Arcade Game

I remember the very first video arcade game I ever played: Asteroids at the Victory market in the tiny town in New York I grew up in. My parents had gotten us home versions of Pong, Tank Battle, and then an Atari 2600 along with bringing home from work a TRS-80 model 3, all of which set me off on my lifetime obsession with computers. And video games.

I found some plans on the internet in 2002 for an arcade cabinet but all it included was a plywood shell with a lot of "L" brackets holding it together. I knew it would be flimsy so I made a frame from cheap 2x4s. It only took me a few hours and is incredibly strong.

The controls are real arcade hardware from Happ controls and include a trackball for Missle Command, spinner for Tempest, 4 way joystick for Pac-Man, and (2) 8 way joysticks for Joust and 1943.

I got the games from $0.99 bins at places like Menards and Target. For whatever reason in the early 2000s there was a nostalgia kick and a lot of retro game ports came out. I have over 20 playable games.