Last time I wrote about Peter Hirschberg, a guy with a passion for restoring vintage, '80s-era arcade games, he was toying with the notion of building a full-blown arcade next to his Linden home to store his growing collection.And here it is. Finally, after a couple of years, a pile of money, and a struggle or two with contractors and local building regulations, Luna City Arcade is complete.Missile Command, Space Invaders, Defender, Asteroids, Q*bert -- all the old pizza parlor favorites are here, chirping away with the same old sounds and waiting for a quarter. Luna City, as he calls it, is Hirschberg's personal time capsule: The walls of the 60- by 40-foot building are lined with posters for "Star Wars," "Tron" and "Battlestar Galactica" (the original series, not the recent remake). The collection is up to 65 games at the moment, and another three are on the way."This is what heaven looks like," said Hirschberg, as he welcomed a small group of my friends and me to his recent unofficial grand opening, where about 50 of his friends and co-workers, and their kids, showed up to play.Collecting arcade machines isn't a huge hobbyist scene, as maintaining these big old systems can be labor intensive. Hirschberg, whose arcade is one of the biggest private collections in the country, sometimes has to cannibalize several different systems to get the right parts for additions. He's had the occasional machine burst into flames.
What state is this in?
A state of bliss.
God, we gotta start growing mullets and start wearing leather jackets and tight jeans filled with quarters and then go down to this guy's arcade. It would be the perfect 80's gig. Cool
Sweet! My brother and I are going to drive down to FunSpot in New Hampshire sometime soon. I have to try for the Xevious highscore.
What's the Xevious highscore at?