This blog, and my preoccupation with old arcade games, began many years ago. It's great fun to go back and look at old projects from time to time. Fortunately, I've documented most, although not all of them, here.
Whenever possible, I try to include pictures or techniques, not commonly found on the web. I also try to add some eye-candy for folks just looking to reminisce.
It's important to stress that I'm not an expert, this is a hobby, and therefore you, like me, are on your own. Please don't attempt to repair or even adjust power supplies or crt monitors without first doing extensive research, because they operate at very high voltages, they can be deadly.
Typically I'll write a post as I'm working through a project. I don't always work on one project at a time, and therefore the posts will skip around. Life gets in the way, therefore I'll often stop working on something for months, then jump back in when I find the enthusiasm again. To the right side of the home page is a list of projects, clicking one of those will bring up all posts for that game or project. Older posts will be at the bottom.
If this blog provides anything to the reader, I would hope that it brings awareness. Although this hobby has grown quite popular in the last decade, when I began, many old games were quickly being discarded or sent to the landfill. Preserving them is a worthwhile endeavor, and there are numerous resources available for anyone interested.
I got started when I brought home a non-working Ms. Pac-Man, purchased on craigslist for $90. From there I stumbled upon the klov forum, and later "the village", a local forum here in Florida.
In addition, I voluntarily took on the task of building a life size "R2-D2" style astromech. This was a huge project, since most of the processes involved were new to me at the time. However it was great fun and turned out to be very rewarding. While I didn't record the project here in great detail, I did keep a record of my progress at astromech.net under the "Builders Logs" section.
I'm a freelance IT admin by day, with a focus primarily in the hospitality industry, network infrastructure, wi-fi, and small surveillance cam installations.
If you're new to this hobby, I encourage you to get busy researching, then get hands-on, but do be careful, and try to preserve what you can. If you are a fellow collector/tinkerer, consider adding me to your links page.
All the best,
John
