Wisconsin Life

I grew up in that golden era of video arcade games.

coin clinks in slot

1980s pop music

I remember going to the arcades years ago and seeing some of these new titles that are coming out. Got'em! I remember going to the arcades and seeing these elaborate cabinets with incredible artwork on them. And hearing these new sounds.

Pac-Man sound

And seeing the graphics. And, really, that's what comes to mind when I think about the old memories of what do I remember growing up about arcade games.

percussive music

I got my first arcade game at the age of 13. And I ended up spending $60 to buy an Asteroids game. That's what started it. And it just sort of happened that I just started acquiring more and more games over the years.

electronic sounds of arcade

I would say probably just over 200 games. It's hard to say exactly because I'm always adding things in. And once in a while I'll let something go. But I would say probably 200, 225 games.

electronic sound

Well, storage is always an issue. I do have quite a few games in my house and my basement.

garage door creaks open

And then I have a lot in my garage that are stored there. And then, I also have a warehouse location that I store many games at.

storage door opens

Right now, we're at one of my storage locations where I keep all my overflow parts. With them being as old as they are, they need repairs all the time. Those parts take up a lot of space. So I keep a lot of them here.

computer voice says "I can fix it."

Restoration is far more extensive than most people would realize. You're talking about going to the absolute basic foundation of these games. Stripping them down to the bare wood a lot of times and starting over. The process can take months and months. Actually, just recently, I finished up three titles that I started a year ago. I got to thinking, "How can I show these to people again so that they can appreciate and enjoy them?" So then I started approaching some different museums about the idea of actually bringing arcades to be shown off to the public.

1980s pop music

The games bring me back to a time of the 1980s, where life is very simple. Today, I love the conveniences that we have with the Internet and all that. But there was a simplicity to that time where people were just enjoying these games and having fun with that. And to me, having these, and seeing people play them, and seeing people enjoy them, it kind of brings me back to that that time.