Hello to all here,
I am Jochen Hippel - another arcade-infected enthusiast.
A little bit about myself: (edit: i didn't thought that it would be that much)
Born in 1971
~1982
Saw my first arcade (Pac Man)
Played a lot on my Atari VCS
~1984
Got my first Computer, a C64. started to be interested in programming... Basic first, 6510 Assembler later.
Found out that Video-Game-Music (esp. on the C64) was the thing i loved most.
~1987
A friend convinced me to get an Atari ST instead of an Amiga.
Basic on Atari ST was quite shitty, 68000 Assembler seems to be the solution.
Arrived at the Atari-St-Demo-Scene.
~1988
Arrived at Video-Game-Industrie- programming Music for Computergames e.g. for Rainbow Arts, Thalion, Hewson
(Games like Turrican (Atari ST), Wings of Death, Amberstar, Rings of Medusa and many more).
Cnverted complete games from Atari ST to Amiga for Thalion.
~1994
stopped working with Computers.
much much later....
~2000
got my first PC
~2002
started "programming" or is it called "scripting" again..this time with php, javascript html,Java
~2012
Tyrem, a very good friend of mine, infected me with the arcades...
Sometimes i feel like i child even though i was not that much involved back then - when i was a child.
Got my first Cab - a German Donkey Kong(Japan-RomSet). i brought it up to the 2nd floor. Heavy like hell - i am not the youngest anymore.
Got interestet in electronics because the CRT of the donkey kong (a Hantarex) was blown. Luckily I managed to repair it

Got my 2nd CAB, a original Zaccaria Frogger. Love that game!
Got a lot of PCBs
2013
Found out that it is possible for those Games to let them save the highscores....
I also found out that playing the game and competing with others(sharing with friends) is much more fun because:
A good friend of mine kicked my highscores in Frogger, Time Pilot and Donkey Kong. THIS CAN NOT BE!!!
At least i took over the highscore of donkey kong again... but i still have to practice in Frogger and Time Pilot.
Recent project: Tyrem and myself trying to create a little piece of hardware to save highscores and send it to the net...
This idea is not new, we just put together two already existing things: A "highscore save kit" and a hardware that connects to a Network (e.g. internet)
The installation of our hardware should be as easy as it can be - because we all love our babies and we want to keep them as original as it can be.
There are a lot of possibilites like the highscores and dipswitch-settings can be uploaded to a website or to a scoreboard in the game-room.
5 days ago:
i started with part 1: Highscore-Save-Kit.
First project: Wizard of Wor.
I had to extend the program code to enter initials. I have never programmed Z80 assembly-language before...
yesterday:
This part is 98% completed. WOW is now able to enter initals :-)
Now i need to build the hardware to save the scores on a EEProm
Next part after that will be: adding network.
Tyrem already opened a thread about that project - smore details in there soon.
And finally it is nice be here along with many like-minded people :-)
greetings from germany
Jochen