Oak Creek man builds ultimate old-school gaming paradise (WI)

[tommyinajar]

Right down the block from me, who knew. Maybe I'll send over a gift basket with a 12 pack in it.

http://realmilwaukeenow.com/2012/05/24/oak-creek-man-builds-ultimate-old-school-gaming-paradise/

[Los Abrazos Rotos]

Wow!  Thats incredible 

[tommyinajar]

I like the fact he met his wife AFTER he had the games allready in place. A+ for getting his priories straight. Not much to say if you knew what you were getting into.

[ChadTower]

Sadly, what that means more often than not is that in 5 years he's going to have to close the place down and sell everything to pay out her half of the property.

[kahlid74]

I could swear I've seen him before at Summerfest rock acts.  How interesting.

[Afterburner]

I recently realized my wife recognized and supported my two MAME cabs as a hobby long before I realized that's what they were.  Somehow in my own mind it was never more than a way to play a few games I enjoyed as a kid.  I had been collecting parts for years and finally decided to build my own cab.  That was really the point at which I think it attained hobby status.

A few weeks ago I mentioned I wanted to make my cab narrower, but that would involve building a new CP....something I didn't want to get into.  She actually suggested I sell the whole cab for a profit and build a spiffy new one from scratch!  But I've put so much work into it I don't think I could sell it.

[drventure]

Someone go tell him about MAME and explain how it could replace all that crap with one cabinet.

That's the main thing that attracted me to mame: the possibility of playing a number of my old favorites without having to buy a hangar to store them all in.

That, and just the whole concept of "building" an arcade machine from scratch.

[Le Chuck]

Stryper Tee.  

Other than that seems like an awesome place to hang out.



Oh... and L337 bitches.

[tommyinajar]

Someone go tell him about MAME and explain how it could replace all that crap with one cabinet.

If he acts disinterested tell him your next stop is explaining it to his wife unless he gives you $500.

$$$!!!!

That may be true, but to me it's always more enjoyable playing on a dedicated cab with the control overlay, sideart, monitor and OE hardware. Kind of like 60's muscle cars, new ones outperform and handle better than the old ones but I'd rather have a garage full of 68-71 sport cars than a 2012 'vette. Mame is awesome but a room(house??) full of dedicated cabs and pins is just plain cool

[Smeghead]

I bet he never gets laid

but you know what, I think I'd make that trade too!

[harveybirdman]

Stryper Tee.  

Other than that seems like an awesome place to hang out.



Oh... and L337 bitches.

Dammit someone beat me to the inevitable Stryper joke.....

[mytymaus007]

LOL I only think about doing that but only think, I feel bad for that dude all that time and money collecting all those old Cab's. I would like to know if he knows about MAME, if he doesnt and finds out that would suck. Hopefully he finds out before he gets divorced so he can sell them off and build a MAME CAB for his new Apt after his wife gets the house!

[Le Chuck]

LOL I only think about doing that but only think, I feel bad for that dude all that time and money collecting all those old Cab's. I would like to know if he knows about MAME, if he doesnt and finds out that would suck. Hopefully he finds out before he gets divorced so he can sell them off and build a MAME CAB for his new Apt after his wife gets the house!

You people are kidding right?  I love MAME.  Love.  It.  But that's because I don't have the room for 100+ dedicated machines.  If I did then I'd be rocking that.  I'd have a MAME machine too, for the other few thousand, but playing on the dedicated machine with (hopefully) the original controls, in a dedicated cab with a great scratchy sound system takes me the ---fudgesicle--- back.  That's what MAME does, it helps take you back.  That is what this hobby is about.  That dude is so far back he's rocking a Stryper Tee for chrissakes.  The Franklin Mint is making a plate about this dood as we speak.  Order it COD while you smoke in a hospital.  Bammo!

[DaveMMR]

Someone go tell him about MAME and explain how it could replace all that crap with one cabinet.

If he acts disinterested tell him your next stop is explaining it to his wife unless he gives you $500.

$$$!!!!

Whenever possible, I'd take the vinyl over the MP3, the cartridge over the ROM, and an arcade full of original cabinets over MAME anyday.

