# Who Brings Arcade Games To Conventions? Dave of Psychic Drive does. Ep 171

**Source:** Indie Arcade Wave  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-08-25  
**Duration:** 42m 41s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND11e1oU618

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## Analysis

Dave of Psychic Drive discusses his work bringing curated arcade game collections to conventions and events. He explains how he transitioned from volunteering at MAGFest with a single cabinet to operating a 26-foot box truck with 18-19 games that travels to major events like Games Done Quick, QuakeCon, and Anime New York. His curation strategy focuses on unique controllers, rare titles, audience-specific selections, and supporting indie game developers.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Dave started with one arcade cabinet and volunteered at MAGFest in 2016, which led to expanding his collection and creating Psychic Drive as a convention game provider. — _Dave directly describes his origin story, starting with one cabinet and volunteering at MAGFest in 2016._
- [HIGH] Psychic Drive operates a 26-foot box truck with approximately 18-19 arcade games for conventions. — _Dave states: 'the lowest we'll do for like you know if you if you're hearing this and you reach out for a quote we bring a 26 foot box truck of games. So, what I'm trying to do over time is evolve um does this does this like let's say we we average about 18 to 19 games on that truck.'_
- [HIGH] Dave focuses on games with unique controllers and rare titles that people cannot easily experience at home, such as DDR, Monkey Ball, and F-Zero arcade. — _Dave explains his curation philosophy: 'I'm very interested in games that have like unique controllers and things that like maybe you can't experience easily at your house.'_
- [HIGH] Arcade game prices were significantly lower in 2016-2017, with broken cabinets available for under $500. — _Dave states: 'It was a lot different in like 2016, 2017 as far as pricing for like just games in general, arcade games. I think they were still kind of on the low end of Oh, you could Yeah, you could really pick up a cabinet that needs work for, you know, less than 500 bucks.'_
- [HIGH] Multiple indie arcade groups collaborate at major conventions, with each bringing different game types (rhythm games, Japanese games, classics, pinballs) to create a cohesive experience. — _Dave describes the collaborative model: 'we're all technically competitors, but we're all friends in the way of like when we put on a show it feels like a cohesive thing where sometimes people don't even really understand that there's like three or four groups at a lot of the shows that we do.'_
- [HIGH] Portal pinball machine (P3 system) will be displayed at QuakeCon in Texas, with Dave coordinating based on proximity to Multimorphic's location. — _Dave states: 'we will have the portal pinball machine there, and that's something that is like brand new. So, I'm very excited to kind of learn about the P3. Uh, it's kind of a coincidental thing where like I realized that they are in Texas and Quon is in Texas.'_
- [HIGH] Joe (the host) is selling Stern pinballs through Compulsive Pinball with competitive pricing for distributors and home collectors. — _Joe states in the introduction: 'I am selling for Stern now with Compulsive Pinball. We have competitive prices for distributors as well as home collectors.'_
- [HIGH] Psychic Drive recently acquired a Deathball arcade cabinet at Midwest Gaming Classic. — _Joe mentions: 'I know you just picked up a deathball at Midwest Gaming Classic pretty recently' and Dave acknowledges acquiring games including Deathball at that event._

### Notable Quotes

> "I'm very interested in games that have like unique controllers and things that like maybe you can't experience easily at your house."
> — **Dave**, ~8:00
> _Explains core curation philosophy that drives Psychic Drive's game selection strategy._

> "we're all technically competitors, but we're all friends in the way of like when we put on a show it feels like a cohesive thing"
> — **Dave**, ~18:30
> _Describes the collaborative ecosystem among indie arcade operators despite competition for cabinet space and audience._

> "it's not like our only focus. like uh right over here is video pinball uh from Atari and that's like from 1978 and um you know it's just an interesting game. So like it doesn't have to be a Japanese imported cabinet"
> — **Dave**, ~42:00
> _Clarifies that collection strategy is about arcade diversity and rarity, not just Japanese games or trends._

> "I don't need this many cabinets, you know. Um I I can't possibly play them all and so, you know, sharing them with people is is the number one thing."
> — **Dave**, ~37:00
> _Reveals underlying motivation: community access and sharing rare games over personal collection._

> "There's nothing worse than like going up to a game trying to hit start and then realizing that like it's broken without re you know without really getting any indication."
> — **Dave**, ~25:30
> _Emphasizes importance of uptime and machine reliability at conventions, a key operational challenge._

> "it's a lot of it kind of like like I try not to like proactively say okay we're going to spend this money there because like what if something happens"
> — **Dave**, ~50:00
> _Shows pragmatic approach to capital allocation driven by operational uncertainty._

> "Seeing seeing everyone, you know, showing off, you know, what they've made in the indie section is so cool. Like it's one of my favorite areas."
> — **Dave**, ~33:00
> _Demonstrates passion for indie game discovery and community support, a key value driver._

> "I was like oh my god like it was probably really you know really really just like great to to see just how much like all squeeze all that passion into like those couple expo halls"
> — **Joe**, ~30:00
> _Reflects on the concentration of indie arcade passion at MAGFest as a unique community phenomenon._

