About 2 weeks ago I discovered I was doing all this exercise on a broken foot, so now I am in a soft cast until that heals.   This has put the exercise on hold, but I have managed to maintain my current weight of 273 pounds.  I am getting a walking cast later this week, and if it works out I would like to get back to riding Propcycle at least.

GRJ: I understand you’ve gotten pretty good at the game and have broken some records, tell me about that.

A pre-weight loss Tighe starts his Propcycle quest

TL: Well I can beat the 2nd place high score pretty easily now, and am getting close to the world record in Twin Galaxies, but I fear that the record was done on the easy setting not the default intermediate setting that Twin Galaxies says is the official setting.

One I have befriended a Japanese gamer dacchaprop who easily can blow away the Twin Galaxies world record, but he doesn’t have a Propcycle of his own, so he can only play on machines in arcades that are set on the easy setting.  He has been mentoring me on the best routes and stage orders to get the best score.  I wish I could get him access to a Propcycle set to Twin Galaxies official settings, because he really is very good at the game.

GRJ: Since you’ve been playing this daily for long stretches at a time, have you gotten sick of playing the game?

TL:Not really, it is quite a challenging game to have the stamina to play for any long periods. Playing it 30 minutes a day doesn’t get boring.

GRJ: Ever thought about expanding to include DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) type machines? I’ve heard of other people using them to lose weight successfully.

TL:I would want to wait until I was under at least 250 pounds before I would take on a high impact game like DDR.  If you notice all the good players are probably under 150 pounds.  What I would like to see is more arcade games that not only measure your coordination and reaction time, but your strength and endurance too.I have been considering finding a 1987 Sega Heavyweight Champ. This would be a great game for building upperbody strength.  Konami also has a newer boxing game call Mocap Boxing, which looks good, but a little detached.  I like to actually be able to hold the controls in my hand.

GRJ: If not propcycle, what would be the one classic arcade game you could play every day for the rest of your life?

TL:Wow, that is a hard thing to commit to, almost like getting a tattoo, it will be with you for life.  While I love my Galaga, Galaxian, Gaplus, Donkey Kong, etc. I would have to go with Street Fighter II Turbo.  I have probably played that game the most of any game, and I still love it. I might say Rastan too, I love that game and it is hard but you can get good at it.

GRJ: How successful have you been in your weight loss journey so far? How much farther would you like to go.

TL:Well I was able to lose 33 pounds in little over a month.  I am very frustrated with this broken foot.  I don’t even know how I did it. It has been bothering me for probably over 6 months.  I figured it would get better when I lost weight, but when it got worse I decided to go the the podiatrist.The plan is to get down to the weight I was in 1996, 205 pounds minimum.  I am 6’1” so my ideal weight is 186-192 pounds so I would like to get down to 190 pounds.  I cannot imagine weighing less than that, I know what I looked like when I was 200 pounds and I was very thin!

GRJ: Lastly, you previously gained some notoriety for the custom Virtual Boy cabinet you created a while back. Anything neat or unique from you in the works?

TL: Yes, two projects are in the middle of being made right now.  One is to build a custom cabinet of the Game Boy game Donkey Kong that was released in 1994.  This is not the Donkey Kong Country game, but what I consider to be the true sequel to the arcade Donkey Kong.

The other project is rebuilding an old Galaxian that had been converted to at least 3 other games, into a custom cabinet for the arcade game Galaga ‘88.  By the time Galaga ‘88 was released Midway had lost the licensing rights from Namco.  Atari licensed the game in the USA, and they put it in probably one of the most ugly arcade cabinets ever. Hot pink and yellow gold on a white cabinet, a horrible 8 way joystick for a game with 2 way controls.  It was a travesty.

My plan is to use the artwork from the Japanese flyer and put the game in a Midway Galaxian cabinet, which is very close in design to the early arcade cabinets that Namco produced in Japan.

I also have ideas for other future custom games, but I really need to finish these before I start anything new.  If you want to see what I am up to you can always subscribe to my Youtube channel.  I also have a blog and I am on Twitter and Google+.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today! I wish you continued success in your weight loss journey and I look forward to whatever interesting ideas you come up with next.

When there’s no basement in a home, all the spare bedrooms are occupied, and the wife has squelched any plans of games in the dining room, possibly the only logical place left to create a gameroom can be the garage. Many owners of these “Garcades” (a combination of the word garage and arcade) are pleased to have a space to call their gameroom, but for most that space is simply used to hold a random smattering of games with no real thought to design other than cramming as many games into that limited space as possible. Many owners still utilize the other half of a 2-car garage for its intended purpose of storing a car, and the thought of turning the exhaust-filled room into an extended living area is usually out of the question. There is one garage, however, that can no longer be recognized as such. Instead, the door to this garage opens to reveal a garcade that is both retro and modern, recreational and livable, and basically, downright awesome!