And no software is replacing those pinball machines anytime soon...

[Unstupid]

Someone go tell him about MAME and explain how it could replace all that crap with one cabinet.

You better let him know that we'll have to mock his frankenpanel though! 

[Los Abrazos Rotos]

Someone go tell him about MAME and explain how it could replace all that crap with one cabinet.

If he acts disinterested tell him your next stop is explaining it to his wife unless he gives you $500.

$$$!!!!

Whenever possible, I'd take the vinyl over the MP3, the cartridge over the ROM, and an arcade full of original cabinets over MAME anyday.

And no software is replacing those pinball machines anytime soon...

Absolutely..  I'm quite tempted to go down this road myself.

While its fun to build cabs & play mame, nothing can compare with being in an actual arcade with the real games..

I bet this guy isnt completely happy with what hes got - you cant emulate your youth however hard you try..  What it felt like to be in those arcades in the 80s cannot be recaptured.

[mytymaus007]

LOL I only think about doing that but only think, I feel bad for that dude all that time and money collecting all those old Cab's. I would like to know if he knows about MAME, if he doesnt and finds out that would suck. Hopefully he finds out before he gets divorced so he can sell them off and build a MAME CAB for his new Apt after his wife gets the house!

You people are kidding right?  I love MAME.  Love.  It.  But that's because I don't have the room for 100+ dedicated machines.  If I did then I'd be rocking that.  I'd have a MAME machine too, for the other few thousand, but playing on the dedicated machine with (hopefully) the original controls, in a dedicated cab with a great scratchy sound system takes me the ---fudgesicle--- back.  That's what MAME does, it helps take you back.  That is what this hobby is about.  That dude is so far back he's rocking a Stryper Tee for chrissakes.  The Franklin Mint is making a plate about this dood as we speak.  Order it COD while you smoke in a hospital.  Bammo!

LOL Exactly if you had the room. I to would love to have my own Arcade! Arcade is the keyword. Usually all the Arcades I have been to were in a store front or in a mall LOL not in a shack where this guys lives. Of course I love dedicated original cabs.

[capsule]

Amazing collection. And i insist about the word COLLECTION. MAME is great but MAME is not a collection. It's like comparing a collection of vinyls with a hard drive full of mp3. These are real objects, not a software emulation.

+1 for the pinball comment, there's absolutely no way to emulate the real feeling a pinball machine, and from what I've seen in this video, he has plenty of them!

[gamer2112]

...but if he traded all that for a MAME cab, he would have more room for his Harley collection!!

[TOK]

MAME is cool, it got me into the hobby and I still play those cabs all the time but there is nothing like walking into a room full of games running at the same time.

You need to have the dedicated versions of at least your top 3 favorite games. 

[bkenobi]

He could sell off 90% of those cabs (the ones with typical controls) and get a MAME to replace them.  Then, he'd have lots of money and space to add more pins.  If I had the space/money, I'd have about half a dozen dedicated games, 2-3 MAME cabs, and around 1000 pins.   

[ChadTower]

128 just sounds 'warmer'.

It's the warm white of mp3s.

The part I found interesting is that his version of maintenance was "windex and dusting to keep them in top shape".  He has a guy who comes in once a week to address any actual issues.  He got his games by writing big checks and having them delivered.  Clearly, some local folks have made a lot of money off of this guy.  I wonder how far into retail prices this guy is paying for everything.

[Dervacumen]

I wonder how some of those high scores compare to the competition that goes on here.  I saw a few that even I could beat.

[Seith]

All I know is i'd be all over those pins.

[JohnEDollar]

I'd hate to see his monthly Electric Bill! 

[Dawgz Rule]

I'd hate to see his monthly Electric Bill!

My first thoughts exactly.  My second thought was, "What does this guy do for a living?"  Love the pin collection.

[boardjunkie]

Whenever possible, I'd take the vinyl over the MP3, the cartridge over the ROM, and an arcade full of original cabinets over MAME anyday.

Personally I prefer 128KB MP3s and won't even consider downloading VBR or *gasp* 320KB MP3s. 

128 just sounds 'warmer'.

I sure hope yer kidding....