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Dave | person | Founder/operator of Psychic Drive, a convention-based arcade game collection curator. Started with one cabinet in 2016, now operates a 26-foot truck with 18-19 games traveling to major events. |
| Joe | person | Host of 'Today in the Scene' podcast by Indie Arcade Wave. Works as a Stern Pinball distributor through Compulsive Pinball. |
| Psychic Drive | company | Dave's arcade game curation and convention service company. Brings collections of rare and unique arcade cabinets to gaming events, conventions, and festivals. |
| MAGFest | event | Music and Gaming Festival, described as one of the largest gatherings of arcade game providers and indie arcade enthusiasts. Where Dave began volunteering in 2016 with his first cabinet. |
| Games Done Quick | event | Week-long speedrunning event where Psychic Drive will provide arcade games. Originated at MAGFest and moved to a basement project before becoming a major charity event. |
| QuakeCon | event | One of the oldest LAN parties held in Texas. Psychic Drive will bring Portal pinball machine (P3 system) to this event. |
| Anime New York | event | New York-based anime convention. Psychic Drive will bring Kung Fu Kickball arcade cabinet for this event. |
| Midwest Gaming Classic | event | Gaming convention where Psychic Drive recently acquired Deathball and coordinated with Kung Fu Kickball creator. |
| Save Point | organization | Arcade group that Dave worked with at MAGFest in 2016. Part of the community of arcade providers at major conventions. |
| Arcade Commons | company | Indie arcade group that provides games at conventions like MAGFest alongside other operators. |
| Wonderville | company | Indie arcade group that brings one-off indie games to conventions like MAGFest. |
| Credits Remaining | company | Arcade operator led by Andrew who travels between Midwest events bringing arcade collections. |
| Offworld Arcade | company | Local Detroit-area arcade that partnered with Psychic Drive for the 'Mop' music venue event. |
| Portal | game | Video game IP receiving a pinball adaptation on the P3 (Multimorphic) platform. Will debut at QuakeCon. |
| Kung Fu Kickball | game | Indie arcade game created by Jonah, who lives in New York. Psychic Drive is bringing it to Anime New York event. |
| Deathball | game | Arcade game recently acquired by Psychic Drive at Midwest Gaming Classic. |
| Jonah | person | Creator of Kung Fu Kickball indie arcade game, based in New York. Coordinating with Psychic Drive for demonstrations. |
| Multimorphic | company | Pinball platform manufacturer (P3 system) creating modular pinball machines like Portal. Located in Texas. |
| Compulsive Pinball | company | Joe's Stern Pinball distribution company offering competitive pricing for new and used machines to distributors and home collectors. |
| Indie Arcade Wave | company | Podcast network and content platform producing 'Today in the Scene' and covering indie arcade and pinball industry. |
| Logan Arcade | venue | Local arcade venue that Psychic Drive visits during travel time to observe game collections and operational approaches. |
| Chris | person | Convention attendee who brought pinballs and indie games to MAGFest alongside Starport. |
| Starport | company | Arcade operator that brings pinballs and indie games to conventions. |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Convention arcade provisioning and curation, Indie arcade game community and culture, Rare and unique arcade cabinet acquisition
- **Secondary:** Arcade game maintenance and reliability at events, Collaborative vs. competitive dynamics among arcade operators, P3 pinball platform adoption and Portal pinball, Audience-specific game selection strategies
- **Mentioned:** Arcade pricing and market trends (2016-2024)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Dave and Joe express genuine enthusiasm for the arcade community, indie games, and convention culture. Dave's passion for sharing rare games and supporting indie creators is evident throughout. Joe expresses excitement about meeting Dave and learning about the convention arcade space. No criticism or negativity is present; the tone is collegial and celebratory of community work.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Multiple indie arcade operators (Save Point, Arcade Commons, Wonderville, Credits Remaining, Psychic Drive) coordinate at major conventions, sharing space and audience while maintaining distinct game curation specialties. (confidence: high) — Dave describes the collaborative model: 'we're all technically competitors, but we're all friends... sometimes people don't even really understand that there's like three or four groups at a lot of the shows.'
- **[event_signal]** Arcade game provisioning at conventions has grown substantially since 2016, with sophisticated curation strategies and multi-operator coordination becoming standard practice at major events. (confidence: high) — Dave notes he was 'very far from the first person to do this' even in 2016, and describes evolved practices like spare parts, uptime focus, and audience-specific curation.
- **[market_signal]** Arcade cabinet prices were significantly lower in 2016-2017, with damaged/broken machines available for under $500, compared to current higher prices. (confidence: high) — Dave states: 'It was a lot different in like 2016, 2017 as far as pricing... you could really pick up a cabinet that needs work for, you know, less than 500 bucks. And I I don't know if it's exactly like that today.'
- **[design_philosophy]** Dave's curation philosophy prioritizes games with unique/physical controllers that differentiate arcade play from home console experience (DDR metal pads, Monkey Ball banana controller, F-Zero steering wheel). (confidence: high) — Dave explains: 'I'm very interested in games that have like unique controllers and things that like maybe you can't experience easily at your house.'
- **[operational_signal]** Convention arcade operators bring spare parts and focus on high uptime, proactively removing broken machines from floors to maintain experience quality. (confidence: high) — Dave states: 'We do have branding on the cabinets... we try really hard to do is uh bring a lot of spare parts and have like really good uptime because there's nothing worse than like going up to a game trying to hit start and then realizing that like it's broken.'
- **[product_launch]** Portal pinball machine (P3/Multimorphic platform) will have a public debut or showcase at QuakeCon in Texas in August. (confidence: medium) — Dave states: 'we will have the portal pinball machine there, and that's something that is like brand new. So, I'm very excited to kind of learn about the P3.'
- **[venue_signal]** Psychic Drive has expanded from operating at regional Midwest events to major national conventions (Games Done Quick, QuakeCon, Anime New York), indicating growth of convention arcade provisioning market. (confidence: high) — Dave describes upcoming shows across multiple regions and notes surprise at expansion: 'I never thought we'd be doing things like that either, but um that one we're going to be bringing Kung Fu Kickball.'
- **[content_signal]** Joe is actively monetizing podcast through Stern Pinball distribution (Compulsive Pinball), offering new/used machines and advertising availability on the show. (confidence: high) — Joe states in opening: 'if you're looking to bring a new pinball into your collection, let me know. I am selling for Stern now with Compulsive Pinball.'
- **[industry_signal]** Successful indie arcade games like Kung Fu Kickball and Deathball are transitioning from project/prototype status to physically produced, shippable cabinets for convention circulation. (confidence: high) — Dave explains: 'it's always cool to travel and see, you know, which local arcades kind of have at least a taste of this stuff... there have been some success stories and it's it's always cool to travel and see which indie games kind of transcends project status and gets into this is a cabinet that you can buy.'
- **[personnel_signal]** Growing network of indie arcade game creators and convention arcade operators forming a collaborative community with structured roles (game creators, hardware providers, operators, volunteers). (confidence: medium) — Dave describes meeting 'a group called Save Point' and other operators at MAGFest, and coordinating with indie game creators like Jonah for demos and tours.

