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Chasing Nostalgia Episode 1: Welcome to BarnCade!

RetroRalph·video·34m 15s·analyzed·Jul 3, 2021
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Retro Ralph tours a collector's barn-based arcade with 80+ rare games, discussing preservation via FPGA boards.

Summary

Retro Ralph visits Jeff (Arcade Hollywood) at his custom-built Barncade facility in Columbus, Ohio, showcasing a rare and extensive arcade game collection spanning decades. The episode highlights preservation challenges with aging arcade hardware, the rise of FPGA-based replacement boards as a solution, and Jeff's journey from collecting a single Asteroids Deluxe in 1989 to amassing over 80+ games requiring 200 amps of dedicated electrical power.

Key Claims

  • Jeff built the entire Barncade structure, electrical system, and power grid from October 2018 to December 2020

    high confidence · Jeff explicitly states 'I did all the... I did all the electrical' and describes having 200 amps of power with 10 20-amp breakers

  • Baby Pac-Man had approximately 7,000 units made according to Arcade Museum

    medium confidence · Jeff cites Arcade Museum as the source, notes uncertainty about how many were scrapped vs. still existing

  • FPGA-based boards like J-PAC are the future of arcade preservation because original PCBs constantly fail

    high confidence · Both Jeff and Ralph emphasize FPGA adoption as necessary to break the repair cycle and keep games playable long-term

  • Jeff helped reboot Pinball Expo in 2018, 2019, and 2020

    high confidence · Jeff states this directly in his introduction

  • Journey arcade cabinets had fewer than 1,200 units produced, making it extremely rare

    medium confidence · Jeff states 'the rumor is less than maybe 1,200 games' and explains this information comes from collector knowledge due to poor Bally records

  • Bosconian cabinet sales were so poor that factory destroyed unsold units and converted some into Galaga cabinets

    medium confidence · Jeff describes Bosconian as not selling well, with factory destructions and conversions mentioned as documented history

  • Sega arcade boards are more difficult to repair than other manufacturers' boards due to proprietary design

    medium confidence · Ralph expresses this as an observation; Jeff acknowledges it but speculates Sega may have done this intentionally to prevent copying

  • Arcade prices have increased significantly in the last 10 years, making it nearly impossible for new collectors to acquire rare titles affordably

    high confidence · Jeff explicitly states he could never build his collection if starting today due to current prices; mentions barcades and wealthy collectors driving up prices

Notable Quotes

  • “That's arcade games. That's part of the deal.”

    Jeff@ 3:23 — Captures the collector mindset about hardware failures being inevitable in the hobby

  • “That's what's going to preserve the hobby... Like, that's one of the biggest issues with doing collections. I can never get these games to stay running.”

    Jeff@ 5:15 — Core insight on FPGA boards as essential for long-term preservation vs. original PCB fragility

  • “Less is more because they're so hard to keep running.”

    Jeff@ 9:08 — Reveals practical limitation of large collections despite wanting more games

  • “I could never have that collection if I just started today. Because of today's prices.”

    Jeff@ 29:06 — Direct statement on market inflation limiting accessibility for new collectors

  • “The secrets are out. Like, barcades have really snuck in, and then... They're buying up a lot of those classics.”

    Jeff@ 29:21 — Commentary on how arcade venues and commercial operators are affecting collector market availability

  • “What concerns me is definitely the monitors. I think we have hit a time where they don't sell those monitors anymore. Because of the lead issue.”

    Jeff@ 30:00 — Identifies CRT/monitor availability as major future threat to arcade preservation

Entities

JeffpersonRetro RalphpersonMasonpersonBarncadelocationFrankpersonDanny ShepardpersonTodd TuckeypersonAlan ReismanpersonJohn Geigerperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: CRT monitor production has ceased due to lead content regulations, creating critical shortage for arcade preservation

    high · Jeff expresses concern: 'What concerns me is definitely the monitors. I think we have hit a time where they don't sell those monitors anymore. Because of the lead issue.'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo had successful reboot in 2018-2020 period with community involvement

    high · Jeff states direct participation: 'played a very large part in the reboot of the Pinball Expo in 2018, 2019, and 2020'

  • $

    market_signal: Barcades and commercial venues are aggressively acquiring rare arcade cabinets, changing the collector market landscape

    medium · Jeff: 'The secrets are out. Like, barcades have really snuck in... They're buying up a lot of those classics.'