Even 320s can sound bad. MP3 is the 8 track of this generation....all convenience and no quality.

[boardjunkie]

This guy really has the hot setup. Seems like a cool guy to hang out with over some beers. Bonus points for be'n a Pacman freak.

MAME is a nice "workaround" for not having access to the real thing, but the real thing is *always* better. For those of us who played all that stuff when it was fresh on the scene, its a pretty big deal to own it all. Thats part of the reason I got into the amusement industry (back when it still existed), to get the downlow on how to start obtaining the games I wanted to own. Since there was no collector scene back then, just about anything you wanted could be had for chump change or free. It was "junk" to the ops. But I really enjoyed my time as a game repair tech. It was fun while it lasted....

[BadMouth]

Whenever possible, I'd take the vinyl over the MP3, the cartridge over the ROM, and an arcade full of original cabinets over MAME anyday.

Personally I prefer 128KB MP3s and won't even consider downloading VBR or *gasp* 320KB MP3s. 

128 just sounds 'warmer'.

I sure hope yer kidding....

Even 320s can sound bad. MP3 is the 8 track of this generation....all convenience and no quality.

Everything sounds bad now, no matter what the format.  There's no dynamic range anymore.  It's all mixed to sound loud on an ipod.

[boardjunkie]

Ya got that right. Even the 30 year old CD standard wasn't all that great. 44.1khz sampling just kinda guesses above 15k or so. You only end up with a sample or 2...not much to go on.

DVD audio coulda been the "fix" for it, but MP3 had already begun its tenure and 90% of "music fans" didn't care about the increase in sound quality, so it died quietly. Damn shame...

I used to transfer vinyl to quarter inch tape (3M 226) on a Revox A77. Now *that* was quality sound.

[boardjunkie]

Who's elders?

[nakeworks]

I've heard that the problem with today's audio is that it is digital.  The human brain does not process audio digital well at all.  The analog sounds produced by vinyl are the natural state that is interpreted by the brain and sounds awesome.  From what I've read, an mp3 only carries about 5% of the sound quality of a vinyl.  That said the vinyl has to be played through tubes that have to stay warm with high quality components from the needle all the way to the gold plated wire.  But I'm no expert.  I have a couple doctors that I work with that have $50,000+ sound systems and a room dedicated to listening to music.  I asked them if I could bring over some of my old Social Distortion records and they didn't know what I was talking about. 

I would love to have a bunch of cabs.  Like its been said, MAME is a gateway drug.

[vanrose72]

I hope this guy's arcade isn't eventually taken down by his significant other (à la Peter Hirschberg's wife). 

[boardjunkie]

All that cork sniffer "gold plated wire" BS is just that....BS. You don't *need* a tube amp to have a great sounding system. Tube amps work very well with compression horn speakers such as Klipsch. The tube amp helps to smooth out the normally "squawky" sound of the horn drivers and really does make a difference. For normal speakers...its really not a benefit.

High end audio is a very slippery road for those who can't seperate the snake oil from reality. Proof that there's a market for just about anything....and someone will be there to buy it who doesn't know any better.

[lcmgadgets]

SWEET!

I agree with the bulk of the post(er)s here: If I had the time/money/room, I'd own a HUGE arcade with a MOUNTAIN of dedicated cabs & pins any day over a MAME machine! I've always been as interested in recapturing the 'feel' as much as actually playing the games. I hope my someday-to-b MAME cab does some of that (can anyone tell me: does it?).

& I'm looking at maps & dreaming of making a road trip from here in London, Ontario, Canada, to Wisconsin.

[lcmgadgets]

I hope this guy's arcade isn't eventually taken down by his significant other (à la Peter Hirschberg's wife). 

ARGGGHHH!!

I didn't know!:cry: I just went looking--when did this happen?!? I've dreamt for years of making a road trip (from here: London, Ontario, Canada). Okay, I'm going hunting for details...

[molton]

first of all digital music is still heard in it's analog form, it's not like we hear a bunch of high pitched noise that we convert to music in our brains.

that being said, 128kbps mp3s sure do have that vintage 1996 sound too them  

Rooms full of Arcade machines and vinyl albums have their good and bad qualities, Mame cabinets and hard drives full of mp3's do too, the difference is you don't have to be rich and spend a fortune plus dedicate half your life to a have mame cabinet or a hard drive full of mp3s.  