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## Transcript

Hey yo, welcome everyone to Today in the Scene by Indie Arcade Wave. I'm Joe, your host. And here on In the Scene, we dive into what's happening in the arcade space from indie arcade developers, arcade owners and operators, pinball, and just news in the space in general. Now, if you're looking to bring a new pinball into your collection, let me know. I am selling for Stern now with Compulsive Pinball. We have competitive prices for distributors as well as home collectors. And that's any new or previous Stern. We have new and used. So, if you need either of those, reach out to me at indiearchcadewave.com and we will get you that pin. And Ice Gold Beer and Food Fight Frenzy are available now for purchase as well. Now, we've got an awesome guest this week. He is a supporter of the indie arcade scene and also kind of an interesting space in the arcade space. You know, you think about people that have games and run arcades, but have you really thought about the people that bring games to conventions? Like, that's I feel like they're kind of unsung heroes. you know, like you get to go to this convention and play games for free for the whole weekend, but how did they get there? So, we've got Dave from Psychic Drive with us. How you doing, Dave?
Hey, great. How are you?
I'm fantastic. I'm excited to talk to you. Um, I know you just picked up a deathball at Midwest Gaming Classic pretty recently and uh feels I feel like you keep adding a bunch of games. So, first off, let's just let's just dive into who's Dave, like kind of how did you get into the arcade space? So, I got started. Um, it was kind of like a accidental get into the scene. Um, you know, I I had an arcade machine in my house and I thought, well, um, this now qualifies me to volunteer for an event that I've been interested in some time. Uh, it's going to be a familiar event to a lot of people. Uh, Magfest, which is the music and gaming festival. So, I show up there and I see just how many arcade machines are there. Um, it it kind of blew my mind as someone who had gone to a lot of events without a free play arcade at them. So, it kind of just like flipped my world upside down of, oh, there are events that have free play arcades at them. how do I be able to, you know, like how do I how do I go to more of them? And that kind of led to, you know, transforming out of, you know, a volunteer role to really increasing the the collection that I started with one cabinet that, you know, thank goodness I I had bought that one cabinet because it uh, you know, it it was the reason that I ended up going to Magfest that year. But, you know, it it kind of evolved over time of like, well, I really like event work, but you know, maybe volunteer, you know, like doing volunteer stuff, you you don't get like a steady stream of it or um it's tough to like explain how like after a while I was like, "Oh, yeah, like if I curate my collection, then, you know, I can kind of, you know, show like different things that I find, you know, really interesting about our arcade machines. Uh, for example, the the first game that I ever bought was uh Virtual On, and it's because I didn't really like the the home controller that you could have with the twin joysticks. So, I'm very interested in games that have like unique controllers and things that like maybe you can't experience easily at your house. So, like if you don't buy a metal DDR pad, you know, you've got a DDR machine and it's like, okay, the arcade version of it is very like it sits there, you know, like it's it's difficult to move compared to some of them, but once it gets there, it's it's its own experience unless you buy used arcade hardware you can't really get in your home very easily. So, I think that's kind of a a nice way of like trying to give an overview of like, okay, I got super into this about eight years ago and it has clearly not been a fad, you know, for me of, hey, let's learn this hobby and then a year later say, oh, let's move on to maybe something else. Like, I was kind of thinking about getting into photography and then Ed Boon, arcades. So, and it's, you know, it's been eight years. So, and it's been fun. It's fun work. I think is the the most important part of it is it it keeps it interesting.
Yeah. I mean, just going off what you said, Magfest, awesome show. I went to it for the first time this year. Absolutely loved it. Um, you're so right about arcade cabinets that have unique controls as opposed to a joystick. I mean, I can see that monkey ball on the back. Like, you've got the banana controller. That's something you
you would never have that at home, right? Like, you would never be able to play the game like that. And just like you said with DDR, like that solid metal pad is so different than playing on those like soft like plastic foam pads that you get in the box. It's it's not even the same game. And and that's such a good point because you have a large collection of rhythm games that you bring. You've got a handful of indie games. You've got a lot of like very unique stuff that you bring to these shows. So let's talk about kind of how you got into your first show. So you started collecting everything, right? And then right
did someone reach out to you? Did you reach out to a show and say, "Hey, I want to bring games." How did that all happen?
So there's like um when I when I was So the first show when I volunteered for Magfest, it was 2016 and like I said, I had one arcade cabinet, which when you want to volunteer and they give you the spreadsheet, you you select what you're interested in. So, um, you know, arcades is one of those things and thankfully, you know, that's where I got put. But you can see, um, there's already there was already like I'm very far from the first person to do this, right? So, you know, when I went there, I was working with a group called Save Point. And then there was other groups that I met. Most of them are still providing arcade machines today, but it was kind of like an introduction to a community that, as you kind of mentioned during the intro, is like a very unless you know what goes on. Like a lot of people don't understand even Yeah. where the cabinets come from. Um, we do have branding on the cabinets to kind of like, you know, when we do a show with everyone, we try and put all the games that belong together with each other. So, we have the little stickers to kind of say, "Hey, like, you know, we brought this game if you're interested. Uh, here's a link to our Discord or Instagram on on the cabinet." You know, a lot of people don't see that stuff. Um, and they enjoy the game, which is cool, but at the end of it, yeah, they don't know where it came from. So, um, I was introduced to, you know, Magfest is one of the largest gatherings of these types of people. So, very quickly just by being interested and saying, "Hey, how does this work? How does that work?" Like, I never had to work on my own arcade game before I volunteered to go there. And I was not a tech at that time. And I was not, they were not giving me tech