HOW'S IT GOING, GUYS - are you still in it or have you given up?

[Tyrem]

how many games do you have in your basement now? and what about jochen? where does he store all his games? i see you guys on facebook flying all across the world, although i have no idea what you are doing there ... 

a bit more than 50 machines in total. Jochen has around 20 i would estimate. he has nice stuff like warlords cocktail and two star wars. one upright and one sitdown. i only have the sitdown. bloody Jochen!!!

oh we went to Joe. that is Jochens contact for the worldwide distribution of the highscore savekits. it went totally through the roof in the last two years. while we did that we also visited some major cities and some old friends from back then when we were doing demos and games on the Atari ST. We met Tim (God of War, League of Legends) and Fabrice (Star Wars - Fallen Order) in Santa Monica and it was a blast.

[Digimon]

There are good events in germany still ongoing.

i know, this following the forums. just wasn't ready for dirk's and thorsten's party last year!

The next date is in Leverkusen in the end of february.
with a great new Seawolf and a Gorf added to the gameroom.

[Andreas_AUT]

didn't you start building a gameroom in your house? i'm really happy with the space i have available, the problem is that i can't do the work on my own, i'm just not talented enough for that kind of work, therefore i have to depend on other guys - and that's something i REALLY hate!!!

Well, my original plan was to use the attic or in other words, build a 2nd floor to the house. Sadly, costs would have been super high, so i dismissed these plans ( which i kinda regret nowadays ). The other place is 1 room in my first floor, but with 16 qm2, space is limited ( most cabs are waiting in my garage ).
Actually, I try to get connection to some other guys ( they have consoles and arcade cabs too ) not far away from here. And maybe, we can combine our cabs at one place and meet there for playing.

You can be lucky with your space, Ully. And I can understand you about knowledge of work - i didnt know anything too before renovating the house. But you will learn with every step!

[Superully]

a shame that this didn't work out, andreas, unfortunately stuff like that can get damn expensive. btw, it might have also been destiny, because getting cabs and (and down) to the second floor can be a pain in the ass - i've done that in my old apartment and that was level 3. perhaps it was just not meant to be and your next solution will work much better. i'm really happy that i now have the space AND everything is on the ground floor with easy access to the rooms!

[Superully]

btw andreas, i can't seem to find your old gameroom thread. did you even post it here on the forum?

[Andreas_AUT]

btw, it might have also been destiny..

maybe yeah :-D but i also planned an elevator into that project ( add + 20k € minimum and yearly service ), because im old and fat, i cant put the cabs up there alone .

I have to look if i posted the gameroom plans here too, well they are definitely at AZ.

( i mean if i get rid of my cars, i would have more than enough space... for now 

btw your space in your cellar is amazing, I mean you could put your whole collection in it, if you skip the profi gerät 

[Superully]

an ELEVATOR?  ok, that is something i had NEVER heard before someone planning to do and THAT costs some serious money indeed. i found the plans on the AZ forum, so no need to post them here. somehow it's a shame that you didn't finish that, because nothing beats having your games at home and not somewhere you have to drive ...

as for my collection: i've already stated in my elektro arkade thread that i've thinned down the herd, sold a few which i shouldn't have sold (especially not for that price), but it is what it is, my plans are basically done and the arcade is FULL - including the profi geraet 

[Muerto]

Great to have you back Ully!
Yeah, I sold both Cockpits, they took up too much space, and was a bitch to keep running, so they are gone now, but not too far gone, as a friend of mine bought the, and he lives an hour away by car....

The Shed is still hosting meetups, there's another one coming this February, where there will be streamed 24/7
https://www.twitch.tv/the_shed_arcade
https://www.twitch.tv/the_shed_productions

Have bought a couple of games and tonnes of PCB's lately for my Blast City's, yep, you love those

[retrocab]

still in to the hobby welcome backup 

[level42]

I'm still alive  

All cabs sold to Tyrem and Jochen (by the way, you forgot Jochen has the best SW cockpit in Europe   )

Do I miss them ? Sometimes a bit yes.

But it was a necessary thing in several ways.

I finally divorced exactly a year ago and well...the plus-minus 4 years before that were not the best of my life. Let's put it mildly that my ex didn't make it easy on me. I realize that after 27 years of marriage where one wants to quit, it's not easy for the other, but there are some limits to what you can do to another person.....but I won't bore you with this...

At the moment I live still in the same house and I am lucky enough to have found the most amazing woman walking on this planet who now lives with me here (some of you guys have met her   ). I seriously couldn't be happier and fall in love with her again every single day (yes that sounds cheesy, but I can highly recommend it).