Not to say that dedicating a lot of time money and energy into something you love isn't worthwhile, it's just that most people wouldn't go to such extremes when amazing alternatives are available.

[Gray_Area]

I hope this guy's arcade isn't eventually taken down by his significant other (à la Peter Hirschberg's wife).  

Yeah? Nothing new on his blog for over two years. And the arcade page is down.

[DaveMMR]

first of all digital music is still heard in it's analog form, it's not like we hear a bunch of high pitched noise that we convert to music in our brains.

that being said, 128kbps mp3s sure do have that vintage 1996 sound too them  

Rooms full of Arcade machines and vinyl albums have their good and bad qualities, Mame cabinets and hard drives full of mp3's do too, the difference is you don't have to be rich and spend a fortune plus dedicate half your life to a have mame cabinet or a hard drive full of mp3s.  

Not to say that dedicating a lot of time money and energy into something you love isn't worthwhile, it's just that most people wouldn't go to such extremes when amazing alternatives are available.

Who spends a fortune on vinyl? I get great stuff for next to nothing (sometimes free) and new vinyl is often the same price as a CD. And much of the newer vinyl comes with a digitial copy as well. My copy of Devo's new album (on blue vinyl, natch) even came with a CD copy.

Of course you can't really carry vinyl with you on the road.  . MP3s are just fine for that purpose.

As for cabs, you can really search around and spend a lot less than this guy obviously did. The main concerns are space and your electric bill.

[tommyinajar]

"The electric bill"- He said he only turns them all on for parties and the like. I think some of the Christmas decorations up in November around here probably dwarf the cost of the few times he has them all on.

[geomartin]

I hope this guy's arcade isn't eventually taken down by his significant other (à la Peter Hirschberg's wife). 

From the looks of this guy (age and demeanor), my guess would be he's already had a first wife, learned his lesson, and pre-nupped this one.  God I hope so!

[molton]

Who spends a fortune on vinyl? I get great stuff for next to nothing (sometimes free) and new vinyl is often the same price as a CD...

a fortune on the rent for the warehouse you'd need to have a vinyl collection equal to your average hard drive full of mp3's.

mp3's and mame cabinets are for all us struggling in the lower middle class who haven't lost our minds.

[DaveMMR]

Who spends a fortune on vinyl? I get great stuff for next to nothing (sometimes free) and new vinyl is often the same price as a CD...

a fortune on the rent for the warehouse you'd need to have a vinyl collection equal to your average hard drive full of mp3's.

mp3's and mame cabinets are for all us struggling in the lower middle class who haven't lost our minds.

A warehouse? An Ikea bookcase will hold more records than most people would ever listen to. Maybe a milk rate for smaller collections. Bags Unlimited even sells some sturdy boxes. 

Yes, you will always hold more on a harddrive, but at what point are you having songs on your computer that never get played?  I only have 40 Gigs of music on my drive and I feel that half of it coul be erased and I wouldn't notice. That's the main problem; media has been devalued when there's no effort in obtaining it and it's intangible.

It's like roms. Saying you have 5000 games is really nothing to brag about; anyone can have that. Show me 50 original arcade machines, and it's intimately more interesting and rewarding.

But I'm not downing MP3s or MAME. I use them both lots and love. But a physical collection and digital files are very different.

[molton]

...Saying you have 5000 games is really nothing to brag about...

that is f**king beautiful.  That is why roms and mp3's are great, 100 games, 5000 games, who cares, it's just information.

[boardjunkie]

first of all digital music is still heard in it's analog form, it's not like we hear a bunch of high pitched noise that we convert to music in our brains.

that being said, 128kbps mp3s sure do have that vintage 1996 sound too them  

Digital "music" is an approximation of analog. Once you chop it all up, throw some of it out the window, then convert it back to analog....its not the same. MP3 throws a *ton* out the window, so you end up with something that really has little in common with the analog source material. FLAC is an improvement, but hardly optimal.