work to do at that, you know what I That's stuff that I picked up then by saying, "Oh, let's let's buy more games and then, oh, hey, you can you can get a deal if you buy a broken game." And it was a lot different in like 20 2016, 2017 as far as pricing for like just games in general, arcade games. I think they were still kind of on the low end of Oh, you could Yeah, you could really pick up a cabinet that needs work for, you know, less than 500 bucks. And I I don't know if it's exactly like that today, but that's a good advice for learning is um all the information is available online. You know, if you especially if if you can't find it, you make a post on a forum or you know, if you're introduced to a community of people who will help, you know, there there's always there's always someone who's willing to kind of help you troubleshoot through something as long as you're like polite and respectful of their time. Um, so getting introduced to the people that had already been doing this type of work was I guess to bring it back to the question is I knew I wanted to reach out to shows once I had enough games to provide and the framework of it was already kind of like I was able to say, "Okay, I I see how this person does it and I see how this person does it and I like this little part of it, But I don't want to do that part that way, you know, and kind of built how do I want to do it? What games do I want to bring? And when I buy games, I'm generally mindful that very few shows are just um myself and my team. There's a lot of shows where it's a very big group effort. Um so you want to kind of pick pick things up. Like when I bought that monkey ball, there wasn't another one that I knew of that was traveling. You know what I'm saying? So you keep you kind of like we're all we're all technically competitors, but we're all friends in the way of like when we put on a show it feels like a cohesive thing where sometimes people don't even really understand that there's like three or four groups at a lot of the shows that we do.
Yeah, that's I mean that's a great point. Like just thinking about it, like going to Magfest this year, I went with Starport and Chris um and he brought you know he brought pinballs but he brought a ton of indie games too and then just to our side was like Arcade Commons and and Wonderville and they had a huge collection of like oneoff indie games and then um you guys were there this year, right?
Yes. Yes. Uh I um I think it was
seventh or eighth year in a row. It's tough to remember exactly, but it's eight years for the business, but yes. Um Okay. Sorry.
Oh, yeah. I mean, it's it's like and then I I know like Andrew at Credits Remaining, I see him at a lot of shows, and you know, there's there's this group, especially in the Midwest, that kind of travels from show to show to show. And it's not usually one person supplying the whole arcade. It's usually three, four people filling these spaces. And I think it's so cool that you're right, like you guys are kind of competitors, but you're also friends like in business. So there's this cohesion between, well, these guys have a lot of rhythm games, these guys have a lot of Japanese guy games, these guys have a lot of classics and pinballs, and it just kind of all comes together and culminates into this really cool free play arcade. So on that vein, like what are games that you focus on? Because I know every every uh operator in this space kind of has a focus, but I know you have you have a pretty wide collection. So what games are you on the hunt for right now? And what games do you kind of bring to to conventions mostly? So, um I think I think what I've been doing uh is um since you know like like uh like you mentioned um knowing that they're going to be together. There are games that it's okay to double up on. for example, um you can never really have uh well, I guess depending on the size of the show, but a good rule of thumb is um if you have multiples of a certain game that's really popular, then the lines will go down. If you, you know, group them all together, people can kind of form a single queue and then when they get up front, they can go to different games. So, there's a couple uh staples as far as like rhythm games that um that I think we all have one or two of. Um for a while, the most popular one was Ube. It's the one where you like push the squares. It's got 16 squares. Really approachable. I think there's there's a difference between there's a level of like intimidation to some of the to some of the Japanese games. So, I think what I've tried to do is um really kind of like narrow down what types of games fit in um the lowest we'll do for like you know if you if you're hearing this and you reach out for a quote we bring a 26 foot box truck of games. So, what I'm trying to do over time is evolve um does this does this like let's say we we average about 18 to 19 games on that truck. Does it truly have a wide range of like genres? Is there at least going to be two puzzle games? Um you can't go wrong with like Tetris Grandmaster. Even though it's kind of like hardcore, people still understand what Tetris is and they, you know, they like seeing a little bit of familiarity. So, it's kind of balancing it with like staples and then oh, what's like the oddball game we're going to bring this time. So, one that I just picked up that I, you know, very excited about is called Rhythm Tang Goku. And I think a lot of people recognize that as Rhythm Heaven, uh, which, you know, there were some released in America for like the Nintendo DS and things like that, but it's it's it's just always kind of jarring to see Nintendo and Sega like on the arcade machine together. I think F-Zero is one that it's a rare machine, but it's it's still approachable. You sit down and you grab it's a futuristic steering wheel, but you know, you're you're piloting a super fast race car. So, it's like trying to trying to pick one thing from each genre and then um you know, just throwing in a little bit, you know, I call like all the spice of like Monkey Ball is perfect example like you said in the background. the amount of people that like do a double take because the controller is a physical banana is um that's that's worth bringing it out just by itself, but it helps that the games themselves are super fun. So, I think it's it's just about um evolving the experience as I kind of see what people go for and what they don't. Like, it's a mix of my own taste and what people are kind of asking for, if that makes sense. So, um, as far as picking and choosing which games are like, oh, these are these are the hot ones right now, it's tough because, uh, at this point, like I think more about, um, just like the room in general than each individual title sometimes. So, I think I'll I'll throw it back to you to kind of like uh, give it some more give give the question more direction. Yeah, I mean you're right. Like there there's a lot of ways that you can look at this question. And I think