As a bonus, I now also have a wonderful extra daughter (18) and son (15) who sometimes sleep over a night here but live mostly with their dad (but this could change slowly). All these changes naturally have some getting used to for the kids, but my son Mark and my girlfriends kids get along just fine.

I am still collecting a bit of Atari, mostly A8 stuff and the occasional oddity (just added a 2600jr. and earlier scored an Atari Touch-Me hand-held) but that's about it. As you can imagine my time was mostly taken by other things the last years.
I also recently picked up a nice 1975 Zanussi Pong console, I may open a thread about it....love it.
I also managed to find some time to create a nice little PCB for the A8 which makes it possible to switch between PAL and NTSC. This has been fully developed now, now I need some time to get the Chinese to produce a good number of them....(I even won a price a the ABBUC hardware contest with it  )

Following those changes in my life I needed to create a bit of "room" in the house. So we cleaned out one room that used to be storage only and is now a nice sleeping room for my bonus-son. Currently I'm making a new room in my attic (placed a dry-wall, it's nice to learn new stuff) where my son will move to (promised this ages ago). Then his old room will be "refurbished" for my bonus-daughter.
It's a good thing I have the extra large shed (former game room) now so I can use it as temporary storage.
After all these changes are done, the plan is to turn the former game room into a "man-cave".....there will be my 2600/A8/ST stuff playable all the time, hopefully something like a little bar, beamer etc.
All of this also depends on financial stuff......divorcing isn't a cheap hobby guys !

Oh forgot to mention that I also changed jobs. I still do the same work but at a competing company now. I already knew I didn't want to stay at the previous employer because the way things worked there but I really had to get the divorce behind me first before I could think about changing jobs. I started this new job last september.

So all is well !!! (well almost all, read on)....

I still love arcade games and was very happy to finally be able to make it to Thorsten & Dirk's this year.....man I loved every second there....so many awesome old-friends....too little time and oh yeah, there were also some amazing games.....

This year I had planned to go there for an extra night to visit the town and the surrounding are for a change, but this didn't happen because shortly before the weekend my dad suffered a stroke. He had surgery on my birthday (nov. 19th) to open one of his vanes in his neck which was successful but he lost almost all speech and his right arm and hand are hard to control. He can still walk though and definitly knows what's going on. At 85, you can't be picky I guess but it's hard to see your dad like that when not a few days earlier he was still playing tennis...
Anyway, we're a few months further now and he's been in a revalidation home ever since and is definitly making progress. Speech is slowly coming back (very slowly) and his arm is still so-so but he will return home February the 14th. With a little help (also from my mum) he can still enjoy life even though not like it used to be.

Sadly, all of the above had some impact in keeping contact with some of my best friends here, they know who they are, but rest assure we will pick it back up once things are a bit more stable again  

Anyway....lots of text as you are used to from me.....

Sorry to see a lot of guys "follow my example".... I can only hope the machines are in good hands now (I know mine are) and they will live "forever". But life is about changing and moving on. And most important in finding what makes you happy. I know I found it.
 

[baritonomarchetto]

Nice to read all the "old" users in one topic having a chat, like in the old glory days  

Here in Italy cabinets are too much expensive (and rare) nowadays and this kills the fun for me. I still have my 10 cabinets in my garage (there's no room for the car  ) and from time to time I organize arcade parties with my best friends.

The days where you could buy a cabinet for cheap, restore it or plan a nice new project are long gone unfortunately...

@muerto : do you still have your punchout? Is it working? I am still waiting your record in the dedicated section of the forum

[old school]

Nice to see old one's on this forum.
DLF is not the only quiet places nowadays...

Even if i'm not a regular to this forum, I'm in the hobby since 2005 now.

High and low...
As everybody I guess

But still there with 40+ cabs and a private gameroom.

Tought to sell away a couple of time, but still there.

Hobby must be a hobby and breaks are useful and necessary.

in 15 year I spent 2 times a 6 month break to see if passion was still alive.
And still in business
do what you like and take pleasure. seems to be a good way to live.
Happy to be still there and hear from you guys.

[vernimark]

Hi,  I'm still alive. I've 50/60 machines now.
3 years ago I left my job and now I'm renting my cabs for private (corporate) events. It's funny now I spend most of my time ro repair machines and to organize arcade events...
And I've a sort of showroom in Milano, 120 squared meter not so much but enough at the moment.
Once the covid has gone you are welcome

[level42]

Hoping everyone is well and safe. Stay indoors, fix (or maybe even play !) your arcade games....

[retrocab]

yes besides work i am indoors.
a lot going on with corona
time to finish some projects