  • $

    market_signal: Arcade cabinet prices have increased substantially over past 10 years, reducing accessibility for new collectors

    high · Jeff: 'I could never have that collection if I just started today. Because of today's prices.' Notes barcades and wealthy collectors driving up prices

  • ?

    community_signal: Jeff engineered and built entire electrical infrastructure (200 amps, 10 breakers) for Barncade personally with help from father, uncles, and friend Danny Shepard

    high · Jeff: 'I did all the... Wait, you built the electrical? Yeah.' Details custom harness creation and power distribution calculations

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.103

0:00
Unfortunately today, arcades are a thing of the past, but not everyone has that mindset, including Jeff, also known as Arcade Hollywood.
0:09
Arizona is filled with retro goodness. But in June, I flew across the country, met up with Mason, and we went to visit Jeff's amazing collection. There are so many arcade game fanatics out there, and we are constantly chasing nostalgia. Oh my gosh.
0:30
My name is Retro Ralph, and I love arcade games. When I was a kid, the arcade was a magical place. The sights, the sounds, memories etched into my mind forever. Now I'm a collector, and you could say I'm a little obsessed, but I know there are others like me. Are you one of them? Columbus, Ohio, home of Arcade Hollywood. Super excited to meet this guy and see what gems he has hiding in his barn cave. Yeah, you heard me correctly. He built a barn for his arcade machines. Let's check it out.
1:19
Jeff? Bro, what's up dude? Good to see you, man. How's it going? What's up, man? How we doing? My name is Jeff, and I'm also known as Arcade Hollywood out there in the arcade and the pinball communities. I started collecting coin-operated video games and pinball machines in 1989. My very first game was an Asteroids Deluxe Upright. I started my YouTube channel, Arcade Hollywood, in 2014. I also filmed the Kong Off 4 and 5 at the ReplayFX Festival and played a very large part in the reboot of the Pinball Expo in 2018, 2019, and 2020. I finally actually made my dream project come to life, and it is Barncade. This is the new home to all my video games and my pinball machines. and it also serves as a video production studio. We started construction on Barncade in October of 2018, and we didn't finish the details, get it all up and running until December of 2020.
Matt Scott
person
Trishaperson
Pinball Expoevent
Arcade Hollywoodcompany
J-PACproduct
Arcade Museumorganization
?

product_concern: Sega arcade boards exhibit higher failure rates and are more difficult to repair than competing manufacturers

medium · Ralph and Jeff discuss Sega boards being 'proprietary' and difficult to troubleshoot; Jeff speculates they may have been intentionally designed to prevent copying

  • ?

    technology_signal: FPGA-based replacement boards (J-PAC) becoming standard preservation solution as original PCBs fail and become unreliable

    high · Jeff states 'That's what's going to preserve the hobby' and discusses extensive FPGA retrofits across his collection; emphasizes they're 'practically indistinguishable from the original'