one way is like by show, you know, like if if you go to a magfest, you're going to have a completely different audience than if you're going to like an anime show or a comic book show. And if you're going to an anime show, you're going to bring a lot of Japanese stuff. Like that's just that's just what it is. You know, they're going to want the rhythm games. They're going to want the the Japanese style games, the initial D's and stuff like that.
But if you go to like a Magfest, you know, you can bring more classics. you can bring more oddities because the indie section there is massive. They want weird games that they've never seen. Like people go specifically for that and it was
it was incredible to meet the indie community there. They're
yes
I haven't seen that many indie games in one room like ever and that's like what I love. it. That's why I couldn't I you know I try not to interject um something I've been working on but when you said it was your first year going I was like oh my god like it was probably really you know really really just like great to to see just how much like all squeeze all that passion into like those couple expo halls and it's just like it's something you can't really replicate. So that and and what's nice is, you know, now that I can say, okay, well, yeah, I've been, you know, saying to everyone, I can never miss Magfest, you know, like um it's it's part of the reason that we got started and so we always have to go, but it's it's very much um like a community uh space. So, you know, seeing seeing everyone, you know, showing off, you know, what they've made in the indie section is so cool. Like it's one of my favorite areas. And then we always do think like, yeah, how can we how can we bring a little piece of this with us, which is where buying uh games like Death Ball comes in and um saying, "Hey, this deserves a spot right along with all the other games in this row, you So, I think being part of that has been something that I didn't even really like think would happen, but has kind of found its way into like, oh, you know, like this is something that we do is we help people discover really fun games to play. So that's something that uh yeah, honestly I'm just kind of like thankful for because it's it is um you know playing a game with somebody is really something that like I make new friends every every single event that we do. Like maybe I'll sit down and play Hyperbishi Bashi with them or I'll say, "Hey, like you know, have have you guys checked out that one over there? That's like that's one of my favorite ones that I brought, you know, like I don't always need to like do it like a humble brag way, but you know, like kind of just like guiding people into because they're all free. That's a nice part about the event is if if we're getting our flat rate to be there that, you know, the attendees don't have to worry about, oh well, is this going to be worth my dollar?" Just have a fun time. So, I think that's something that's really important about events that a lot of people don't really think about when you're thinking about like what is what is the event scene, you know, like how does that fit into arcade culture as a whole? And I think it's really changed, you know, in when I first started it wasn't as common. like we'll we'll reach out and find ways to get to different shows like uh here in Detroit we did uh a concert called Mop where you know they had a a hardwood floor brought in but it the games were in like a tent and we partnered with our local friend Offworld Arcade to do that um two truckloads into a tent at a at a music venue you know so we've really tried to think outside the box of like where can we put these? But to like bring it back to what you were saying is we definitely consider the audience. Uh so we've you know by even even changing out some of the games in the games, you know, uh the candy cabs can you can change out the board. So if we do a Comic-Con, we're like, "All right, we got to put some of the other X-Men versus Street Fighter in here. We got to put the Spider-Man video game in there cuz that's what you know, you want to see somebody dressed up as Spider-Man sitting down playing the Spider-Man cabinet, you know? So, I think just yeah, knowing your knowing the audience and just uh kind of like picking from everything that is available, which makes it hard because you ask what games I'm in the hunt for and it's like gez like I could win the lottery and buy everything, you know, like they're, you know, they all they all good. So I think that's the toughest part is really deciding.
Yeah, I think that's that's absolutely true because you know you're going to want to change and and depending on the audience that you're bringing the games to, it's going to be a completely different selection. How does that work? Like it so you get your flat rate right as a as somebody that's bringing games.
Does the convention say, "Hey, we want this game, this game, this game." And you give them a list or do they say this is kind of the idea we want and you pick the games? It's about 5050 as far as um every event's different. So, um you know, you're going to talk to a different point of contact at every single show and then you kind of have to feel out um I I definitely try and be as flexible as possible. So, I'm not going to say, "Hey, we can't do that unless it's something like physically impossible or that game's broken right now. I'm so sorry." Um because another thing we try really hard to do is uh bring a lot of spare parts and have like really good uptime because there's nothing worse than like going up to a game trying to hit start and then realizing that like it's broken without re you know without really getting any indication. So it's like if a game breaks we'll we'll take it off the floor if we can so people don't have to see it broken. Um it's kind of like part of like the the illusion, you know, that oh no, there's never any problems or oh you can see us work at the staff table. But uh back to the question of do we I I think knowing what we can offer. were kind of like let's let's pick your core games that you want to see there from the list and then use that to try and then build out as I was saying earlier the well we got to have a puzzle game in here because you know what if someone is um tagging along and they they really don't they're not interested in these fighting games that we have or they're intimidated by the music games but they will sit down and play puzzle bobble. So, like, you know, I think I think it's our job to kind of round that list out or at least offer suggestions uh based on the request list of, okay, well, you if it's this type of event, you know, could we have one or two slots just to like really make sure we can say, hey, there's something for everybody in the room.
I I love that. I think that's really cool that it's like, you know, event based and everybody's a little bit different and sometimes you get a little bit more play with what you get to bring. And
um fixing them on location is a big deal. Like I think that's something that's very overlooked by people that go to conventions. Like people will complain that like, oh, this game's broken, that game's broken. It's like
