Atari Coin-Op: Classic Arcade Marketing

This week, I thought it would be interesting to look at Atari Coin-Operated Division’s B2B marketing efforts in the early 80s. By ‘B2B’ I mean the way in which they marketed their coin operated activities to the other businesses they wanted to foster relationships with; namely operators and distributors of their arcade games. It was…

Play Blackpool: 2017 Arcade Expo Review

The Play Expo Events are now a regular fixture of the retro gaming calendar over here in the UK. These annual shows feature a variety of activities including Cosplay, Retro console systems, traders, guest speakers (check out the talk I gave a few years back in Manchester here), multiplayer LAN gaming and of course video arcade…

Arcade Raid! Abandoned House: Vive la France!

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to be a part of an extraordinary arcade rescue mission. This turned out to be a very memorable raid for both good and bad reasons. Nothing could have prepared us for what we found. In short, we received a message from an English woman about two weeks ago, who…

Arcade Raid! A Canadian Horror Story

If you’re of a nervous disposition when it comes to classic arcade cabinets, you might want to hit the back button now. This is not a ‘good news’ arcade raid! I’ve not featured any Canadian arcade raids thus far on Arcade Blogger. That’s not through want of trying – they just seem to be few…

Atari Battlezone Restoration 5

We made good progress in Part 4 of this restoration after the lull of the cold winter months. Time this week to get out in the garage and tidy up some of the loose ends that are still to be done with the cabinet. Pulling the cab out of the garage, I noticed it covered…

Atari Ireland: Tipperary’s Arcade Connection

Atari’s massive success in the late 70s presented many challenges, not least of which was one of logistics: How were they going to get arcade product shipped globally to meet the huge demand for its arcade games? Transporting bulky 300lb lumps of wood, glass and metal around the globe from a single operational base in…

Atari Battlezone Restoration 4

I’ve actually been getting a bit of grief about the lack of updates on my twitter account about this restoration! It’s a fair cop. The grim late winter over here has meant slow progress with the Battlezone (well that, and my laziness hasn’t helped either), but milder weather is upon us, so I’ve been able…

California Extreme 2017 Arcade Expo

The best thing about this crazy hobby, are the huge numbers of collectors who simply want to share their games with a wider audience. And there’s no better demonstration of this community spirit than the large numbers of arcade events that take place across America each year. I’ve written before about my own experiences at…

Arcade Raid! Euro Zaccaria Rescue

Italian arcade manufacturer Zaccaria holds a special place in collectors’ hearts over here in Europe. At one point, they were the third largest producer of pinball machines after Williams and Bally, and were also renowned for their video game releases during the 70s and 80s. As well as some of their own in-house developed games,…