Category: Arcades/Arcade Games

A Token Thanksgiving

My friend Sean and I were recently talking about how Thanksgiving can be almost like two separate holidays for kids and adults. While the adults enjoy talking and eating and watching football, the kids are often left to entertain themselves. I decided to do something fun for the kids this year and drag one of my few remaining arcade cabinets in from the garage and set it up in the back dining room. This machine began life as a Williams cabinet — either Defender or Joust, I think. Someone converted it to a Buster Bros. machine many years ago, and… (read more)

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More Denver Arcade Spots

Earlier this week I wrote about the time I spent at the 1UP Arcade in Denver attending the Kong Off 3, but my buddy Robb Sherwin took me to visit a few other local arcades over the weekend as well. THE 2UP 717 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, Colorado Just across town from the 1UP is the 2UP. While the space may be slightly smaller, the fun was just as big. My buddy Robb (you can see him in the picture there) and I spent several hours hanging out at the 2UP playing games and watching football. Like the 1UP, all… (read more)

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A Donkey Kong Weekend in Denver

At 5:15 A.M. on Monday morning, a Kansas state trooper pulled me over. By that time I had already been on the road for two hours, doing five over the whole time. “The reason I pulled you over,” he said, “was because you were swerving a bit back there. Everything okay in here?” “Oh yes sir,” I responded, “just a little tired. I left Denver this morning around 3 A.M. and I’m heading back home to Oklahoma City.” “Mmm,” he said. “What were you doing in Denver?” “Well sir, I just got back from attending the Kong Off 3, the… (read more)

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Recent Podcast Appearances!

I’m home from Denver after attending the Kong Off 3. What a fun weekend! I’ll be writing more about it tomorrow, but to hold you over until then, here are a few recent podcasts I’ve appeared on. You Don’t Know Flack Episode 145: About Podcasting Episode 145 of You Don’t Know Flack is all about podcasting, literally. In this episode I talk about what it takes to start and run a podcast. On this episode I was joined by 8 fellow podcasters who also give their input and advice. If you have ever wanted to start your own podcast, this… (read more)

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An Open Letter to the Daily Sun

To whom it may concern: I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, my son will no longer be delivering newspapers for the Daily Sun. Additionally, I have grave concerns regarding the safety of the route he was assigned that I would like to bring to your attention. I initially allowed my son to take this part time job due to its relatively straight forward route and small number of customers. Despite only having ten customers (on a street with 20 houses), my son must cross three busy intersections. Despite having crosswalks, cross traffic does not stop or even… (read more)

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Another Visit to the Arkadia Retrocade

Last weekend the family and I drove to Bentonville, Arkansas to attend my buddy Brian’s 40th birthday party. The next morning on the way out of town we swung through Fayetteville and stopped by the Arkadia Retrocade. Arkadia has changed a bit since our last visit. There are more games now (close to 95, I think) and they’re laid out more logically now. All the Mario games are up front, all the space games are in a small island together, all the military games are in a row, and so on. On Sundays Arkadia is open from noon until 6pm.… (read more)

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Raspberry Pi Round Two: PiMame

In the comments of my last Raspberry Pi post, reader Ben politely pointed out “you’re doing it wrong.” And I was. Along with a couple of other helpful suggestions, Ben also pointed me toward PiMame, which comes as a precompiled image — simply download, extract, boot, and play. Now that the raspberry Pi is out of the box and connected, I only had two goals: 01. Download/extract/configure PiMame 02. Play games. Would this one work better than my first go ’round with RetroPie? Read on! 01. Download/extract/configure PiMame I downloaded PiMame 0.7.8 from the following link: http://blog.sheasilverman.com/pimame-raspberry-pi-os-download/. I used Win32… (read more)

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YDKF Episode 127/128/129: BASIC/Commodore 128/Arcades

It’s been a few weeks (apparently) since I announced my new podcast episodes here. Episode 127 is about BASIC programming. This one has old stories about programming in BASIC, a few new stories about Visual Basic, and some new forks of the BASIC programming language that are still being updated. Episode 128 is (fittingly) about the Commodore 128. Packed in and around stories about the C128 are a couple of stories about S.A.M., the old voice synthesizer for the Commodore. Episode 129 is all about the collection of arcade games I owned while I lived in El Reno, Oklahoma. The… (read more)

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YDKF Episode 125: The Video Game Crash of 1983

Here’s the second post that got gummed up in the system. Episode 125 of You Don’t Know Flack is all about the video game crash of 1983. “It was a dark and stormy night…” or was it really? In this episode I talk all about the causes of the video game crash of 1983, and why I missed it. From the voice mail box I answer the question, “what’s the worst arcade conversion I’ve ever seen?” Link: YDKF Episode 125: The Video Game Crash of 1983 Facebook: You Don’t Know Flack (Video Game Crash. Get it?)

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YDKF Episode 124: Arkadia Retrocade

This podcast is actually two weeks old, but for some reason this announcement didn’t go through. So, here it is. Episode 124 of You Don’t Know Flack is a recap of my visit to the new Arkansas retro arcade, Arkadia Retrocade. Our visit to the arcade sure helped cure my case of Pac-Man Fever! Link: YDKF Episode 124: The Arkadia Retrocade Facebook: You Don’t Know Flack (I have no idea why he is pretending to play guitar in this clip.)

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