I have good ears and have been a musician all my life. I can tell the difference. Most people can't, and this is why we have the whole digital format(s) today. Convenience over quality always wins.....cassettes and 8 tracks are past examples of this trend.

[tommyinajar]

LoL I bet she jumped at a prenuptial, he might have just declared the pins and cabs as "His"!


(That might have been what I would have done)

[CheffoJeffo]

that is f**king beautiful.  That is why roms and mp3's are great, 100 games, 5000 games, who cares, it's just information.

And that is just sad ... failing to see the difference between information and experience ...

[CheffoJeffo]

I didn't know!:cry: I just went looking--when did this happen?!? I've dreamt for years of making a road trip (from here: London, Ontario, Canada). Okay, I'm going hunting for details...

Hey, you live in London ... arcade capital of Canada.

Quit bitching.

[molton]

And that is just sad ... failing to see the difference between information and experience ...

Your experience is determined by the information your brain receives, if your brain is hung up on bragging rights and having the best of the best quality then sure, mame cabinets and mp3's are total ---shoe---.  If however you don't let the original side art not being on the side of the arcade cabinet you are playing or not hearing the music at the best possible audio quality ruin your experience, then mame cabinets and mp3s are great.

also, mp3's are a lot more convenient than 8-tracks

also, to re-iterate, there's nothing wrong with collecting awesome things like vinyl albums or arcade machines, but there's definitely nothing wrong with convenience.

[DaveMMR]

also, to re-iterate, there's nothing wrong with collecting awesome things like vinyl albums or arcade machines, but there's definitely nothing wrong with convenience.

Convenience is awesome.  I have unlimited music available at my fingertips and I can play most any classic arcade game anywhere I want.  I wouldn't want to go back. But understand there's a HUGE difference between having a record (or CD) collection and having a drive full of MP3s much in the same way collecting original hardware is way different than having thousands of MAME roms at your disposal.

What I think a lot of younger generations can't appreciate is the thrill of the hunt. Time was I had to scour the record stores to complete gaps in my record and CD collections. Nowadays, you can just hop on the internet and buy anything you need without breaking a sweat. No challenge = less appreciation.

I know it sounds silly and it may be hard to explain, but it's really satisfying to find that "holy grail" you've been searching for. So much so, I think, that I'm collecting consoles and cartridges and am actively avoiding playing their emulated counterparts (even the legal ones like Wii VC). It's the whole package, not just the "information" stored therein. Popping in the cartridge, sitting on the couch with the original controller, looking at the artwork - stuff like that paints your nostalgic haze better than just loading a file on your computer.

Then again - I'm old.   

[lcmgadgets]

Hey, you live in London ... arcade capital of Canada.

Quit bitching.

Please tell me this isn't true. The only arcades here r the crappy half ones in movie theatres, or a couple of places with those ticket spitting obsenities. Endless Arcade, Quarters, Wizards 1 & 2, Videoland, Endless Amusements, The Silverball, Ace, and Baileys all died many years ago. If u know of another 1 here that I don't, please share!

& bitching is 1 of the few things I'm good at. 

[CheffoJeffo]

Sorry -- I should have been clearer -- London is the home of the greatest number of collectors and available machines that I am aware of.

[CheffoJeffo]

also, to re-iterate, there's nothing wrong with collecting awesome things like vinyl albums or arcade machines, but there's definitely nothing wrong with convenience.

Convenience is awesome.  I have unlimited music available at my fingertips and I can play most any classic arcade game anywhere I want.  I wouldn't want to go back. But understand there's a HUGE difference between having a record (or CD) collection and having a drive full of MP3s much in the same way collecting original hardware is way different than having thousands of MAME roms at your disposal.

What I think a lot of younger generations can't appreciate is the thrill of the hunt. Time was I had to scour the record stores to complete gaps in my record and CD collections. Nowadays, you can just hop on the internet and buy anything you need without breaking a sweat. No challenge = less appreciation.

I know it sounds silly and it may be hard to explain, but it's really satisfying to find that "holy grail" you've been searching for. So much so, I think, that I'm collecting consoles and cartridges and am actively avoiding playing their emulated counterparts (even the legal ones like Wii VC). It's the whole package, not just the "information" stored therein. Popping in the cartridge, sitting on the couch with the original controller, looking at the artwork - stuff like that paints your nostalgic haze better than just loading a file on your computer.