    • 2:31
    We have a very special guest coming here to Barncade today. It's Retro Ralph. I cannot wait till Retro Ralph and Mason come through that door, and they get a load of this wonderful collection of 80s classics that we've amassed here. I can't wait to see the look on their faces.
    2:53
    After you, Ralph. Oh, my gosh. Wow. There's a lot of gems in here that I kind of haven't shown you pictures of. But as you walk around, you'll see. This is amazing. And, you know, something real interesting is I had my Golden Tee 2020 working last night. I bumped it, and the motherboard fried. Oh, no. Really? Yeah. And that happens. That's arcade games. That's part of the deal. That's arcade games. So, Ralph, do you want to take a little walk around? Yeah, we need to go through and just check everything out. Which way would you like to go first? What's the best way? I don't know. Any way you want to pick one side. This is awesome. And, you know, like I have right here, these are rare to have the cocktail version of Track and Field. I've honestly never seen a cocktail version of Track and Field. It's pretty cool. That's cool. And that one works? Oh, yeah. I don't know the production number, but they're low, and it's kind of rare. And all the serial numbers are right inside. Like, that's a very important thing. When you start getting your games, you'll see the serial numbers. Oh, my gosh. This is so great. This one I picked up in, there was a pin brew show like a couple months ago. It was like the first show after the pandemic. Yeah. And I wheeled the deal for this. I've been looking for this for a long time. I honestly don't think I've ever seen it. This is the name co-version of the Atari X is No Football where you play it with the track ball. But it's a modern version with the NFL branding and the teams. Okay, we're definitely going to have to play that. Oh, yeah, you love this. We'll definitely have to play that later. Oh, you can get your hand in motion. Oh my gosh. Now these games here are fantastic, but I have a love-hate relationship with Color Vector games. They're just a pain to keep running. To keep running, yeah. I sound like a broken record about fixing games, but these are very difficult to keep running. Speaking of fixing games, the popularity of FPGA-based arcade boards is on the rise. Boards such as the J-Rock plug directly into the cabinet's existing wiring harness, and the gameplay is practically indistinguishable from the original PCB. But yeah, it boots right up to the game, and it's FPGA, which is great. Yeah, it's so nice. Basically, you wouldn't be able to distinguish that from the original, usually. Yeah, I mean, that's what's going to preserve the hobby. Yeah, it's like the future of it, for sure. Like, that's one of the biggest issues with doing collections. I can never get these games to stay running. To stay running. How much stuff have you put FPGAs in? Oh, gosh, lots. I'm a good example because I've been collecting since 89. So I've been down that road where I wanted to be a purist because some of these things... Yeah, the boards just die. It's impossible. So there's a lot... Like, if there's an FPGA solution, I'm going to do it. Yeah. Because this also has to be playable for my friends and family. And for years to come, right? Yeah. Not just... I mean, you can do it and keep it original, but it's like you're always repairing it. You almost never... You don't ever break that cycle. There will be people out there that say, oh, you didn't keep that original. But what I do, I preserve all the electronics. I don't hack any of the wires. Good. I actually custom make my own harnesses so that you can just plug it and play. So nothing's damaged and everything can be original. And you preserve all your stuff, all the artworks. Yep. Perfect. And you know, the FPGA and the replacement boards have been around for a while. Yeah. Thanks to Arcade Shop and J-Rock. Yeah, the J-Rock thing. I just ordered that J-Rock for... He's the best. Wait, what game was it that you just fixed with the J-Rock board? Oh, was it Reactor? No, it was another one. Was it... Oh, it was Sinistar. I know I bought it even though I don't have a Sinistar. So I'm buying it in preparation for me finding a Sinistar. And that's smart. You never know when this hobby is going to shift and people will stop making those boards because it's happened a couple times. So people have to beg him to keep pumping them out. Like during the pandemic, it was impossible to get those just because of the shipping and the China situation with parts. All right, what else would you like to see? I mean, this row in itself is pretty amazing.
    6:59
    It's tough to arrange games also. You want to try to make it... I like the color. I like to try to make it the colors. I don't want to put all blues together or all greens, but I try to make it so that everything's got a little different color combination. Yeah, I love... I've been looking for a Donkey Kong for a while now, and I can't find one that's like... I would even take one that's restorable, but I haven't been able to find one for a good price lately. I bought this one in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996. Oh, wow. So that was my second game.