they brought 40 games and they brought parts to try to fix everything. You don't always expect your steering wheel to break, you know? Like it's there there's some things that you you just can't plan for, you know, even if you bulletproof the cabinet, you put it in a truck, you drove it a couple hundred miles, it got shook around, like things happen, right?
Um
Exactly.
So, what does your schedule look like moving forward? Like what kind of events do you have in the future and where are you guys going to be?
Uh so we are going to do Summer Games DoneQuick is our next show. That one's uh really great because it's a week long, which is just like totally different from the the weekend events that we would normally do. So, we kind of get a little bit more of time to actually just like relax and and kind of enjoy what we what we've built, you know, and um so we're Yes. Yes, definitely. And I think um we've struck a good balance on a normal show of doing that, but a week long really is just like okay, like it almost does feel like maybe a vacation, but it is for charitable cause. And the arcades on site are a really nice way for the people who are involved in the event, you know, working, you know, when they're not on their ship, they want to come blow some steam or just, you know, have some fun with their friends. And, you know, same thing for the people who are doing the the speed running and anything else. It's a really nice space for them to kind of either make some new friends in their community or just, you know, like relax and not maybe if they're stressed about their upcoming run or anything like that. It's just it's nice to be able to kind of be that little uh place for people to escape to within within the event. And it's always great to to be able to know that, you know, okay, well, this is a show that we do, you know, we don't ask for our full rate. We have to cover our costs of course but you know it is for charity so that's another thing that when I started I was aware of what games onquick was but like did I think we would be bringing the collection there like you know like it's difficult to look back and say like oh yeah well um I guess yeah that would have been you know that that is it is happening now but like to to go back and tell myself that when I was like buying my third cabinet or something would be like whoa really like that like we're just humbled to be a part of something like that. So, and it makes it a lot easier to to do the work I would say is um you know, just just seeing people enjoy the games as I think I've mentioned already, but um I don't need this many cabinets, you know. Um I I can't possibly play them all and so, you know, sharing them with people is is the number one thing. But it's cool because like you can bring stuff that people don't normally see even if they have an arcade in in their town already. Um because we try and focus on like rare rare weird stuff. It's like okay it that does happen to coincide with games that come from Japan, but it's not like our only focus. like uh right over here is video pinball uh from Atari and that's like from 1978 and um you know it's just an interesting game. So like it doesn't have to be a Japanese imported cabinet I think is something that I've learned over time. Like when I started I was like oh okay it's all about anime and it's like no it's kind of all about arcades in general which is why it's so great to see as you mentioned like there are a lot of like people making their own game and when it like kind of transcends like project status and gets into this is a cabinet that you can buy. I mean there, you know, there have been some success stories and it's it's always cool to travel and see, you know, which local arcades kind of have at least a taste of this stuff. That's what we look for when we travel and we go to, you know, um it's funny. We we spend our time off going to places like Logan Arcade, you know, we go to Chicago. It's like, all right, uh, you know, we we don't work on any of these games. And it was nice to just kind of chill out, but it's also kind of like, okay, we're seeing how they do it here and what, you know, what games do they have in their collection. So, it's been cool to kind of see what, you know, different regions do and um, you know, thing. It's the same thing as like when we started um, traveling and I was like, oh, I really like how you like when I help out this team, this happens. We always got to do that. you know what I mean? Like little things here and there. I don't have like perfect examples, but it's it's a it's like a amalgamation of of everything that I've seen. So, traveling and seeing other arcades has been something that's been like super helpful for that. Um, so that's kind of our focus as far as the next show coming up because it is a week long, it is two truckloads and it is like, you know, important to us to do like a really good job for that show because it's for a good cause. Um, I think that's, you know, going into after that, we've got in August, we've got QuakeCon, which I do have to really quick, uh, you know, say that, uh, we will have the portal pinball machine there, and that's something that is like brand new. So, I'm very excited to kind of learn about the P3. Uh, it's kind of a coincidental thing where like I realized that they are in Texas and Quon is in Texas. So, I was like, I should see if we could like make something work there. And uh so I'm kind of excited and that's part of I think this job is making things like oh hey I'm going to save on shipping on this uh and see how you can like we were talking about the right audience. It's like I think people that go to Qucon like one of the largest land parties oldest land parties is uh I think they're all going to know what Portal is and be like stoked that they didn't know that it was a pinball machine that was coming out. So um very stoked about things like that. And then um into late August, we've got Anime New York uh which is working in New York City is pretty crazy. I never thought we'd be doing things like that either, but um that one we're going to be bringing Kung Fu Kickball to uh because the creator Jonah lives in New York. So very excited to, you know, kind of be able to say, "Hey, come demo your game here in your hometown." So I think uh we you got an exciting rest of the summer planned. So, I try try to update things on Instagram, but um sometimes I fall behind. Uh if anyone's ever curious what events are we going to be at, I do keep a calendar with the upcoming events on the website and the calendar is always current. The Instagram maybe I'm a little behind sometimes, but I'm really trying. So,
yeah. I I mean there's there's so much to touch on with what you just said there, like the different shows that you're going to. Games Done Quick. Awesome event. It's raised so much money. It's so cool. I just
I just watched a documentary on Amazon about it. How like they were at Magfest and things weren't going well and they just took it to somebody's basement and it it just popped off from there. And
like that's that's such a I mean
