? ?
- Bradley Czech: I grew up in that golden era
of video arcade games.
[coin clinks in slot]
[1980s pop music]
I remember going to the arcades years ago
and seeing some of these new titles that are coming out.
- Norbert of Storylords: Got' em!
- I remember going to the arcades
and seeing these elaborate cabinets
with incredible artwork on them
and hearing these new sounds.
[Pac-Man repeats an ambulance siren]
- And seeing the graphics.
And, really, that's kind of what comes to mind
when I think about the old memories of,
"What do I remember growing up about arcade games?"
[tires skid]
[percussion music]
I got my first arcade game at the age of 13.
And I ended up spending $60 to buy an Asteroids game.
That's what started it.
And it just sort of happened
that I just started acquiring
more and more games over the years.
[electronic arcade sounds]
[game over sound]
I would say probably just over 200 games.
It's hard to say exactly because I'm always adding things in.
And once in a while, I'll let something go.
But I would say probably 200, 225 games.
[points scored sound]
Well, storage is always an issue.
I do have quite a few games in my house in my basement.
[garage door creaks]
And then, I have a lot in my garage that are stored there.
And then, I also have a warehouse location
that I store many games at.
[garage door slides up track]
Right now, we're at one of my storage locations,
where I keep all my overflow parts.
With them being as old as they are,
they need repairs all the time.
Those parts take up a lot of space,
so I keep a lot of them here.
[computerized voice says, "I can fix it."]
Restoration is far more extensive
than most people would realize.
You're talking about
going to the absolute basic foundation of these games,
stripping them down to the bare wood a lot of times,
and starting over.
The process can take months and months.
Actually, just recently,
I finished up three titles that I started a year ago.
I got to thinking, "How can I show these to people again
so that they can appreciate and enjoy them?"
So then I started approaching some different museums
about the idea of
actually bringing arcades
to be shown off to the public.
[1980s pop music]
The games bring me back to a time of the 1980s,
where life is very simple.
Today, I love the conveniences that we have
with the Internet and all that.
But there was a simplicity to that time
where people were just enjoying these games
and having fun with that.
And to me, having these, and seeing people play them,
and seeing people enjoy them,
it kind of brings me back to that time.
[video game sound effects]