An Interview with Atari’s Joe Robbins

Another cool video to share with you this week. This is a previously unaired interview with Atari’s Joe Robbins. Robbins was regarded as an industry stalwart. He spent more than two decades quietly becoming one of the most connected and commercially savvy figures in the U.S. coin‑op world, rising through Empire Distributing from the 1950s…

Taito Space Invaders Restoration 1

I haven’t acquired any new cabinets for some time now. In fact, I’ve thinned the herd significantly over the past couple of years, after downsizing my living arrangements. So much so, that I’m down to three key cabinets from twelve. These are ones that I really want to keep long term. You can’t take them…

Unseen Footage of Atari Battlezone Cabinet Production

Note: I’ve seen some online chatter about the possibility that the footage shared in this post could be AI generated (which is pretty depressing, but here we are I suppose). I just wanted to clarify that it is not. It would be pretty daft of me to knowingly post AI generated footage on a blog…

The TDE Podcast Ep 35: Atari Inc Coin-Op Engineer Jeff Bell

Episode 35 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: Jeff Bell was a hardware engineer in Atari Inc’s coin-op division and officially the longest serving employee of the company; literally the last person to switch off…

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…

The TDE Podcast Ep 29: Atari’s Franz Lanzinger

Episode 29 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: Franz Lanzinger programmed the singular Crystal Castles for Atari, Inc. Released in the summer of 1983 and housed within a typically eye-catching Atari cabinet, the game found…

Arcade Raid! Nashville Barn Haul

Finding larger stashes of classic arcade cabinets is becoming an increasingly rare event these days. Outside of individual cabinets listed on eBay, Craigslist and Marketplace, arcade “raids” of the type written about on this blog seem to be a thing of the past. The hobby has become more widespread in recent years and quite simply,…

The TDE Podcast Ep 28: Food Fight programmer Jonathan Hurd

Episode 28 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: Jonathan Hurd coded Food Fight at General Computer Corp for Atari. A decidedly ‘non-violent’ game amid a galaxy of shooters, Food Fight was GCC’s first title for…

Atari Arcade: From Concept to Cabinets

This week, I wanted to share some cool shots of very early concept models of Atari cabinets from the early eighties. These things have never really been highlighted before, but represent a key part of the design function at Atari Coin Operated Division during the Golden Age of arcade gaming. Most of you will be…

Weekend Pickup! Omega Race Cabaret

One out one in! A few changes to the arcade Blogger line-up in recent weeks. Someone made an offer for my Gravitar upright and after much thought I decided to move it on. As lovely a thing as Gravitar is, it is a huge beast and I found myself not playing it regularly, so figured…