    7:34
    And the only thing I had to swap out until I get another joystick, this is not the original. It has that black. It looks like that. Yeah, it's that one. These get worn out really fast, but I got a replacement coming. This is great. I love the Donkey Kong cabinets. They're so awesome. They're so awesome looking. Oh, it's beautiful. I just and they're lightweight believe it or not I cap the monitor and it's worked for a long time knock on wood you don't keep them on you don't keep them on like no like I only keep them on when I'm playing them I don't keep them on all the time and I feel like that's I baby like what we'll do today is we'll do a huge you know we'll fire it all up okay oh can you so so assuming you have enough power in here I got power you can you can fire every game up and we'll go we'll do the tour of the grid I'll show you what I built wait wait did you build the power grid I did everything No way you did. I did all the... Wait, you built the electrical? Yeah. My dad taught me and my uncles, and I have a great friend named Danny Shepard. That's next level. You get some serious It all code and it like everything is done with math Behind each game it shows an amperage So you can run about 8 to 10 games on one 20 amp breaker So knowing that, I've got about 10 20 amp breakers. My gosh, that's awesome. And I had, you know, I went over the top. My builder Frank, he's my neighbor, he helped me do the structure. We re-dug a power line. So I have 200 amps of power here and 200 to the house. So how many more games could you put in here if you wanted to? You think you could put a couple? I could. But I kind of... You're at a good amount, I think. You know what? I got to tell you, as a collector, less... This sounds so bad to say. Less is more because they're so hard to keep running. Yeah, that's true. Like last night, I was up till 1 o'clock in the morning getting the baby pack working. That's the worst game to keep running. And the baby pack is unique because...
    9:20
    I don't know if this is true. This was on Arcade Museum. There's only 7,000 of those that were made. Yeah, it's rare. So, I mean, how many of the 7,000 were scrapped? And then how many are actually, like, I'd love to know that. Like, how many actually still exist? That's a good question. Because I don't think it's that many. No. I don't see them very often. And the other thing about, it's not like you're going to maim it or it's not like you're going to. Yeah, you can't. What would you do with it? You have to interact with the pinball. It's either baby pack or nothing. Yeah. And I was real lucky because I got to do an interview with Alan Reisman and he worked at Valley in that era. Oh, no way. He gave me a backstory about. Is that on your channel? Yeah. Do you have that interview? It's out there. With Todd Tucky. Todd Tucky and I are friends.
    10:01
    And during the Pinball Expo, we got Alan to talk about his years. He went to lunch with Kiss to do the Kiss Pinball. Really? Yeah. That's awesome.
    10:14
    Hey, Jeff. I'm starving. I'm kind of getting a little hungry. Ralph, I think it's time for a snack break.
    10:25
    So on my channel, we do a thing called Snack Break, and what it is, is I like to feature a hometown restaurant that is one of my favorites. So right now, I'm very hungry, and I think it's time for a snack break. Jeff, what are you doing? Dude. What are you doing? What is this? Check it out. Snack Break 2. Jeff, I just ate. Electric boomerangs! No, I'm going to gain so much weight being here. Dude, it's how we roll. I'm going on my honeymoon. I'm supposed to be getting in shape. Ralph, we're supposed to put on... Didn't Kim say we're supposed to put on... No, she said lose weight. No, she said gain 10 pounds. No. Oh, gosh. All right. That's how we do snack fights. Now, Ralph, baby packs, tricky to keep running because of one reason. What's that? They leave the batteries on the board, and it drips down into two of the main wiring harnesses. Oh, geez. Okay. So that's one of the biggest flaws of the Baby Pack. But luckily for me, I've been using the Altec boards. Yeah, this is awesome. So where did you get this? I got this game from John Geiger. He is actually, he's real big into pinball. He runs Arcade Super Awesome here in Columbus. Okay. John's been a longtime friend and I got this game from John. So this is one of John's games. So this is awesome because I hadn't played this up until, I want to say it was like a couple months ago. I knew it existed, but I never played it. And the thing that I think is so neat about this is it's like this coming together of arcade games and pinball for the very first time. It's probably tricky to even see one of these working. Well, we're definitely going to need to play this. Yeah, here, let me, I got a coin button on here. because the Alltech boards don't do free play. So we'll fire you up some credits, and then go ahead and play. Hit the one-player button, and then go to it. All right.
