The addiction...

The addiction started just about 3 years ago with MAME... basically a PC running arcade ROMS. I thought I had come up with an original idea to stick a PC in to an arcade cabinet to use th actual arcade monitor and controls. Man was I surprised when I found out people had been doing it for years! It took me about a month to build and during that time I came across a Williams Joust machine, non-working, for $50.00. Less than $50.00 more (power supply) and I had a fully working Joust. That was the beginning of the end. I found that I enjoyed tinkering with these machines even more than playing them. One thing led to another and I came across my first pinball machine... 1980's Stern Lightning. I figured if I liked tinkering with arcade machines, pinball machines have a WHOLE LOT MORE to tinker with. I was right. I had a good time shopping the game out but of course, I wanted more. Spy Hunter came up for sale locally and I was all over it. I like the theme, and the price was right. Well, that begun my pinball addiction. Unfortunately, pinball machines are a lot more expensive and take up considerably more space than an arcade game, so they've been coming in much slower. My latest "find" was Whirlwind... I am looking forward to shopping that bad boy out shortly.