Peter Hirschberg's Journal

Jon St John (voice of Duke Nukem) - Photo Op for Vector Tanks at MAGFest Convention

2010-02-07T14:50:00.003-05:00

Jon provides the voice of one of the characters in my upcoming game Vector Tanks EXTREME! I was excited beyond words to meet him in-person at MAGFest 2010 (Feb 1-4 2010)! Jon is an amazingly nice person, and even let me take him out for dinner - my treat! :-)

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An Update on Peter Hirschberg and 'Vector Tanks' on Touch Arcade

2010-02-07T14:34:00.000-05:00

Nice article on Vector Tanks Classic on Touch Arcade.com!!

http://toucharcade.com/2010/02/07/an-update-on-peter-hirschberg-and-vector-tanks/

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Vector Tanks (Classic) update released today

2010-02-01T21:19:00.001-05:00

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=838942#post838942

Includes a blurb about the upcoming sequel game "Vector Tanks Extreme!" and compatibility with the Apple iPad.

MAGFest - Vector Tanks - Jon St. John

2009-12-16T11:53:00.002-05:00

I will be at MAGFest Jan 1-4 2010 (Alexandria VA) to meet Jon St. John(!), who has provided character voices for my upcoming iPhone game "Vector Tanks Extreme".

Anybody wanna hook up there?

Forgot to mention: "Vector Tanks Extreme!" is currently targeted for a Feb. 2010 release. Just a month and a half away!

MOON ATTACKED! WAR DECLARED! SURRENDER DOROTHY!

2009-10-09T10:37:00.002-05:00

In a clear escalation of hostilities, today the earth launched a withering attack on the Moon. Several rockets were seen fired at installations on the ground, and rising plumes of smoke were visible for thousands of miles.

Tensions between the earth and the moon have waxed and waned over the past month, but today's attack was a definitive preemptive strike against the small breakaway celestial body.

A spokesperson for the Earth said that today's preemptive attack on the Moon was successful. "All their base are belong to us. They have no chance".

The U.N. has spoken out against the attack and has expressed concern over the humanitarian conditions on the Moon, which it called "inhospitable". "Our concern is that these needless attacks on the Moon will quickly turn the area into an empty and desolate cratered wasteland.", a representative for the U.N. said.

Experts worry that a wave of reprisal attacks could cause a ripple effect felt across the entire planet.

Twitter

2009-07-29T06:50:00.001-05:00

I signed up for a Twitter account, for anyone who wants to follow along.

http://twitter.com/peterhirschberg

Luna City Arcade News - Shawn Haines

2009-04-17T10:25:00.006-05:00

This is a very hard letter for me to write.

Those who remember last year's Luna City Arcade Game Day will recall that it was fundraiser / benefit to raise money for the medical expenses of Shawn Haines who was suffering from Hodgkin's Disease. The event raised several thousand dollars and was a huge help to Shawn's family who were fighting the insurance companies and trying to keep up with the bills for the constant tests, procedures, etc.

Shawn passed away last Thursday after a 2 year battle with the disease. He was 22 years old, and stayed strong and upbeat until the very end.

I have been best friends with Shawn's parent's for 25-30 years and Shawn was like a son to me. Right now I am at a loss for words. My only comfort is that all the needles, chemo, drugs, and pain have ended now and that Shawn is now at peace.

I am working on setting up a small memorial display for Shawn for the upcoming Game Day on the 25th (next weekend) and I hope you will take the time to stop by and appreciate it.

I want to thank everyone who helped out last year and offered their support for Shawn. He was loved by many, and we will all miss him.

I encourage everyone to visit Shawn's CaringBridge site and sign his guestbook here:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/shawnhaines

Some pictures from of Shawn from last year's Game Day:

Please keep Shawn's parents and younger brother and sister in your thoughts and prayers.

-Peter

REMINDER: Luna City Benefit Game Day - Sat, April 25 - EVENT DETAILS ENCLOSED

2009-03-25T09:45:00.006-05:00

Just a reminder of the upcoming Game Day Sat, April 25 from 11:00am to 8pm. This particular Game Day is open to ALL. Family, friends, coworkers - you're all welcome to come.

