John's Arcade Forum - Classic Arcade and Pinball Collecting and Restoring Discussion Forum - RETRO MAME - Nintendo Vs Forum

...seemed to be up in the air by the end of the last episode. As we've seen a lot of different arcade themed episodes, John steps (ok, sits) in front of the camera this time, and has a 'heart-to-heart' after a long, long ... Journey. (Sorry.)

A couple of the things he mentioned were playing more console games, and I think I actually audibly gasped. I'm not a big fan of consoles (I've been a PC gamer since forever, but controlling things using a gamepad eludes me) and while I get the allure of why it might be fun to see "hey, here's a game for the Atari 2600 - let's see how bad it actually is!" once in a blue moon, I certainly wouldn't want to tune in for it on a regular basis. I regularly watch a few YouTubers now, and their "let's play" vids are ... okay. You end up watching for their personality, more than the gameplay - let's be honest.

The one major "draw" for John's Arcade is the fact that it's all arcade. There's restores. There's gameplay vids. There's road trips. Most of all, there's a glimpse into HISTORY, that most people don't get to see... The arcade in John's basement is awesome - and the rotation is ever changing.

This episode seemed more 'melancholy' by the end. With John sharing a drink with the audience in front of the camera, and considering new ideas, I wonder if this is simply a momentary "hey, just thinking out loud here" or if something has changed... Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid - maybe I'm thinking too much into it. I don't know.

I think you got this all wrong dude..
Think about it. to john arcade machines are "A way of life"  and for anybody to say he would give up that would be like saying he was cutting off his own arm.
"hobby, way of life, whatever you wanna call it.  John will never give up that lifestyle.
Ive collected and played consoles since I was 11 years old.. I am 44 now.
I never gave those up, still have em. but I am actively taking it to the next level with the arcade machines.
and yes, I pay bills, build cars,  and sent my son to college like any good father should.  and the games still remain.
maybe john will someday expand his games to another rented area or make room for more.
who knows.

I can see where he doesn't wanna do the podcast anymore.. it must be a bitch to get everybody on at once plus come up with topics after years of doing podcast plus
he can be spending time with his old lady or kids.

I am all arcade all the time. I DO NOT want to be a console channel. EVER. However, when I was younger, there was a connection between the arcade games and the home ports. I thought it would be fun to explore that from time to time. It's by no means going to be the norm. Just something I want to include on my channel from time to time along with road trips, arcade reviews, game reviews, tech videos, and restores. EVERYTHING arcade. ALL THE TIME. :)

NOTHING has changed! However, let's face it... I WILL NOT be in the garage when it's -10 degrees outside with 2 feet of snow. I am just thinking out loud. The Journey restore consumed 2014. And, I am a little sad now that it is over. I have been thinking much about what I want to do this winter before we go back to the garage in the spring. The seasons suck! :) However, it's a nice little winter break from the garage. :)

I love johns channel the way it is but Im a huge console collector.  I have almost anything you can think of with exception to rare stuff that didn't sell well.  but I grew up in the arcade and look at the arcade as kind of what the Movie theater is to the DVD.  we would see a new game in the theater and fall in love with it and anxiously await the release to home consoles.  Doing a compare of console to arcade would be a cool idea. 

I can't wait for the restorations to begin again but I agree with john.  Im a tropical person.  I hate cold. 

Arcade collectors have a great lifestyle.  kind of like gamers in general we are a pretty close social group of people. 

Keep up the great work john.  Keep making it and we will keep watching it.

I like the angle of John talking about arcade game ports.

I'm winding down for the season as well, and yes, winter does suck.

Probably will work on other "misc" things that I've been neglecting, ie. monitor rejuv, pcb repairs, etc.

I did buy a heater for the garage, but I'll be moving cars in there anyway, which severely reduces available workspace.

Keep up the good work Joh.

Insert giant sigh of relief here. Thanks, John. I was very concerned I'd be logging into another "Classic Game Room" channel, and while Mark is a great guy to watch, I can't connect with all of the games he plays - and I'd much rather forget a lot of the Atari 2600 days... ...especially since I had a Coleco Vision. (Lady Bug, ftw!) Now, if you wanted to run gameplay vids of the entire MAME catalog on your channel, I'd watch the hell out of that.


I hear you, but I'm Canadian, so you'll get little sympathy from me. ;) (But, in all seriousness, I've been the guy out giving my car an oil change and changing the spark plugs in the -10 degree weather of which you speak.) Didn't you get that nice propane heater though? I'm sure that would take care of the heat issues throughout the cold months?

Anyway - I'm glad to hear you're keeping the channel 'status quo' and not turning into a console channel. It's only been a couple of weeks, and I've already had my fill of "Alien Isolation" and "The Evil Within" gameplay vids.

Now, it's almost mid-week. I certainly hope we'll see your hands playing some sick Journey gameplay sooner, rather than later.

 ;D

I haven't watched the final video yet (it's in my queue), but I completely understand the sentiment.  These projects can been draining and finishing such a labor of love can feel oddly like a let down.  I have spent 95% of my game time restoring my 2 pins lately (months & months).  What do you do when an arcade/pinball machine is perfect? Play it?!  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE playing these games, but projects can easily consume the hobby.

Worse yet, what do you do when you feel like your game room is perfect and you have everything you want?

I can also relate 100% to having very divested interests (I have way, way too many).  John often talks about all his hobbies, and it's mind-boggling.   Imagine having a full time job, mortgage, kids, wife, on top of all that.  It all makes life worth living, but it's also a lot to juggle.

It's easy to want John to stay in his youtube box (or harp on him when he skips a week of podcasting), but it's a lot to ask of someone.