    12:34
    I'm going to try to sneak around this guy. Hey, I think you've got another pellet. That's good. Oh, no. Oh, crap. I didn't notice only one of the tunnels was open. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. I didn't know that.
    12:50
    Think so? Yeah, I want to risk it. Because that's where you're getting your points. Oh, that's not the direction I want to go. No! It's close. I have one more guy, so I have one more life here. It could happen. We're going to clear it right here. The vidiot board is very hard to get. We did it! Oh, you did it! You got a sneak and you get the bonus! We did it, all right!
    13:13
    Yes! I'm the baby pack champ! Well, for now I am. Jeff, I've had a really good time here. Yeah. But the cicada bugs, I'm not a fan of. I hate bugs. All bugs. And these things will land on you and they want to hang out with you. So they're not aggressive bugs, but if one lands on me, I'm going to throw up.
    13:37
    Are bats considered flying bugs? Oh, no. Should we open this door? Yes, open the door. Open the door. Oh, shit. Ah!
    13:46
    Shh. I'm having so much trouble with my daytime. Oh, man, this is one of those games. I know, I love it. It is on my holy grail. It's tough to keep running. Like, this is my bad motherboard. I got another motherboard. Why is it tough to keep running? Is it the boards? Well, if you look, let me open it. I'll crack it open for you. Yeah, it's so complicated. Oh, my gosh, Sega's a nightmare. there so yeah it's just terrible and then beyond there there's more that's where the audio stuff is and some of the control boards but it's a real oh my god hassle this one works this side works great this one just doesn't this is one of those games it's like it's on my list and the funny thing is there's a guy locally to me so do you are you familiar with arizona a little bit there's this mountain town called flagstaff i know what flagstaff is so in flagstaff there's a guy right now that has one of these in his garage he's selling it for 650 does it work and it works get it i get it i know but the boards alone are worth 300 bucks great idea would be to do a computer version of all these driving games i know i'm thinking about it like because this one this one's been down more than it's worked i have a top i have a top five list of games that are a pain this is this is one of them i find tell me if you feel this way and i know you have a lot more of the 80s stuff than the 90s stuff. Yeah. I'm in this mode where I've been picking up Sega, you know, PCBs. I feel like they give me more problems, and they're more proprietary than everything else. Everything else you can kind of find online, how to fix them. I feel like Sega, it's almost like they purposely made it difficult, but maybe they did because they don't want people copying their stuff. I don't know. It's a real bummer because this game is absolutely a family favorite. It's so fun. It's awesome. So one side does work. Yeah. So we can play that. We'll play that. Yeah, we'll get it fired up. Okay. Whoa, I just totally went off the track.
    16:00
    Vaunting. Okay, let's see. Right bank. I'm passing through a bunch of things, but you've got Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Burger Time. These are the common ones. That one's getting hard to find, Burger Time. Burger Time, I just love. There's something about Burger Time. The unique shape of the cabinet with his hat is just so cool. Yep. It's just such a cool cabinet. I actually passed on one of these, and I shouldn't have. I passed on it, and I don't know why. They're getting harder to find. I should have grabbed it. Burger Time's not like these. Gallagher has packed Donkey Kong Jr. all day long. but this one's getting hard to grab and there's there's just a lot of them that are hard to grab so if you see these yeah i would i would grab them if you can because they're also valuable too so i'm literally at a point though where i've filled i've filled my house with arcade cabinets my garage is now pretty much at capacity i've been there so i was talking to my i was talking to my wife and i like in arizona there a lot of these properties that are off the beaten path where people have rv garages i don have an rv but they like they usually are about the size of this they probably have a pretty good power yeah and they have good power because a lot of them yeah and i thinking i could that down the road i may explore that because i have full i would hold them that's how hey that's how that's how you do it like where were these before the barn all over the house like they it's grown my collection has grown so much over the last 10 years so this was it was barn cater bust trisha is the most patient person in the world i feel like any of the wives of the of arcade collectors have to be patient they have to be well either that or you've you know you either conform or you know i mean you gotta keep it in perspective but this was this was a dream of mine for