As with the last Game Day, this Game Day is a benefit event. This event will be a benefit for Col. Wesley Fox Young Marines (http://cwfym.home.comcast.net), a youth group to promote a drug free lifestyle. Donations to be accepted (and as always will be completely optional). Fred Stoki, who will be running the operations for this Game Day, is a close friend and neighbor of mine and he is in charge of the Young Marines in our area. Fred has been an integral part of helping me keep Luna City up and running so I don't completely lose my mind. Without him I could not do public Game Days. I hope you will help support him and his benefit.

Food will be available for a nominal fee. Made to order Hot dogs, Hamburgers, Pork BBQ sandwiches, chips & soda.

I believe we are working on getting a Moon Bounce again for this event, as well as a couple port-a-potties (sorry about last time)

** All proceeds from the event go directly to the Non-Profit Col. Wesley Fox Young Marines. **

*****************************************************************

Just like always, ALL the games are FREE to play for as long as you like. Adults and children of all ages are welcome. All I ask is that children treat the machines gently as they are old, and all part of my personal collection. Please remember that Luna City Arcade is my residence. Also realize that by 8pm I am going to be completely exhausted, so please remember that the event ends at 8pm. You are totally welcome to come at 11am and stay until 8pm but at 8pm I shut off the all breakers and I go crash. :-)

I will also have console games (Atari 2600, maybe a Wii, etc) set up in the upstairs of the arcade for those who are looking for a slightly different diversion.

I hope everyone is looking forward to it! It's probably going to be another huge event like last time! Please plan on coming out and having a great time, as well as helping out the Young Marines!

*****************************************************************

DIRECTIONS AND OTHER EVENT DETAILS ARE LISTED BELOW

DIRECTIONS AND OTHER EVENT DETAILS ARE LISTED BELOW

DIRECTIONS AND OTHER EVENT DETAILS ARE LISTED BELOW

*****************************************************************

INTERVIEW WITH ME ABOUT MY GAME DAYS
http://peterhirschberg.blogspot.com/2008/02/digitallifestyletv-video-interview.html

BLOG POST ABOUT LAST GAME DAY
http://peterhirschberg.blogspot.com/2008/09/august-23rd-benefit-game-day-results.html

YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF SOME PREVIOUS GAME DAYS
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=033ACD93612500C7

*****************************************************************

I NEED HELP! I NEED HELP! I NEED HELP! I NEED HELP! I NEED HELP!

* If someone has a portable (non-window-unit) Air Conditioner (the kind that has hoses to vent outside), I could REALLY REALLY use that to borrow for the event. Something like this unit is what I am looking for:
http://www.qualitymatters.com/Danby-12000-BTU-Portable-Air-Conditioner-p/qmdpac120068.htm

* Also, I need about 5 people to bring large fire extinguishers (not the tiny kind you keep next to your stove). With all the people at the event I want to be overly-cautious. If you have an extinguisher that you could bring for the event, please mark it with your name so you'll be able to find it when you are leaving.

* If you are an old-timer like me and want to assist some of the younger players with 'how to play' type coaching, that is always welcome as well. Let's teach these kids how video games used to be and preserve the classic gaming era into the next generation and generations to come. This is how it happens people - with us. Otherwise it will be lost forever.

*****************************************************************

LUNA CITY ARCADE GAME DAY

DATE & TIME:
Sat, April 25
11:00am to 8pm

LOCATION AND DIRECTIONS:
Email Me

The website is: http://lunacityarcade.com/
You can contact me at peter@peterhirschberg.com or by replying directly to this email.

*****************************************************************

If you are planning on staying in the area, here are some hotels nearby.

If you are being REALLY bold and flying into the area, the closest major airport is Dulles International.

http://www.metwashairports.com/Dulles/

It's about a 55 mile drive west from the airport to our place.

Kindest regards,
-Peter Hirschberg
http://lunacityarcade.com
peter@peterhirschberg.com

-

Vector Tanks mentioned in the Washington Post

2009-03-23T00:08:00.005-05:00

Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post interviewed me last week for an article about the iPhone gaming culture and mentions me and my iPhone game Vector Tanks.