the fact that it started at Magfest makes so much sense because then it just became a basement project. And you know, a lot of stuff comes out of there and
I I think that's great. And your your selection is cool. The P3 is a cool system. Not a lot of people are aware of it unless you're in the pinball space and you know have it being a modular system being able to remove the back playfield and put something else in there, change the art up like Portal is going to be a cool one and that is a perfect place to show it off. You're probably saving few hundred on shipping which is great to
Exactly. Yeah. I uh I think that really adds up when you think about like you mentioned earlier in the call of like oh it looks like you guys are adding a lot of games and it's like a lot of it kind of like like I try not to like proactively say okay we're going to spend this money there because like what if something happens perfect example again we knew at Midwest Gaming Classic we were we went there uh we worked with Jonah for from Kung Fu Kickball and said, "Okay, what we can do is because you live in New York and your game is being manufactured in Wisconsin, the shows in Wisconsin, we can leave a few hours earlier and get that all figured out and get your game to the show and then from there we'll take it to other shows." So, like we had that deal all worked out and then we're at the show and you know we're also seeing death ball and those show cabinets are for sale and it's like can we rearrange this truck to put this to put this additional very cool game on the truck and then now that's part of our lineup. So, I think just kind of being open to weird little moves like that that are like, I didn't think we were leaving that show with another cool game, but now we are. And, you know, then other things have happened where and I I think it just as as far as when people ask like, oh, how how has this all worked out? It's like, okay, it's just um if you work with enough people and they're like, "Oh, this person's like passionate like maybe I'll try, you know, like go out go out on a limb and try this." So, like we have a partnership with uh Varcade at Oakland Mall and Jim there uh gave us a little bit of space to start with the collection and then has seen our local community and said, "Oh, wow." Like, okay, let's grow this partnership. So now when we come back remove Gaming Classic, we have a location so that uh you know like I'm in the warehouse now but Kung Fu Kickball and Death Ball are not here. They're you know they're at Oakland Mall where people can go play them anytime they want when we you know obviously I have to put a little notice if we're going to take it to a show which you know it is tough. I wish I had two copies of each game but I can't you know can't quite do that. But um you know being able to tell the creators of both of those games like hey like your game isn't going to just collect dust here in the warehouse in between these events you know it was something that like obviously I I love that but I just never would have been able to say how is all that going to work out. It's just kind of like one thing at a time and then you know you just work with other people to see hey what are you what are you what are you working on? Can I help a little bit with it? you know, like we're like I think that's kind of this like not the secret, but it's um it's definitely how we've been able to have maybe just like a few irons in different fires of uh what what what is actually like new and happening in the scene because if you were to look at just okay, what kind of budget would you need to continue buying games? It doesn't always work out that way. Like I've done a few things where I've done tech work, many many many hours of tech work, but at the end of it ended up with a cabinet. So I I think there's just a lot of with arcade specifically, there's just a lot of ways things can work out. So I've just been very thankful for that. And um I'll be honest, I forgot where the question came from, but um I feel like that puts a nice bow on my tangent because I I I talk on a lot of tangents. I can't help it. So, I'm gonna throw it back to you.
No, I feel like you touched on a really good point there. And like with the arcade space, like there there's there's two things that I really pulled out of that is the community is is great. You can always ask for help. There's always people willing to help. There's always deals to be made. And the commade space is ever changing. Like you go in with a plan and you take six left turns and a right turn and all of a sudden like you're not where you thought you were going to end up, but you got something really cool out of it or you met someone really cool out of it or you have an experience, a friendship, a new connection, whatever it might be.
And these shows are all about community and network building. And it's it's really really cool to see the passion that people have for the space, the games that people have. Like I mean, you said like the F-Zero. I've only seen that in two places. Galp and Ghost and Rick Medina from Arcade Odyssey's personal collection. I've never seen it anywhere else
except at Magfest and it's probably you that brought it. So, like that's such a cool game to bring along to a space like that and and it gives people the opportunity to play a weird rare game. And that's usually what I do at these shows is like I'll go wander through the arcade. I'm not going to play Pac-Man. I'm not going to play Galaga even though it's like my favorite classic game. I'm going to play something I've never seen because I can play it, have a really bad game, and then be like, "Okay, I get it now. I'm gonna start again. I'm gonna figure it out. I'm going to go a little further." And it gives you this flexibility with these shows. And you guys are all over the place. I mean, you're from you're in the Detroit area, but you you know, Milwaukee, New York, you're Chicago, like you're all over the place, and that's that's so cool.
Um, I guess that's that's kind of all that I I had for you. So, go ahead, Dave. Just shout out social medias, let people know where they can find you, follow along, and when they can see you next, because Games DoneQuick is next, right?