a long time this was the best way to get them out here and most were just tucked in the garage until i could do this But my collection just all of a sudden just expanded because, you know, Ohio is a hotbed for collecting. There's games all over the place here. I'm noticing even when we were down in that short north area, like every bar you'd go into had a classic game. And I'm going, where are all these coming from? The night before, Mace and I went to this awesome place that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches located in downtown Columbus. The place was super retro with killer food. They even had a section of arcade games and pinball machines. It was a nice touch and they had some fun games, but obviously nothing like Jeff's collection.
    18:30
    This Solar Fox, it's mega rare. That is a mega rare game. So this one I got from my good friend Scott. And I call his nickname, he's my collector friend in Pickerington. I call him the Solar Fox. That's his nickname. He's a Solar Fox. That's awesome. So we joke around, you know, every time I call him up every day, we talk games. So our catchphrase is long live Scott. So a silver fox is a really handsome older man. Is a solar fox a handsome older man who likes arcades? It's a galactic fox. He's from a distant future. Yeah, he's from another future. I've never played this, but... You'll love it. I've heard of it. It's fun. It's kind of like a Pac-Man type game, except you can shoot stuff. Yeah. I don't know what it is about. I don't know what it is about midway coin doors but they're just awesome I don't know what it is about their coin doors they're the best I still got it so snack break was exactly 38 minutes ago and Ralph's still inside playing road blasters and that pizza hasn't been touched so I'm going to take a piece and hope they don't look yeah like I said road blasters the perfect mix of spy hunter and pole position I know I love it But, hey, where's Mason at? What's Mason doing over there? Mason, what are you doing?
    20:07
    So, Jeff, we went through a lot of games already. Yes. But you have sort of, I wouldn't, they're more harder to collect these days games. And Reactor was one of them. That's pretty rare. I would classify that one as rare. And it was fun. I played it, it was really fun. So that's one I messed out on, obviously. So the reactor was cool. But then one I didn't play until just a minute ago was Bosconian. That one's really fun. So tell me a little bit about that. Bosconian, it didn't sell well back in the day, and they ended up destroying those at the factory. It's a bummer. Toward the end of the run of that game, they actually converted some of those into white Galagas. Oh, really? Yeah, so that's even more rare to have a Bosconian cabinet that was factory-made into a Galaga. Oh, wow. And it's really different. Actually, Bosconian is unique, too, because Wizard of War has a very... It's not as deep as Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man, but Bosconian and Wizard of War have that non-deep cabinet. So it's really kind of cool. Yeah, no, it's super cool. Very hard to get. The other one was Solar Fox. Yes. So it was being a little temperamental, but I had never played that game before. That's another really cool one. It's very rare. And Solar Fox came in three different models. It came in a cocktail. It did come in a cabaret version Oh, wow in the upright and they're just really hard to get like once again It didn't sell well and they destroyed them and some mappies If you tip the mappy over on the bottom You'll see some solar Fox artwork because they repurpose their cabinets when they destroyed them they repurpose the wood So the thing that caught my eye on that was what one it has unique controls because as the flight stick and the marquee is Like really pretty on it. It's got a really cool marquee. Okay, so solar Fox is pretty neat Yep. The other one that we did talk about earlier was the baby Pac-Man. I mean it's running and you got it running So that's a really cool one. Yes. Now Liberator you have it's not running, but that's also pretty tough to get. It'll turn on But it's got some RAM issues. But yes, that one's very very hard to get according to the website I think there's around 800 made Okay Maybe less But that one was unique because Atari was trying to come up with a cartoon theme or a comic theme Yeah, you were telling me about that. So out there in the world There is actually comic books that they put out that were based on the liberator in the comic books over there Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that'll be a rare one Yeah, but the game is very rare and it's actually it's like loosely based sequel to missile command Oh where you use the trackball in the bit you got the bases shooting at stuff So very fun game this one. I'm gonna butcher the name of it's I'm staring right at it He's got two tongue tootin calm tootin Tutankhamun. All right. King Tut got a video game. Tutankhamun. Everyone has one, right? Stern put this out in 82, and it's extremely difficult. It looks