Every town should have an arcade. How many hours - weeks- did I spend in one during my misbegotten youth, getting a "reverse suntan"; my sking growing paler and paler as the CRT's bathed it in 64 brilliant neon colors? Yeah, kinda gets you all choke up, don't it?
So I HAD TO make the Game Grid, an homage to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The building shell is pretty basic, but I decided to kind of go all out on the sign, which started as a computer graphics project and ended up as a rotted sign. I pasted it onto the building after I had printed it out and cut a few gashes in regular intervals. Why? Because cheap signs are often printed in pieces, and after a few seasons of rain and wind, those pieces sometimes part company. I carefully rolled the edges of the "cuts" apart and put a streaky swath of black chalk following the seams of the cuts. This is to simulate moldering edges. BUT WAIT... THAT'S NOT ALL....!
The Game Grid
And here's where the REAL WORK started..... I scratchbuilt a video game cabinet out of wood and card and made a mold of this "Blank". Then I cast several dozen "video game machines" in resin (thanks to TAP plastics) and painted them. Lastly, I haunted several "classic video game" sites for their cabinet art and screen shots, which I graphicked-together in my computer and printed out. I cut out the pieces and parts and glued them onto the game cabinets.
Let me tell you, I get the Oooohs and Aaaahhs at the game conventions whey I whip this bad boy out! (figuratively speaking) Once again, an example of how some tedious work will get you something too awesome to be contained!
The interiors of these places were often just a huge strip of industrial rug, held together with pieces of duct tape, or with duct tape to keep the cables pasted down on the ground. They were often just crammed with video games, to squeeze the most quarters out of any passing teen crowd. The floor was a piece of velvety paper, and the duct tape strips were, well, duct tape strips. Wait til you get a load of this, though.....
Oh yeah, all the joysticks are painted pins....!
