The TDE Podcast Ep 34: Pong Creator Al Alcorn

Episode 34 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: For this episode we speak with none other than Allan Alcorn, Atari employee number three after Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, and the engineer of Pong, one…

Previously Unseen Puck Man Artwork

I recently came across a few interesting and previously unseen rejected artwork examples from the original cabinet design of Puck Man. So this week, I figured I’d do a follow up to the last blog entry about the Puck Man PCB, by sharing some of the great artwork originally created for the game’s release. You…

Puck Man PCB (Namco)

44 years ago (22 May 1980 to be precise), the first Puck Man machine was placed in an arcade in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, starting a worldwide global videogaming phenomenon. Today, Namco’s Pac-Man remains one of the most recognisable video game characters, transcending popular culture. I won’t rehash the story, but I wrote about the development…

The TDE Podcast Ep 33: Atari’s Roger Hector

Episode 33 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: Senior corporate executive, serial entrepreneur, automotive designer and fine artist. Roger Hector is not only a successful businessman but a bona fide creative polymath. A long time…

Super Pang Kabuki Chip Repair

You may have noticed that I don’t share many repairs here on the blog. Although useful (and I’m glad people do share their knowledge) I think they’re pretty dry to read and I don’t tend to tackle repairs – and when I do, they aren’t always successful! My arcade technical expertise is rather limited –…

Atari’s Mike Jang

Some sad news to report on the blog this week. I got word that long-time Industrial Designer at Atari coin-operated division, Mike Jang, has passed away. I’ve known Mike since 2016, and whilst we never met, he was always on the other end of an email answering my questions and providing really valuable input into…

Saving an Arcade Workshop: The legacy of Automatic Services Limited

If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you’ll have read several articles where I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go through old collections or stashes of arcade cabinets. This is where arcade collectors get together to acquire, rescue, save (call it what you will) artifacts from the arcade industry. Often cabinets…

Arcade Raid! Huge Arkansas Barn Find

After something of a drought of Arcade Raid reports in recent months, I have another great classic arcade cabinet stash find to share on the blog this week. Maybe we’re on a roll! Check out last weeks’ arcade raid tale here if you missed it. So we go from South Dakota last week, to Arkansas…

Arcade Raid! South Dakota mega-haul

Here’s a cool arcade raid tale from a few years back that turned up several rare titles. US-based collector Joe Magiera received a message from a fellow collector back in 2006 with a lead on some arcade cabinets being sold off. It read: I got a cold-call email stemming from my web site from some…

The TDE Podcast Ep 17: Gottlieb alumnus David Thiel

Episode 17 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: David Thiel is perhaps best known for his pinball audio work on titles such as Tron: Legacy, Alien, Dialed In, Avatar and Family Guy, but he was…