Got to Dad’s house around 8:30am, just in time to head out to a video game auction. These auctions used to come through Oklahoma all the time, but stopped for some reason. They’re back now though, and they take credit cards.

The auction was held in the Cleveland County Fairgrounds, in Norman, OK. Dad and I got there around 9:15, with the auction scheduled to begin at 10. Now, some of you may remember that I had 6 or 7 arcade machines before I moved to Spokane, but I was moving 1,800 miles away into an apartment, which forced me to sell them all.

There was a significant lack of newer games at this auction, which is just fine by me. The age I’m looking for is 1984-1994. Games before 1984 (Pac-Man, Centipede, Donkey Kong, etc) are considered “classics” and go for ridiculous amounts of money, as do the newer games. However, during those years where video games were a dime a dozen, games made during those years can be picked up very reasonably.

I really had my eye on that Mortal Kombat II with the 25″ monitor, but in closer inspection the monitor was pretty faded and the cabinet was huge. Dad had his eye on some slot machines but the prices skyrocketed in a hurry. As expected, a Robotron went for $450 and a Ms. Pac-Man went for $500. All the pinball games went between $400-$600. A non-working Joust went for almost $400, which is insane. Anyway, fortunately nobody was really interested in Bucky O’Hare ($75), Shinobi ($150), and an electronic dart board game ($100), which is how they found their way into my house. (Note: I just did the math, and I only bought 2% of the games there. That’s not so wrong, is it?)

I love my wife very, very much.