When designing this room, Joaquim, the owner, had one goal in mind: build something that would make the 10-year-old version of himself blow a gasket! It had been many years, but Joaquim can still remember watching the old television show “Silver Spoons” and being in awe of Ricky Schroeder’s character having real stand-up arcade machines in his home. To him, back then, owning an arcade game was only something to dream about. However, once he was 18 and able to own his very own Star Wars cabinet, Joaquim realized that his dream would be a reality.As fans of both contemporary and mid-century modern design, Joaquim and his wife set to work designing a gameroom that was both aesthetically pleasing and more than just “a garage full of games.”

“Initially I planned the whole thing to just be an arcade with no real living area. Just a garage full of games. After some discussions with my wife about it she suggested that we should have a little nook that guests can hang out at in between playing the games. At first I went crazy ambitious and was planning to do a sunken retro living area with built in couches and that sort of deal but the realities of a budget for that, much less the space it would take up made me quickly re-think things a bit. So we took a bit more of a conservative approach but really tried to focus on keeping the design choices simple, clean, retro but still modern all at the same time. “

Using Google Sketchup in the design process was a big help. Working in animation, Joaquim would occasionally use Sketchup to build rough set designs, but relying on the vast resources available through the program including over 500 pre-built cabinet designs made its use a no-brainer. While the game lineup and layout was important, so too was the opportunity to highlight some other geeky habits and hobbies.

Lining the wall are two built-in book shelves that literally showcase geekiness. Although the showcase allows for frequent rotation, one obsession that will remain prominently featured is a toyline by the name of Crystar. According to Joaquim, one of his best friends in the second grade had a Crystar figure that captivated his imagination. Despite offering every toy he owned as trade, his friend refused to give up the coveted figure. Now, with the help of eBay, almost the entire Crystar toy line along with other influential childhood memories from G.I. Joe to Masters of the Universe are proudly displayed for all to see.

In addition to the previously mentioned Star Wars cab, the acquisition of a Discs of Tron was what really spurred the current collection that now includes classics such as Donkey Kong, Gyruss, Spy Hunter, Tron, Pac-Man, and more. With limited space, how can one incorporate as much classic gaming as possible into one space, you ask? Why, with retro console games of course! Tempting all who sit on the couch are classic consoles like NES, Super Nintendo, N64, Gamecube, and the modern Nintendo unit – Wii. And that’s just in one cabinet! In the other cabinet, you can find Sega Dreamcast, Playstation 1 and 2, as well as an X-box 360. The drawers hold all the assortment of games for the units with even more classic games with handheld units such as Digital Derby and an old Tomy Pac-Man waiting in the wings.

Though few would find much to change about this amazing set up, Joaquim is currently piecing together a Track and Field cabinet to add to his collection. And with his collectible displays always in rotation, Castle Greyskull and other MOTU figures will soon line the walls. Lastly, to complete the modern/retro decor, the couple would like to add a nice simple shag rug to go into the living area that’ll harken back to the 70′s and 80′s. It may have taken nearly a year in the making, and the help of, as Joaquim describes her,  “the coolest wife in the world who totally supports my geeky habits,” but a childhood dream has finally been realized. No longer a dream, this reality is something that would even make Silver Spoon’s Ricky Schroeder jealous.

To see more cool stuff that Joaquim has going on and is interested in along with some of his artwork, check out his Tumblr website. If you like the photos in this article, then check out the website of the photographer – Ben Tsui. If you have a gameroom that you’d like us to feature, just drop me an email at gameroomjunkies@gmail.com 

Barry, who’s game room we previously featured here on Gameroom Junkies, is selling a limited number of custom Nintendo cocktail stools featuring recognizable Nintendo graphics on them. Each set of two stools comes with one “POW”-style and one “Coin”-style stool. Each stool is made of vinyl with hand-stitched graphics attached to customize the arcade seating.

If the retro-cool factor isn’t enough to sell you on these alone, how about the fact that each stool opens up to reveal a large storage area. Barry himself uses the space to store common arcade repair tools like screwdrivers, soldering tools, etc. The amount of work put into these is significant, which is reflected in the price of $250 per set. However, as of this writing, only 2 of his initial run of 6 sets is available. Based on demand, more may be available in the future. If you’re interested, head over to KLOV and private message Barry to secure one of these bad boys!

Due to popular demand, I have decided to offer some of my minimalist arcade poster designs for sale for a limited time. The first of my poster designs available for purchase is my personal favorite – Gauntlet. These will be a limited edition of 30 for each design, professionally printed on high-quality poster paper, signed and numbered by the artist (ME!)

The poster print is 16×20″ and incorporates a 1″ border around the artwork, so you can instantly throw it into a standard-sized frame and it will look like it has already been matted. The picture above shows how it looks in real life after I placed it in a $11 Wal-Mart frame. All posters will come shipped rolled in a cardboard tube.

Initial Concept Design (Varies slightly from actual product)

Price is $20 + $5 shipping
Click below to purchase