Then again - I'm old.   

This.

The information != the experience.

[brad808]

Ya got that right. Even the 30 year old CD standard wasn't all that great. 44.1khz sampling just kinda guesses above 15k or so. You only end up with a sample or 2...not much to go on.

DVD audio coulda been the "fix" for it, but MP3 had already begun its tenure and 90% of "music fans" didn't care about the increase in sound quality, so it died quietly. Damn shame...

I used to transfer vinyl to quarter inch tape (3M 226) on a Revox A77. Now *that* was quality sound.

I completely agree that nobody cares about sound quality now but I cringed a little when I read this "Ya got that right. Even the 30 year old CD standard wasn't all that great. 44.1khz sampling just kinda guesses above 15k or so. You only end up with a sample or 2...not much to go on." Yikes thats wrong!

I'm sure nobody cares but here are some links to correct it. The bottom line is we can accurately capture any frequency that is half of the sampling rate being used. ie you could capture any and all frequencies ACCURATELY up 10khz if you are using a 20khz sampling rate. So with a sampling rate of 44.1khz we can accurately capture frequencies up to 22.05khz.

http://www.lavryengineering.com/forum_images/Digital_Audio.pdf
http://www.lavryengineering.com/documents/Sampling_Theory.pdf (This one is mainly about using higher sampling frequencies such as 192 khz in audio but its still got some good information in it)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist%E2%80%93Shannon_sampling_theorem

[boardjunkie]

Accruately? Not bloody likely. Do the math....with a 44.1khz sampling rate, how many samples do you get at 20khz?

And how do you think a complex waveform will be represented at that frequency?

[lcmgadgets]

Sorry -- I should have been clearer -- London is the home of the greatest number of collectors and available machines that I am aware of.

Really? It's news to me!...any contacts u could share?

[brad808]

Accruately? Not bloody likely. Do the math....with a 44.1khz sampling rate, how many samples do you get at 20khz?

And how do you think a complex waveform will be represented at that frequency?

Based on what? Where is any proof that you cannot accurately sample a frequency of half the sampling rate? If you bother to read you will see that it has been proven for YEARS that it can be done and is done. Its the math that all digital audio is based on. Just read. Implying that because there are less sample points at 20khz it cannot be accurately be captured/ recreated PERFECTLY with a 44.1khz sampling rate is simply wrong (any A/D, D/A imperfections aside). Flat out wrong. The math to do this has literally been around since the 1930s.

In case you somehow missed it the first time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist%E2%80%93Shannon_sampling_theorem

[CoryBee]

The math to do this has literally been around since the 1930s.

Don't argue with fools.

also, don't stick your junk in crazy

[mytymaus007]

yap yap  anyway what does this guy do to afford 160 cabs/pins each at least $1000 each thats $160k thats seems like its more then his house is worth. I hope he has fire insurance

[Gray_Area]

yap yap  anyway what does this guy do to afford 160 cabs/pins each at least $1000 each thats $160k thats seems like its more then his house is worth.

Especially as he said he couldn't afford a Pac machine at the outset. Something changed. Also, that house didn't look as big as Hirshberg's arcade barn, which only has/had about 80 machines, so how does he fit them all?

[boardjunkie]

"As the frequency of an incoming signal increases, the shorter period will be represented by fewer samples, until, at 20 kHz, the reproduced waveform is represented as a square wave."

As quoted from this article:
http://jthz.com/mp3/CD-44100Hz.htm

[brad808]

"As the frequency of an incoming signal increases, the shorter period will be represented by fewer samples, until, at 20 kHz, the reproduced waveform is represented as a square wave."

As quoted from this article:
http://jthz.com/mp3/CD-44100Hz.htm

Your trying to prove something that you cannot prove. That one particular sentence is talking about sampling at 40khz. You linked to a dumbed down article that clearly states the exact same thing as the articles that I linked (which show you the proof using math).

---fudgesicle--- it, go on thinking that digital audio works by guessing sample points above 15khz.