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Vector Tanks mentioned

2009-03-02T10:35:00.004-05:00

Here's an interview with Chris Byatte of Chillingo - publisher for my game Vector Tanks. My game is mentioned several times in the interview. Thanks Chris!

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Zen+Bound/news.asp?c=11863

Vector Tanks review

2009-02-17T11:25:00.001-05:00

TouchArcade.com has this very nice review of Vector Tanks.

http://toucharcade.com/2009/02/16/a-look-at-retro-3d-shooter-vector-tanks/

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Vector Tanks now available on the App Store

2009-02-17T11:05:00.002-05:00

My iPhone/iPod touch retro game "Vector Tanks" is now available on the App Store. Go get it!

The official website is here: www.vectortanks.com

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Vector Tanks website live

2009-02-15T17:17:00.002-05:00

The program hasn't shown up on the App Store yet, but I did upload the new website.

www.vectortanks.com

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Vector Tanks status

2009-02-15T17:13:00.003-05:00

Well, here it is almost a week later and still no sign of Vector Tanks on the App Store. People are getting pretty frustrated (as am I!!!) This particularly sucks since the submission to the App Store was timed to get it released on late Friday or Saturday morning, thus taking advantage of the weekend sales trends. Not to mention that this is a 3 day holiday weekend which would probably drive increased sales as well. Thanks Apple!

Just release it already! It's not like it's an extremely sophisticated program. You drive around and blow up tank after tank. That's it.

Vector Tanks submitted to the App Store!

2009-02-09T18:20:00.005-05:00

The countdown has begun on my latest iPhone game, Vector Tanks. Everyone hope for a speedy approval!

It should be available on the Apple App Store in around 4-5 days.

There's an early review of the game in this thread:
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=4400

Website coming soon to www.vectortanks.com

You can check out a video of the gameplay here!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bv9E-I63bx0&fmt=18

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"Adventure" Fan Art

2008-12-23T15:56:00.002-05:00

From Dale Crawford I recently received this:

"I have attached a photo I took of some items my son created after playing your iPhone app. We wanted toys, and there weren't any, so he made his own with Lego bricks!"

I love it! :-)

Happy Holidays everyone!

-Peter

"Chasing Ghosts" on Showtimes (more air dates)

2008-11-21T10:41:00.007-05:00

Jason Scott just send me a note pointing out additional airings of Chasing Ghosts. Yay! Big thanks to him!

If you read the actual Showtime Schedule, which includes ALL Showtime channels:

http://www.sho.com/site/sho/schedules/pdf/200812unlimited.pdf

It's actually on MUCH more. Here's the times:

December 3: 8:30am, Showtime Next
December 4: 7:30am, Showtime Showcase
December 6: 3:00am, Showtime Too
December 7: 12pm, Showtime Next
December 9: 12pm, Showtime Showcase
December 11: 2:30am, Showtime
December 11: 1:30pm, Showtime Next
December 13: 9:30am, Showtime Too
December 14: 12am, Showtime Too
December 15: 8:30pm, Showtime Too
December 16: 7:15am, Showtime Next
December 16: 3:30pm, Showtime Next
December 20: 3:40pm, Showtime Next
December 22: 12:00pm, Showtime Next
December 26: 11am, Showtime Too
December 28. 10:15am, Showtime Next
December 29: 12:30pm, Showtime Showcase

*****

I was also just informed that the screening on Dec. 11th at 2:30 in the AM will be in HD.

If you're going to Tivo it that would be the one to record!

*****

'Adventure' for iPhone / iPod Touch!

2008-11-16T09:54:00.005-05:00

'Adventure' for the iPhone/iPod Touch is now available on the Apple App Store for free!

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=296563933

This is my first iPhone app (trust me, I plan others).

Enjoy!

"Chasing Ghosts" on Showtime!

2008-11-11T21:57:00.003-05:00

It's taken forever, but you will be able to watch the movie Chasing Ghosts on the Showtime channel in December. Yay!