simple, and you can't shoot up and down. You can only shoot left and right. I think that's what makes that game difficult. How many of those do you think there are? I don't know. Not many. Yeah. Where did you get that one? That one I got from a local collector in Columbus, Ohio. So I lucked out and saw an ad on Facebook, and I jumped all over it. Scott bought one last year. during the pandemic, and I helped him move it recently, and I fell in love with it. So luckily I saw it, and I got lucky. The marquee almost looks like Rastan with the sword. Yeah, it's cool. It looks like Rastan. It's just a really cool game. So that's neat. And then you have a Galaga 88 that's directly behind you. Yes. And right now it's not running the Galaga 88 boards, but I do have those boards. This game is very rare. Pac-Mania is one of those cabinets like Tapper where it's not as common, but Galaga 88's rare. Yeah, and you need to fix the boards on that one right now. I do. The boards need repaired, and then once I repair it, it's got all the original guts and power supply. And there's a special, like Namco for that era had a little mini control board. So you hook it up. It's JAMA. So you hook it up, but it had the service switch, it had the volume pot all right there in that little service board. Oh, cool. Which is odd, because a lot of games had them just separate controls. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. Moving on, there's Journey, which is interesting, because that's like sort of that, let's digitize. Yes. Video kind of thing? It's the first game to use digital images. So that's literally the band. It's Steve Perry, Neil Shone, Ross Valerie, Steve Smith, and Jonathan Cain. Did they not make a lot of journeys? No. Because I never see them. There's a debate on that. Atari has some very accurate serial numbers. Bally is very...
    24:35
    It's tough to track those because they didn't keep good records there. But the rumor is less than maybe 1,200 games. Oh, wow. If you're lucky enough to get a game that's complete, there will be cereal tags in there. This one is cereal number 155. Oh, wow. Okay. So all of us collectors that have a Journey, we all say, hey, what's your cereal number? Because we're trying to figure out what's the highest cereal number we could find. Yeah, that's a wild game. I think it's interesting. It's kind of just sort of gone. What's interesting about restoring a game like Journey, Tapper, Tron, they all use the MCR system. They're all similar with the stack board. So if you know one hardware, you can figure out the other ones. That's neat. And then the other one is kind of sort of directly behind my shoulder is Tapper. Tapper's awesome. The Tapper's got an interesting story because there was that time period where they sort of like didn't feel comfortable with the whole beer part of it. And so they made root beer Tapper. Valley Midway caught some heat from some organizations and then they started switching over to root beer tapper so the to have the tapper with the taps and the bud what actually that literally branded by anheuser so it got the Budweiser logos on there including the tap so if you've got one of those consider yourself lucky because it's not easy to get that's not the color side art but the first 300 they made had color side art and then the last one we already we covered was the discs of Tron which is which is pretty neat it's awesome yeah once that one you need to you need to give me a call I will back up and running like an update video yeah hey Ralph check this out but what's neat about that game it's got some really unique artwork from the film so like it doesn't it has that back yeah interesting back or I have that inside it's all wrapped up to keep it nice but it's just beautiful the way the lights like that whole back end up there's a venticular marquee and for what that means is it's you know how like back in the day you'd have these printed things that look 3d yeah that's got a lenticular marquee which is actually kind of neat says Dysotron on it oh that's so cool the the standard upright had that too they're both very rare we'll go we'll go play some more
    27:01
    so jeff we spent all day in barncade that was awesome i got to see this amazing collection that you've that you've kind of built over the years but i'm always curious like what was the motivation to go from your one game which was asteroids deluxe to what that is today it's real simple it's something in the hobby that everyone says you got bit by the bug and i got bit by the bug in 89 in the dayton daily news i found the asteroids deluxe for 150 bucks and then you know a couple years passed and then the internet kicked in and the community really started out and you just get bit by the bug and it's like one you can't just have one game yeah i can't have asteroids and i have donkey kong a lot of collectors out there will tell you i got bit by the bug and it just wasn't enough it's just your passion for the for the the greatness of arcade games yeah i can tell from just us playing around in there that you love