I’ve got some big changes to announce to Jeff’s Classic Arcade!  Even though I’ve done a couple projects the last couple years, there really hasn’t been any major changes to my lineup for years.  I’ve settled into a lineup of games that I love and considered “keepers” for the most part.  Well, that all changed with the announcement of a new pinball machine a couple months ago.  I’m not a big pinball collector so if I am going to consider buying a new pinball machine the theme of the game has to mean a lot to me.  Well, this machine has a theme that is one that I can’t refuse!  I can’t wait to update this site with an “official” announcement once I receive the new game.

To fund the purchase of a new machine, I had to let a few of my games go.  I never expected to sell the machines that I ended up selling, but they all went to good homes with fellow Indiana H.A.C.K.S. Collectors.  I’ll make a post soon to talk about H.A.C.K.S. because it is a very special organization that we started about a year and a half ago.  The machines that I did sell are the following:

Multi-PAC Upright (Pac-Man cabinet) – This one hurt pretty bad.  It was one of my first restorations from a junked TMNT conversion.  I think every game collection needs a Pac-Man.  I expect to replace this sometime soon.  Preferably with a new restoration project.  I’ve learned so much since I did this game, and would love to do another one.  This time I’ll even stencil it!

Space Invaders Deluxe Upright – I finally bought a Multi-game kit for this cabinet, then I sold it!  It’s a great classic and not having a Space Invaders cabinet in the gameroom seems like I’m missing a key piece of history.  Space Invaders was the first arcade game I remember ever playing, and it blew me away!

Donkey Kong Jr. Upright – My most recent restoration!  I haven’t even had it long enough to learn to play it.  In fact I never even got around to documenting the restoration on this site!  I hope to still put together a post on the restoration.  I really hoped to keep this one a long time, alongside my Donkey Kong.  But it’s going to be enjoyed by many more people in its new location.  This game is now at Tappers Arcade Bar in Indianapolis. This place can’t be missed!

Asteroids Cocktail – I always knew this would go because I don’t really have the space needed for a cocktail cabinet.  This went to a close personal friend and fraternity brother, so that was extra cool!

Slo-Gappa Pachislo Slot Machine – This game was more of a side project for me.  I wanted to mess around with the technology and have an interesting conversation piece in the gameroom.  This was not a long-term keeper because it didn’t have the nostalgia factor the other games did.  This was one game that kids really enjoyed so it will be missed in that regard!

World Cup Soccer ’94 Pinball Machine – This loss hurts the most by far!  I absolutely love this machine.  I hope that I can buy it back some day, or restore another one.  It’s going to be difficult to find another in such nice shape.  This was the sale that had to happen to make the money necessary for my new machine.  I think overall the new machine will be a better game to have in my small collection, but the WCS was a fantastic machine!  It will be missed badly by the entire family!

There was one surprise that came from all of these changes.  I ended up raising more funds than I needed for the model of pinball machine I ultimately selected.  With the extra money, I’ll have several cool mods that I’ll be able to do to the new machine.  I also was able to pick up a couple new games for the gameroom.  These will help fill in some of the voids in the lineup.  I’ll post about each one of them as I add them to the gameroom.

Xybots Upright – This was a later Atari game that I had fond memories playing back in college.  We actually had a machine in our fraternity house and several of us played it regularly.  I can’t wait to finally get decent at the game and see how far I can progress through the levels.

Tutankham Upright – I purchased this from a H.A.C.K.S. member who was buying a nicer one as a collection upgrade.  He gave me a great deal on the game.  I can’t wait to add it to the gameroom.  It’s always been a favorite of mine, and I kick myself for passing on a nice one years ago.

Well, I promise to follow-up this post with several more detailing the games as they’re added.  I’ve been doing this all while preparing for my son’s high school graduation and party.  Hopefully once that’s passed things will settle down enough for me to add quite a bit more content to this site.  Thanks for following my collection all of these years!

I added a new game to the arcade this past month. It’s titled “Slo-Gappa” and it’s a Japanese Pachislo slot machine. These machines are all over in Japan. Once a machine is no longer popular, it is pulled from the arcades in Japan. Many of these are destroyed, but a few make it to the US for home gamerooms. There are a lot of inconsistent gambling laws that vary by state that prevent them from being sold in the US, so you don’t see a ton of these over here. This one is strickly running on Japanese tokens, and no gambling is involved! I picked this one up not working from an arcade reseller. I’ll have an upcoming post detailing the things I had to do to get it working, but in the meantime here’s a youtube video of the game. It’s a video of a “bonus mode” played by my daughter. I really enjoy the cool LED light show. Looks great sitting next to my World Cup Soccer pinball machine!

More Slo-Gappa Photos