They have the showtimes here:

http://www.sho.com/site/schedules/product_page.do?seriesid=0&episodeid=133953

For those that didn't hear me the other million times I reminded everyone - I worked on this movie. :-)

NOW GO WATCH IT!

August 23rd Benefit Game Day results!

2008-09-01T17:25:00.010-05:00

Last weekend's Game Day was a MASSIVE success. I hope everyone had fun. I estimate that over 150 people were in attendance. It was definitely the biggest Game Day yet.

Thank you to all who donated. Thanks to you, over $3000 was raised to help with Shawn's medical expenses!

Here is the video!

I only got to shoot video when things were just getting started. The video doesn't show the full extent of how busy it really was!

The local TV station came out to do an interview. Unfortunately they didn't even mention the benefit. Ummm...huh??!

The "Luna" Bounce.

Here are some photos that were taken by others and sent to me:

And some others:

http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/mikemc3/Game%20Day%208-23/

http://www.documentone.ca/?p=324

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/lunacityarcade/

A huge thank you to the following people who provided crucial help during the event!

Fred and Darrian Stoki
Carl Haines and the extended Haines family
Jacob Rose
The Young Marines
The VFW (for loaning the tables and chairs)
Michael Verrechia
Sam Blackburn
Jim Talbot

Benefit Game Day - This Saturday, August 23rd

2008-08-21T20:38:00.003-05:00

Game Day is just around the corner folks!

DATE & TIME:
August 23rd - 12:00pm - 8pm

EMAIL ME FOR THE ADDRESS AND DIRECTIONS

You can download the flyers for the event here! Please refer to the flyers for more details.

http://lunacityarcade.com/dl/Game_Day_Flyer_Aug23_2008_Page_1.pdf
and
http://lunacityarcade.com/dl/Game_Day_Flyer_Aug23_2008_Page_2.pdf

Toy Collector Magazine Article - "Game Not Over"

2008-08-03T20:48:00.009-05:00

"A quarter keeps the fun going at Peter Hirschberg’s Luna City Arcade"

The August issue of Toy Collector Magazine has an interview with me about my arcade. Read the full article online here!

Toy Collector Magazine - "Game Not Over"

The article says I've been collecting for 6 years which is totally wrong. I've been collecting for around 20 years.

Visit from David "Auric" Hernly of Tron Sector

2008-07-20T18:05:00.003-05:00

David "Auric" Hernly of tronsector.com paid a visit to Luna City Arcade yesterday.

It was a pleasure having you David! I know we could have chatted for days. :-)

Think Geek Game Day

2008-07-20T17:42:00.008-05:00

Several weeks ago I hosted a private Game Day for the company staff of Think Geek. Everyone had a great time! A really nice group of people.

They even brought a cool custom-made poster for me that they all signed. [photo coming]

They recently started up a blog and here is their posting about their visit.

ThinkGeek Travels to Luna City Arcade

Upcoming Benefit Game Day - August 23rd

2008-06-30T21:55:00.013-05:00

Greetings all. This Game Day is shaping up to be a big one! I've had many offers
from people to help out during the event (THANK YOU!). I will definitely be taking
you up on your offers. I'll need people to tend to the Moon Bounce, help out crediting
machines, coordinating the Chasing Ghosts movie showings, quarter collectors to
empty the machines out, etc. If you want to help, I can definitely find something
for you to do!

I've also been overwhelmed with emails, so I apologize if you asked me a specific
question and I haven't gotten back to you. It's just been more than I can handle.

Here's the current rough plan --

Saturday August 23rd
12:00 noon until 10pm

Over 60 vintage arcade games playable for free
Moon Bounce
All-day free screenings of Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
BBQ, Burgers, and Hot Dogs will be for sale, with food sales benefiting Young Marines Organization
Donations will be invited to benefit the medical expense fund of Shawn Haines (more info below)
~No donations will be accepted on-site for insurance reasons~

My friend has set up a website for Shawn.
Shawn's Battle Against Hodgkin's Disease
http://mysite.verizon.net/cshaines/shawn.htm
~Donating is invited but completely optional~

If you would like to attend and need the address, please send me a private email!

