www.Arcade-Revival.net , One Man Crazy...

Like many of the games I restore, my website is alive again after being dormant for a few years. After having my domain name expire and get hi-jacked by one of those companies that wanted to sell it back to me for $600 I decided to switch over to ".net" instead of ".com" and move on. It's good to be back. I have to admit, I almost never get tired of clicking on links and seeing that Ms. Pac light up . The fusion of old arcade games and a classic horror movie may seem strange to some, but to me it just seemed to make perfect sense. After countless hours spent working late into the night , babbling to myself ,piecing games together and trying to give them life again and wondering if I was losing my mind in the process, I was beginning to feel like some kind of crazed mad scientist. How did it come to this ? I will tell you.

It all started back when I would watch "Creature Features " as a youngster. The host Bob Wilkins would play horror movies every Friday night. My sister and I spent the night at the house of our cousin Mary and we would huddle in the living room with all the lights turned off and tune in to the show. Probably not the best show for the three of us to be watching late on a Friday night but we did anyway. I was hooked on horror movies from that point on. A few years later my second love came calling : arcade games. Another obsession that would stay with me. After I had been collecting and restoring for a few years I decided I wanted a website. I wanted something different. The mad scientist theme just really seemed to fit even if my assistant was covered in black fur , minus the hunchback and named Duke and I worked in a garage instead of a lab. I think there is a little "mad scientist" in anyone that restores these games.

I talked to my friend and fellow collector Jean who is an extremely talented website designer. I asked him if it would be possible to make some kind of animation depicting a lab scene. After giving it some thought, he suggested we use screen shots from a movie and insert pictures of the games. I picked up a copy of one of the all time greatest horror movies ever and started watching it. Frankenstein was incredibly ground-breaking for it's time and I thought it would be great to pay tribute to it in my site and combine my love of horror movies and arcade games into something special.

After several viewings I had some ideas. I would pause the movie on the 52-inch Pioneer projection tv and snap a photo of the scene I wanted using my Olympus digital camera. I would then email the pictures to Jean and describe what I had in mind. We set a date and he drove to my house. We then positioned the games at various angles and photographed them with a sheet as a backdrop . Jean took the pictures home and went to work while I started writing. I sent him the text and the project was now in his hands. Now all I needed was a name for it.

Several ideas came to mind but the word revival just stayed with me. I even looked it up in the dictionary :

revival [ri-vahy-vuhl] n. The act of reviving , or the state of being revived ; restoration to life or consciousness, or to vigor ,strength, or the like ; restoration to use , acceptance , or currency ; an awakening, in a church or community , of interest in a religion ; a service or a series of services for the purpose of effecting a religious awakening.

The words "restoration to life or consciousness " and "restoration to use, acceptance" really said it all. No need to look further. The site would be called Arcade-Revival.

Jean put so many nice touches into the website. He did a fantastic job with the look and feel and sound effects .The end result is in my mind the perfect blend of a classic horror movie and arcade games. Jean really nailed it. The site may be more eye-candy than substance but the message I was looking for is there. A crazed passion to restore something to life shared with none other than Dr. Frankenstein himself comes across loud and clear.

http://www.arcade-revival.net/