What's really scary is, that isn't all of the games that they have. They have a storage unit with a ton of games and not to mention all of the games they have to put in the back by the golf area because during the summer they have more games out during the tournament and for the rest of the summer. What shocked me the most is that Bruno was actually able to see Gary and get a picture with him! The guy is really elusive and he's always running around the place. It's really hard for him to take a break and have a chat for ten minutes, but if you ever get the chance to speak to him it's amazing. He loves this stuff.
The thing with the joysticks that I've seen is that they take what they can get. They don't have a lot of money to buy the proper parts for the certain games so they'll put a HAPP stick in a game like Berserk. But I've played it with the new joystick and compared to what was in it before, it's about a million times better because the stick refused to shoot diagonally and go up on some parts. The whole thing is really run by Mr. Lawton, Gary and another tech guy. That's it, three people. The rest of the staff just cleans the place and takes the tokens out of the games. They've been getting rid of a lot of pinball machines because it's a lot for them to take care of.
You guys can donate stuff to them, they are a fully working museum and anything you donate to them is tax deductible. So if you got any spare parts lying around from a project, you can send it off to them and they'll put it in. And money of course is good because it keeps the place going. If you go during the winter the place is dead but it picks up on the weekend. The first time my friends and I went to Funspot we went in January and while the kiddies were in school, so it was amazing. The place was empty and the 80's music was blasting so it was like the place was just for us. The other two floors are alright and have a good collection of games from the 80's, 90's and even some of today's games, but it's mostly ticket games for the kiddies to suck money out of their pockets.
My friend and I want to design a T-Shirt for our site and sell it on Cafepress and have all the proceeds go back to the museum. They really deserve it because it's a labor of love for them to keep the place going. I really want to help them meet their target of getting enough money to expand the third floor over the bowling ally. That expansion could fit in over 100 more games, but they don't have the money to do that. So anything to help them get to their goal would be better then doing nothing.
As always, you can check out the videos we did with Gary and from the previous FunSpot tournaments.
http://arcadehunters.blip.tv/If you guys want to plan a trip, try to plan it around the next tournament for 2010. It's always the weekend after Memorial Day here in the States, so figure around the middle of May. But if you want to have the place all to yourselves plan on January-April because while the weather is bad, all the kiddies are in school and they are always open. Just make sure you go to their website and print out the coupons they have. 20 bucks in tokens plus 50 extra tokens?! You can't beat that.