More details will be posted here as they become available

Arcade Tiles in France

2008-06-19T21:56:00.005-05:00

My friend Dan emailed me these photos that he took while in France recently.

"These tiles were on buildings near the basilica Sacre-Cour in the Montmartre district of Paris."

Strange but cool!

More upcoming Game Day info

2008-06-19T20:54:00.003-05:00

My friend put up a page about Shawn, who I'm doing the Benefit Game Day for in August. Here's his page:

Shawn's Page

Upcoming Benefit Game Day - August 23rd

2008-06-16T12:09:00.001-05:00

I have settled on Saturday, August 23rd as the final date. I apologize to those who can't make this date!

The response has been, literally, overwhelming. Thank you to all who have replied. So far it looks like 200 people may be in attendance, with almost all of those wanting to see Chasing Ghosts. This is presenting some logistical problems, as I can't fit that many people where I was planning on showing the movie (the upstairs of the arcade). I'm working on several solutions, including giving out tickets to specific showings and thereby limiting the number of people at each screening, and also perhaps renting the theater in town to show the movie.

More details will follow shortly, but I wanted to get the final date out there.

UPCOMING GAME DAY

2008-06-10T12:57:00.007-05:00

GAME DAY!

It's been a while since the last Game Day. I'm currently planning on having the next sometime in August. The dates I am looking at are August 16th, 23rd, or 30th. I will be sending out an annoucement when I settle on the exact day, but I wanted to give people a heads up.

This Game Day is going to hopefully be something extra special. First, I am planning on having this Game Day be a "benefit" Game Day. I am going to *suggest* that people donate something. Donating will of course not be mandatory. Those who know me or have been to previous Game Days know that I have never asked for *anything* in return. Here is a chance for me to do something good with the arcade. All donation proceeds will go to a Trust Fund for Shawn Haines, the son of some close friends of mine. He is currently undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's Disease Lymphoma. I am trying to set it up so that donations can be made directly into the Trust Fund. More info to follow.

As a special treat, I am also planning on showing the popular indie film Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade. This film made the festival circuit last year, including Sundance, the LA Film Festival, and also screened at the 2007 California Extreme event. Some of you may know that I worked on this movie, providing some graphics and computer animated sequences. I tentatively have plans to have the Producer of the film, Michael Verrechia, to attend and do a Q&A afterwards and I'm going to try and get some of the film's stars to attend. For those who have not yet seen this still-unreleased movie, here is another chance!

Snacks will be provided for free, and food will be for sale. We are doing a BBQ cookout at the event with all proceeds for the food sales going towards the local Young Marines organization.

Finally, we are investigating getting a Moon Bounce for the event.

And of course there will be arcade games! There have been some new additions to the collection since the last Game Day. I will also have a Vectrex console and an Atari 2600 console in operation in the party area for a change of pace.

The full list of games in the arcade is here:
http://lunacityarcade.com/games.htm

In order for me to start planning, please email the following questionnaire to mail@lunacityarcade.com within the next week or so.

------------------------------------------------------------------- LUNA CITY ARCADE - AUGUST 2008 BENEFIT GAME DAY NAME _____________________________ I WILL BE BRINGING _____ ADULTS AND _____ KIDS (just roughly estimate) [_] THE BENEFIT IDEA IS NICE, I WILL TRY AND DONATE [_] BENEFIT? DONATIONS? BAD IDEA. [_] THE MOON BOUNCE IS A COOL IDEA [_] NO MOON BOUNCE FOR ME, THANKS [_] I WANT TO WATCH CHASING GHOSTS [_] I AM NOT INTERESTED IN THE MOVIE [_] I'll BE THERE FOR THE MOVIE ONLY YOUR COMMENTS:-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please return the questionnaire to me as soon as possible! I will be finalizing the exact date in August as soon as I can and will send that info along when I have it.

Linux Theme

2008-05-19T22:23:00.002-05:00

Does anybody know offhand what Linux theme this is? I kind of like it.

Lost & Found

2008-04-27T10:35:00.002-05:00

I found this in the gameroom yesterday while straightening up. It's about 3" across and has a clip on the back. It looks like it probably lights up.