Yes, that is next, which is the beginning of July. So, we have an unusual amount of time in June to chill. And I I can't ever control when events are or aren't, but I definitely um the worst feeling ever is to be like, "Oh, I'm so sorry. We're we're booked that weekend." Uh because I'm crazy. I'll do as many I'll do as many shows as as like physically possible. Because as you might have kind of like kind of gleaned from the whole conversation is I will take that money and put it back into cabinets. Just more more cabinets. You know what what I never want to do is um you know kind of just like say okay we're not um innovating is not the right word but just because that's the word that came to mind is because we're it's all all things other people have made and they're all very good. Uh, but it's it's like as far as staleness, like we just we don't want people to say, "Oh, they brought the same stuff as they did last year. Boring." Like I want people to discover new stuff. Uh, so I think when it comes to what what Psychic Drive means as as a brand is like, okay, you're going to like find some kind of unique and cool arcade experience. And um, that's at the end of the day, that's what's important to me. So, as you know, whatever we have to do to keep doing that, we will do. But uh if you want to go to I think Instagram's the the one that we use most. So it's uh Psychic Drive on Instagram. As I mentioned earlier, I am sometimes like right now I'm a little bit behind. I need to make a combo breaker wrap-up post. But uh we love the fighting game community and like that was just that was a special show. I'm really excited to see how we can improve on what we did this year for last year or for next year and just say, "Okay, you guys loved it last year because um like we were able to bring uh we worked with Paradise Arcade on that one and there was like a hundred games in the room. It was crazy." and just like a a very like it felt like a more of like a we built an arcade for this event and like there are varying degrees of like oh you know we're proud of this one or we're proud of that one. So it's like definitely put combo breaker on your calendar next year if you like fighting games but um for this year uh you can find us next at gamesquick I think registration might be closed but it's in Minneapolis and then uh Anime New York and Missouri Consury Con is a great con. It's in Columbus, Ohio. And it's like it's got a very like chill atmosphere. And we're going to be able to bring like some of uh some of our new stuff that uh I really really enjoy. Like I think I didn't get to touch on this one earlier as far as like one of like the weird games, but we bought uh Scott, which is a game where you can like you have to bounce a ping pong ball off of this little platform and then there's these little like saucers. It's kind of like you got to like you can see a picture of it, but it doesn't make sense. You you just have to play it. And that's another one you can't really you just wouldn't be able to emulate it. So, u definitely look for stuff like that that we're going to be bringing out to most of these shows just to to really say, okay, when we got we get a new experience, new game, we're going to celebrate that and just bring it out to as many shows as we can where it makes sense. That game's kind of large, so it might not make it to every show. What I do do is if you follow the Instagram and John Youssi an event announcement, I will post what list we have decided because as we've discussed earlier, um almost every single event is different. It's very very rare to have the exact same list for two events in a row. Um it has happened a few times when you know the events are in completely different geographic regions and are similar that it works. But basically if you want to know exactly what mix of stuff we're bringing out um the best way is a couple weeks before the show just like you know check. But something I will also do is uh if possible like let's say you saw us at a show and you were like that was awesome. I know you guys have this game and I would like you to bring it next year. I do keep track of people that um request certain things or give us feedback. Like I keep all I you know I keep a little notepad of all that stuff. I can't always promise that we'll be able to fulfill the requests, but like don't feel afraid to reach out uh somewhere else that is a really great place for doing stuff like that is we've been trying to use our Discord a little bit more actively. So, when I like if we're shouting out two things, it's like Instagram is like the best for just getting like updates or like I'll try and post behind the scenes pictures and then if you want to actually get involved and like talk shop with us and stuff, uh Discord is great. And I think the best way to find the invite to that is actually ironically through the Instagram and I've got stickers that are on like each cabinet. So if John Youssi a cabinet in the wild, there's a little QR code on it that has the Discord that you can like scan and join if you want to like talk shop with us. So I think those are, you know, that's kind of the way we're trying to grow the community and make sure that we like are bringing what people want to see at their shows. So, like it's corny way to say it, but like you have a voice. Like you can influence like what we bring a little bit and say, "Hey, no, I really like this game and I want to see it." And it actually makes me really happy when people are super into some of these obscure games because in a weird way, it's validation for having this silly collection. It's like, "Oh, yes, someone else loves Twinkle Star Sprites. High five." Like, "Thank you." you know, uh that might not even be the best example, but it's the one that came to mind because that game also has a passionate community. So, I think that's uh that's the best way to get in touch with us. And uh thank you for having me on the show, by the way. like I uh have only met you very recently and it's been really cool to see all your posts um that you know kind of highlight the different things that people are doing in the space and uh humbled to be asked to be on here but also like you know recognize that like you're doing a great job too.
Yeah, I mean thanks for coming on man. I I really appreciate it. I I was excited to talk to you and kind of get to know you and
know a little bit more about what you're doing. And there's so much from what you just said like uh Paradise Arcade Shop. Brian's a good friend of mine. I actually loaded that semi with him that he brought to Combo Breakers.
Didn't make it out, but that's a fantastic show. Like even if you're like moderately interested in fighters, you don't even have to be good at them or anything.
It's freaking sweet to go there and look at that stage and watch like the best players in the world play. It's really cool. The arcade gets better every single year. Um, yeah. I mean, it's just there's so much there and I I think people really should check that show out a lot more and yeah, I mean, you you got cool stuff that you're going to be bringing to shows. You're constantly bringing new stuff and I I just hope to see Psychic Drive continue to grow and grow and go to more shows in the future. Um, thanks again for coming on, Dave. For anyone that's watching, don't forget to like, share, and subscribe. It helps us a ton. The way we'll continue to grow. If you're looking to add more games to your collection, reach out. We've got all the indie games on the Indie Arcade Wave website. I've got Stern Pinballs available for sale. Ice Cold Beer, Food Fight is just now available. I was just in the warehouse two days ago. So, if you're looking to get that, you can email me at indiearchcadewave.com orgmail.com or you can just shoot me a message on Instagram. But until next time, peace. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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