Personally, I've been a John fanboy since I started listening to VGO 8 years ago.  Between VGO, AO, WO, Midnight Caller, Youtube, Kill Screens, and John's Arcade website, that's hundreds of hours or freakin' free John-ertainment! (I did buy the KS album though). 

I don't think John's going anywhere, but if he needs to shift focus on his channel for the winter to keep things fresh, that's completely cool and respectable.  If he wants to sell 10 games and mix things up, that's cool too.  Honestly, he could take us on an hour long tour of Nintendo toys in his basement and I'd be totally into it.  He could do a series of videos where he tries to play his old Colecovision collection and I'd be into it.  He could shoot a 3 hour video of him & Matt drinking whiskey, playing games, and long boarding in the dark, and I would probably watch it.  He could devote a segment to proving how good he is at Call of Duty, and I'd watch that shit.   Like I said: John-ertainment!

End Rant

The only channels I really watch religiously are John's Arcade, The Ben Heck Show, TNT Amusements, lukemorse1 and just recently subscribed to Joe Senigaglia and was going to watch his videos tonight. Before anyone says anything about TNT and his prices keep in mind he is retail and is there to make some profit and pay employees. Not a lot of people like him are still around doing it so I consider his stuff cheap for the work his crew does. You can tell he actually cares about the games also and i just love how goofy the guy is

The main reason I watch the above channels a lot is because all these people are being themselves and not trying to create a persona. I know Todd Tuckey is trying for a reality show, but how often do you see him actually push it into his videos? Hell, I'd watch a weekly show about a bunch of goofy guys restoring arcade games. John, Joe, Luke, Todd and Ben Heck all just be themselves. Screw ups and all. For example: You're working on a game and it's not saving high scores and you want to fix that. So you start working on it and discover the battery you think is faulty, just has a sticker on the back of it causing it not to make contact or you spend months on a game and it finally comes down to painting the cabinet. Months of work all coming to an end soon and you open that can to see that lovely Arctic Night shade of blue and it's Milk Chocolatey diarhea brown. Would you upload that or delete it? They upload their screw-ups and everything because it's all part of the process. They aren't fake and trying to look perfect. They want people to learn.

I can't stand watching the people that are trying to be a persona. Be yourself and not a fake. Like Gamester81 for a small example. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, but when he does videos as if he is being interviewed by another person about the game he is talking about, it's annoying as hell. He is clearly alone and just looking off camera at a wall or something. That got on my nerves so I had to quit watching.


Not to sound rude, but did you fully watch it? I find it hard to believe that you did if you felt that way about it when it was the exact opposite honestly. A lot of people in the hobby slow down and do minor stuff or completely stop when winter hits. Watch similar YouTube channels and others will mention that they do this. Some people need breaks or have lives to live. It can't be arcade games 24/7.

I think the idea of John doing arcade vs. console comparisons would be great. Here's my idea for a way he could approach it: he could do a Nintendo Vs. System vs. NES comparison series. Just as an example, he could play a game of Excitebike on the NES and then afterwards play a game of Vs. Excitebike. I know he's done plenty of videos on the Vs. games, but it would be interesting to see the differences between a Vs. game and its corresponding NES game in one video. I don't think there are many videos out there showing these often vast differences, much less ones showing them on real hardware. This is assuming he owns the NES versions of all the Vs. games, of course.

well maybe John can do more play videos down in the basement.  That would be fun to show up that collection of his ^^

he needs to do a shootout of every version of donkey kong on every 8bit home system of the time, c64/2600/speccy/ti99/trash80

Maybe John can make up his own bloody mind, he's a big boy now.
 ;-)

I'm kidding of course....or am I?

If you look at my videos, I think about 100 of them are gameplay vids! :)

Don't worry. I will. I always seem to find something to do. :)

LOL since everyone is hitting john up about videos,  Hey John remember we talked about you maybe doing a quick rebuild video on a nintendo joystick?  might be a cool mid week video.

lol anyway keep up the amazing work!

 :D Hey John I know !! Do a unboxing Video of the NES game Im sending you LOL

Wow, what a thread. I personally stumbled upon the youtube channel just recently and I must say I'm hooked. I often wonder how someone can talk and talk and talk. John man, you must be a really passionate guy and I guess the channel must be a real sattisfaction for you.

The future? Well, I guess you will find a way, and I guess it will be good. I love your tech vids, I love those roadtrips and I love your passion man!

Keep up the good work!

O, by the way, buy an Earthshaker as addition to your Whirlwind. I own the set (and a funhouse too), and this is awesome.

You don't really want to get to this point.  Trust me.  My home game room is essentially there, and it has sat largely untouched for over a year now.  There are a variety of reasons for this, but my new career has put a crimp on things.  For the last two years it has been much harder for me to be home consistently on the weekends so I can schedule arcade parties and have people over.  Also, I've been working longer hours but making a lot less money than I used to.  This hamstrings my ability to change things up in the game room with new games.  Hell it even makes it harder to maintain what I have and get repairs done when I'm on a tighter budget like this.

But you have to find a way.  The arcade game collecting hobby is social by nature.  It's the best part of it, really.  When your game room reaches "perfection" and stops changing it loses its luster, both for you and for your friends, who seem to come over less and less.  Also, instant gratification is overrated and anticipation -- the "hunt" -- is part of the fun.  Don't be in such a hurry to get everything you want.  In this hobby, at least, stagnation equals death.

Earthshaker was the sole pin in the last Grinkfest tournament.  I'd never seen it or even heard of it before.  It's awesome.

John when will you review dreamcast