INSANE COLLECTION
RETRO RECOLLECTION
Ageless Art: More than just good games, Ed’s haul hosts some amazing visual showpieces. It’s like an art gallery you can play.
RETRO: Do you remember the game that started the collecting “itch”? Ed Beeler: I totally fell in love with videogames with Galaxian. Before that, it was surely Space Invaders. But early on, I played videogames like Bi-Plane and Side Trak by Exidy. I’m sure it was pinball that started it, with a game like Silverball Mania by Bally in the early ‘80s before videogames took hold. Games like Black Knight, Gorgar, and Playboy were all the rage and games I played when I could get my hands on them. RETRO: What was the first arcade game you bought? Ed Beeler: My dad had many games from many sources — flea market, the fire house — even the dump! These included some he could fix, like Ice Review and 7 UP (all mechanical) to things that just sat in the garage, like Solar Quest (in the dump by the fire company) and Sea Wolf (left out on street on appliance dump day) — I fooled with all of them. The electronics were pretty out of reach in the late 1970s early ‘80s. First games I purchased myself, bad choices for a newbie, were Gottlieb’s Black Hole and Haunted House. These were (and still are) the worst pinball games for a newbie to buy! They sat for a long time, but now I can fix them in my sleep. Just to note, my friend Matt and I pulled the Black Hole, complete, down two flights of stairs — we didn’t know then how to take it apart, and then we got stuck in the seller’s driveway with a two-wheel-drive truck in January in Pennsylvania. The seller pushed us out of the drive with his bulldozer! The Haunted House my friends Matt and Al and I picked up in a Subaru wagon. We were lucky someone didn’t have to ride on the roof on the way home! It doesn’t fit! RETRO: What are some of your best memories of growing up in the arcade? Ed Beeler: All or most of my arcade memories start with my parents, Alice and Jack Beeler, taking me somewhere, where all I wanted to do was play games — videogames and pinball machines. I was born in 1970, right before the golden age of the arcades, and was 9–15 years of age when the arcades were big in the 1980s. I can vividly remember any and all arcade and pinball games I played for the first time, when and where, es-
sentially what year and what game and where it was played. I did not know I would have this skill in the future; the memories just stuck with me. I can tell you where I played it, the surroundings, the smells, who took me there, the games around it. I can tell you the layout of all of the arcades of my youth. First time I played Asteroids? Neville Island Roller Rink, on skates, in the concession stand. 25 cent Cokes. When did I beat the dragon on Dragon’s Lair? North Hills Village Fun ‘N Games, 1984, about 8 p.m., with a big crowd gathered ‘round. Called all my middle-school friends when I got home. Parents did not understand the significance. Mother Beeler does remember having to take me somewhere to play the “dragon game” specifically at some point. Wizard of Wor? First played with my cousin JR in Atlanta, GA at the Peachtree Mall arcade. He was 16 and drove. Too cool. He had all the quarters. Domino Man? Awesome Bally game. Chuck E. Cheese, 1983, Bridgeville, PA. Someone else’s birthday. Like I cared. Free tokens! I was there to play games, especially Gottlieb’s LaserDisc game, M.A.C.H. 3! Four Square Pinball — My cousin Nancy Duty’s house, Brighton Heights, PA — my dad thought we could buy it if it was Gottlieb’s Buckaroo, as seen in the movie Superman. Nancy, my cousin, said this after three highballs — “yeah, whatever, your dad is a Buckaroo” — I kept playing the pinball game. Space Invaders? Got the static shock from the carpet at the Boardwalk in Northway Mall, North Hills, PA. Scramble? Debbie Foster’s dad’s hobby shop in Avalon, PA. I told her I would go to the prom with her if I could come up to play the game after they closed. Side Trak? Allegheny Center Mall kiosk, after I cried to my dad that the arcade was closed. He gave up and we played whatever available game. Side Trak was it. A highly collectible game today! Cliff Hanger — Akron, Ohio, Quaker Mills, Mall, listening to “All Shook Up” by Cheap Trick on my Walkman. I remember a nice fall sunset, listening to “At Budokan” on the way home, Sunday night, school on Monday, boo…
Galaxian? Mount Lebanon garage sale on the Main with my dad, when some older kid, a Clockwork Orange type punk tried to cut in line…Dad gave him a stern look and he beat it. Rent-a-games on the sidewalk! Happened a lot in those days. Berzerk? Bob-Lo Island arcade, Michigan with my Uncle Pat, then from Detroit. Had to take the ferry over. Bi-Plane? With my middle-school buddy Scott Huffmyer on my birthday at Century 3 mall with my mom dishing out at least $2 in quarters. Dolly Parton Pinball? Eli’s Pizza, around a bunch of tough kids, 1980, West View, PA with my dad. Kids in 1981 had cigarettes everywhere, lots of coarse language. Don’t recall the pizza. See what I mean? I have a thousand of these memories. Most memorable was seeing about 40 Asteroids cabinets in a row, Atlantic City NJ boardwalk, 1980. Same weekend trip, winning about 16 games as a 10-year-old on a Bally’s Silverball Mania Pinball with my dad watching in another boardwalk arcade…and also feeling like I had my own little private arcade in our hotel on the boardwalk, it was quite empty, but had great pins like Gorgar and Firepower, vids like Space Zap. Awesome. If I only had more coins… Last memory of thousands — Dad took me to Allegheny Center Mall in Pittsburgh to try to buy a pinball, Game Plan’s Old Coney Island! (bad choice Dad). He had to drag me away from a Midway Galaxian game. I handed it off to two obvious pimps. We did not buy the pin, I felt like I gave up a great game to look at the crappy pin, cried all the way home in the front seat between mom and dad, felt like a jerk the whole time, all at 10 years old. No, I did not have issues. I just knew I was destined to eat, love, play, fix, buy, sell, trade, and most of all collect (hoard), all things coinop, pinball machines, and 1980s videogames. RETRO: What era produced the best arcade games? Ed Beeler: I think this question is partial to when you grew up. I loved some ‘70s games. But I am purely partial to the 1980s. Not only because this is when I grew up playing the games, but also because this was the boom period for game manufacturing, not just in quantity, but in quality. Games of great original themes came www.readretro.com
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