Thank you for visiting the online version of Replay Arcade.
Replay Arcade was envisioned in 1981 while pumping quarters into an Atari Asteroids machine at the local mom ‘n’ pop and enjoying an ice-cold bottle of Pepsi (made with real sugar.) Back then, the only kid in the world I knew with his own video arcade was Ricky Schroder’s TV character on Silver Spoons. I thought, “Someday, I’ll have my own arcade — and it will be awesome, only without the stupid rideable train.”
In the Summer of 2012, I visited the local Pinball expo in Marin, and I was blown away by the turn out. I got to see and hear hundreds of machines from dozens of hobbyists from around the Bay Area and beyond. It became clear to me that there are a lot of great people that love this hobby and enjoy collecting and restoring old games. I played a few games there that I hadn’t seen since my college years, and a spark was lit…
I pondered for a second, “Perhaps I could own one of these machines some day?” This idea felt good.
The dream of having my own arcade was fulfilled in the Winter of 2012 when I took a chance and jumped in cold, and purchased my first pinball machine from a local collector: “Diner.” I unknowingly became a very serious hobbyist/collector overnight. After playing Diner non-stop for nights on end, I realized that I loved pinball more than all video games from 1981-present. The fact that your body is standing up, moving, fully involved, and that you are interacting with something physical with sights/sounds, that your friends can watch and understand quickly and enjoy with you — puts it over the top as a better experience than playing a video game (which is often a solitary, sitting down experience with hyper-deep rule set requiring 1000’s of hours to master which can be enough of an obstacle for most friends to not want to join in.) Any friend that comes over now, wants to play pinball and have fun.
And so began a new passion…
I have come to enjoy every aspect of the hobby of playing, collecting and restoring pinball machines:
- Discovering/refining pinball playing skills
- Hosting pinball parties
- Locating/rescuing pinball machines
- Networking/socializing with other collectors
- Restoring/repairing/upgrading machines
- Taking trips to bars and other local venues to play and compete
- Teaching friends how to improve their playing skills
Have fun! — Enjoy the arcade! (And leave your quarters at home, everything is on FREE play!)
