Stu News and Photos

My name is Stu and I am here to share what I can.

10:26 PM

Dream Home Arcades

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I can't begin to explain the coolness factor of your own video arcade machine in your own garage. It's like Geek To The Sixth Power, at least.

You've seen this pic of my new machine. I'll take more later.

I got the machine through Dream Home Arcades. They are fantastic. Basically, you give them a vague idea of your fantasy video arcade from the 80s, and they build it for you. Brilliant!

There are other video arcade machines on the market. They may look slick, and they may be sold by big companies, but they are nothing compared to the machine custom-created by Dream Home Arcades. For example, they build you the cabinet that you want (out of what seems like over a dozen different styles). And, even more importantly, it's a multi-game system, with over 900 different arcade games from the 1980's. That's a crazy number of games! I'll be spending months just exploring all the different games. No other arcade machine catalog can touch Dream Home Arcades.

Also, their customer service is perfect. No matter what question I had, even before I bought it, was met with a smile and a clear response. And after delivery, when I had a question about switching between 4-way and 8-way direction on the joysticks, they were incredibly patient.

And as for the machine's artwork, it was done by Mame Marquees, where I took a totally ripped-off Frank Zappa pic (from the Zappa website - I'm a criminal...) and they added the lightning and did all this other art to dress the machine beautifully. And for the folks who are not in the know, there's a Zappa quote from 1974 or so that says "Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny." If you look closely at the marquee of the machine, it says a bastardized version: "Video Arcades Aren't Dead, They Just Smell Funny."

Feel free to stop by and play a few games, and this time, leave your quarters behind.

9 Comments:

Stu said...

Fun House!!! Thim, I am not kidding you, of all the pinball machines I've played, the one I came closest to actually buying was Fun House.

As for the floor-wiping in air hockey, well, you can be brave, as you live so far away. But I must warn you that I'm no slouch (Oh that's not true, Stu, you're a heck of a slouch). We live near a variety of arcades with air hockey and the kids keep my game up.

Thanks for reading, and for the compliment on my new machine. :-)

Anonymous said...

You do realize they *sold* you illegal stuff that you could have just downloaded right?

Go look around at:
www.mamedev.org

Unknown said...

Do you have any videos of the boot-up and interface / menus? What kind of hardware is inside? They state they don't use Windows or Linux to run MAME like most of their machines, but they also don't fully explain what they are using. Before spending so much money it would be great to know

Stu said...

John, I don't have any vids, but maybe I could make one - If I get around to it, I'll post them. And certainly you're invited to come to the house and check it out for yourself.

Unknown said...

If you could post up some video's of the the boot up, menus, and what's inside (IE computer) that would be awesome. I'd totally drop by the house, if I wasn't in California. Thanks for the invite though, much appreciated.

Stu said...

I'm in Los Angeles.

Unknown said...

For some reason I thought you were in another state. Anyhow I'm in area as well. I do I get you an email without posting it here for all posterity. =)

Unknown said...

For some reason I thought you were in another state. Anyhow I'm in area as well. I do I get you an email without posting it here for all posterity. =)

Stu said...

stumark AT verizon DOT net

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