Another Californian

[Namco51]

Howdy gents. My name's Fred, I'm 40 from Northern California's SF Bay Area. I've registered here because I'm kinda addicted to John's Arcade (the YT channel). Dude's so charismatic and has reminded about how much I love classic gaming. I don't have a ton of room nor a bunch of classic arcade cabs--just one Dynamo with SF2 artwork and a MAME PC in it, but I'd love to make what little space I have into something special like what John has in that basement.

I grew up in the LA South Bay area with father was in a bowling league so I spent every Tuesday night at El Dorado Bowl playing the latest games that rolled in and every weekend at Time Out or Aladdin's Castle. I remember the day Pac-Man Plus or Pole Position or Dragon's Lair showed up and being absolutely blown away by them and wanting to know everything about computers and electronics, that passion has never left me. The arcade bug comes and goes with me. Every time it does come back I get completely obsessed and just have to build or do something related to the hobby. This time in the back of my mind I have grand designs of scratch building a few skinny cabs or bartops, but first thing's first I'm cleaning out the garage and watching a lot of John's Arcade. Hoping to learn more about woodworking and electronics and make something that's fun, small, and authentic looking.

I'd been a lurker on alt.games.mame for years before the ISPs started killing their newsgroup servers and the spammers finished the job, and was also active a few years ago on BYOAC. I hope to find a cool new community here and can't wait to start reading and replying to posts!

-Fred