I’m a regular member of several online forums, one of which is the Oklahoma Coin-Op Collectors Forum. The demographics are fairly obvious; most of the users are people who live in Oklahoma, and who collect coin-operated games. The main focus of the forum is arcade games and pinball machines, although conversation about coin changers, vending machines, slot machines and other coin-operated items occasionally come up.

Next Saturday, April 26th, is the debut of the Oklahoma Electronic Gaming Expo (OEGE). (This is unrelated to the Oklahoma Video Game Expo (OVGE), which as far as I know is still being planned for this fall.) OEGE is free to the general public, and is being held at Oklahoma City Community College. I don’t have many more details about the event other than what’s on this PDF flyer. If you go to the event, look for me — I’ll be wearing a black baseball cap with FLACK written across the front in yellow letters. I’m subtle like that.

After the show’s over, several of us are going to Fire Mountain to eat dinner. After that, we’re coming back to my house for a night of gaming, starting at or around 6:30pm and going until midnight. If you’re reading this, you’re invited — email me for details. Most of the beds are already claimed so you’ll be on your own there. My schedule looks like this: meeting a friend for breakfast, going to the show around 10am, meeting more friends for lunch around 11am, hitting a few thrifts and/or flea markets on the way back to the show, hanging out at the show some more, going to Fire Mountain around 5pm, heading back to my house by 6:30pm, playing games until midnight. I’m not sure what’s planned for Sunday yet — probably a little shopping and eating before everybody who’s staying at Casa de Flack has to hit the road.

So anyway, back to the point of this post. My arcade has seen better days. I currently own 30 arcade games, and somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4 of them have stopped working. After a bit of soul searching I have realized that I am much better at buying arcade games than I am at fixing them. With the party’s date rapidly approaching, I broke down and asked for help fixing my games on the Oklahoma coin-op forum. Within a couple of hours two people responded, saying that they would offer their services.

Last night at around 10pm, the duo showed up with tools and parts in hand. They made their way through my games like whirling dirvishes, disassembling and reassembling games at an amazing pace. In two hours the pair attempted to repair six cabinets and succeeding in fixing five — only my stubborn Scramble cabinet decided not to cooperate. The other five cabinets — Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Karate Champ, Roadblasters, Buster Brothers, and Super Off-Road — are now working like new once again. I really, really appreciated these guys’ help, and I was literally in awe of their knowledge and skills.

So, game party next weekend. If you’re interested in stopping by, drop me an e-mail for directions and details.