playing the games and i think that's that's that's like the best part of it right it's just going in there getting that feeling back from when you used to play them in an arcade somewhere. I mean, I know that's for me, that's one of those powerful things is just, sometimes, I don't know if you ever do this, sometimes I just turn them on and like listen to the attract mode and just get excited. Yeah. I don't know, it's cool. I don't know, I'm just like, what you have in there is awesome. So do you think this is the end of the road or is there more? It's, we're, that's it, you know what, I could sit here and say, yeah, that's all. That would It's never it. That's a lie. It's never it. I think there's always that game that eludes a collector that if it pops up, you'll get it. When you get to this stage where you've really acquired quite a few titles, it's really hard to get other titles. Only because the hobby's really changed in the last 10 years with price. So I could never, and I know we've talked about this today, I could never have that collection if I just started today. because of today's prices. Those are games that you just get all these years from trades or prices were right. Yeah. But the secrets are out. Like, barcades have really snuck in, and then... They're buying up a lot of those classics. Yeah, and then, for whatever reason, like, wealthier collectors have drove up prices, so it's been harder to get these titles, especially the rare ones. So, yeah, I'm just grateful to have what I've got. Like, it's definitely... I feel grateful. You have an amazing collection. I'm blessed Last question And this is one of those where I'm going to have you try to gaze into the crystal ball a little bit What do you think the future of this hobby is? Because there's a lot of weird crossroads going on right now CRTs are aging, PCBs are harder to repair So what do you think is happening? What concerns me is definitely the monitors I think we have hit a time where they don't sell those monitors anymore Because of the lead issue They stopped making CRTs in 2009. Yeah. These monitors now are getting upwards of 40 years old, and they've been capped multiple times. So it's really hard to keep these things going. Hopefully they'll come out with a solution. We've talked. I hope there's a solution coming. But who knows? But the monitors will be the big thing, because the boards can be fixed with the power supplies to a certain degree, but the monitors are really concerning. because that's my number one problem with keeping the games going is the monitors. Yeah, no, I think so too. What I love to see is the one-up people evolving, like yourself, evolving into getting the authentic games and hopefully your viewing audience will take the lead and they'll say, hey, I think I want... Yeah, I want to get into the video arcades too. I think I want a Donkey Kong or I think I want a Pac-Man. So hopefully it'll keep going. I hope so too. Hopefully. Here's something else too. when I first started doing the video game thing I never really thought about the pinball side so the pinball side is a whole nother compelling aspect of the hobby two different hobbies but I kind of evolved into pins a little bit too yeah I'm heavy on video games but my pinball collection is kind of starting to grow yeah a little bit in there too so and there's yeah so it's kind of cool there's a whole nother community of pinball so I don't know if video games lead into that but pinball is pretty cool yeah no definitely but the video games are great yeah all right so i think we're gonna get out of your hair but i appreciate you've been so awesome all day you can't see mason but mason is doing production and camera he is he's awesome and and we've been jeff's been feeding us all day like i can't even know these yeah we're i probably gained like 15 costco but jeff i just want to thank you again it's been awesome and uh you know you couldn't be a better host it's been the best you're the man ralph all right ralph a pleasure my friend this was so fun thank you so much yeah we gotta do it again excellent dude i'll see you guys be safe we're gonna do it again oh we'll do it again yeah i feel like we need to bro hug it we need a bro all right man thanks so much That was a full one. We'll see you. I would say we'll see you on the next one, but that would be my... Yeah, we'll see you next time. Thanks, Jeff. This has been awesome. All right.
    32:58
    I've worked with Ralph for over two years now. He's a really good dude and is very passionate about what he does. If you're wanting a trip into the past, I promise you this is only just the beginning for our journey. He loves arcade games, that's obvious, but deeper down there's a guy that cares so deeply for preserving their existence. He isn't out to destroy the past. just beginning to rebuild its future. He really is chasing nostalgia and I for one am excited for that journey with him. I hope you guys stick around because there's a big world to explore bit by bit.
    33:57
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