Hi Bram, welcome here. Only 20 years old and an arcade collector? That's great and interesting. For most of us, or at least for a lot of us, collecting arcade classics is like going back in time, to our youth when we played these games. What's your appeal with these games?
And thanks for the link to CAGDC, didn't know it but will check it out (wow, already noticed that there is a lot of interesting reading material on that forum).
Technically I'm not an arcade collector (yet), I've looked around for a DK cabinet in Belgium/Europe but I couldn't find any so I kind of gave up on it... And I don't have a place of my own or a job yet (still studying), so for now I can't really collect games... But I do hope to be able to do so and create a sort of "home arcade" someday.
The appeal? There are so many reasons. I just love these kinds of old games, the difficulty, the gameplay... I do play modern games as well and I enjoy these too, but I feel like these days it's just too much about the "realistic" graphics and not enough about the games themselves. And the games that are made these days are just totally different experiences than classic games, and I like both. The community is awesome. I've chatted with a lot of cool people on forums and elsewhere, and I met a bunch of great people who are great gamers when I went on a trip to NY earlier this year. To be able to watch a master at work on one of these games is incredible, or seeing a new world record being set... No words to describe. And well, I just love a lot of "retro" stuff... Even though I was born in '89, I feel a lot more connected to the '80s and earlier decades than the '90s or '00s. I often wish I could've been born 10, 20 or even 30 years earlier so I could've experienced those times. My interests are wide and I feel like there's a lot I've "missed"... I hope all of this kind of makes my interest and love for classic arcade games clear to you.
CAGDC really is a great place, some of the world's best classic gamers are active members and there are a lot of great conversations held there all the time... If you require info on any game, you're bound to find someone with an answer.
Welcome aboard Dantes, Dante's Peak was one of my favourite movies! 
Thanks... I don't believe I've seen that movie, might have. I like Dante Alighieri's work, but to be honest I don't have any idea how I came to choose "Dantes" as my online nickname, it's been a couple of years.