Anybody know who this belongs to?

Battlezone trivia article that mentions me

2008-04-18T12:30:00.002-05:00

I thought this was a little bit odd (but still flattering). I found a cool trivia article on Battlezone, and one of the trivia items mentions me and my Battlezone animation.

Check out the article here:
"It's 1980, And You're Commanding A Tank On Another Planet"

I am mentioned in the last trivia bullet.

Virtual Luna City Arcade 3D model

2008-04-10T19:07:00.002-05:00

"Spanner" has been working on creating a 3D model of Luna City Arcade for 3D Arcade (a MAME front-end that lets you walk around in virtual space and select games by walking up to them)

Pretty freaky isn't it? :-)

Here's his work-in-progress posting with lots more pictures...

http://echo.messageboard.nl/2243/viewtopic.php?p=21767#21767

Radio Interview is up!

2008-04-09T09:12:00.000-05:00

http://www.cbc.ca/spark/blog/2008/04/episode_32_april_9_12_2008.html

Radio Interview

2008-04-07T15:14:00.003-05:00

I've been told the radio interview recorded Sunday before last will be aired this Wednesday. They have a posting about it already:

http://www.cbc.ca/spark/blog/2008/04/welcome_to_the_luna_city_arcad.html

Additional stations will most likely follow, but more details to follow...

Adventure: Revisited on Youtube

2008-04-06T21:49:00.004-05:00

It's always thrilling to me whenever I find stuff like this. Here's a Youtube video that somebody posted of themselves playing my Atari Adventure 'emu-simulator-clone" Adventure: Revisited.

The description of the video reads: "What is the best use of the extreme processing power of a dual quad-core Mac Pro? Playing Peter Hirschberg's port of the old Atari 2600 game "Adventure", of course!"

Man, and all I can notice is how SLOW the game is running at that size window. I had a lot of drawing performance problems on the Mac port that I left unfixed. They were due to how OS X handles double-buffering to the screen. I need to switch the program to have it use OpenGL, which should make it blindingly fast on the Mac.

Mini Interview with the designer of the Tron arcade cabinet - George Gomez

2008-04-06T21:02:00.012-05:00

Back in February I received an email from George Gomez. George explained to me that he had designed the cabinet for the coin-op version of Tron for Bally/Midway back in the 80s. Wow! He said that a colleague had forwarded my computer animated Tron short to him, and he was absolutely thrilled by it. I was so flattered! Over the next couple of months we sent a few emails back and forth, and I thought I'd compile that here as sort of a "mini interview". George gives some fascinating details here.

I'll start things off with a vintage photo that he emailed me (click for a larger version). From the date on the calendar, you'll notice that this is from 1982.

GG: I designed the TRON that you modeled and one of the guys at work sent me your movie. Awesome job!

Peter: Holy crap. Seriously???

GG: Yep!

Peter: I grew up totally in love with the Tron cabinet. It's just gorgeous! That's why I decided to model and animate it. I've always considered the Tron cabinet to be the absolute pinnacle of arcade game cabinets - everything before just built up to Tron, and everything after went downhill.

GG: What did you use to model it? I was blown away that you picked up the surface textures that I etched into the control grip. Talk about bring back memories. Also the vacformed cockpit looks like the real deal. I've been staring at the thing all day. Awesome job. How long did it take?

Peter: The Tron animation took about 4 months to model and set up, and about 6 months of rendering time on a single Core 2 machine. I modeled most of the machine in Truespace, but the monitor shroud / cockpit and the joystick I modeled in Maya using subdivision surfaces. I'm trying to transition to using Maya exclusively, but it's challenging.

GG: If you look closely at the wall behind me in the photo that I sent you, you can see my original storyboard for the light cycle wave hanging on the wall. Somewhere I have my hand carved original control grip. I will take pix and send them to you.

Peter: And thanks for the awesome photo of you from 1982. I love stuff like that. I absolutely MUST blog about you on my site.

GG: Peter, i'm working late on my latest game(NBA Ballers:Chosen One) for PS3 and X360, not as cool as the old days but its the business today. I'll definitely dig up some stuff for you. Blog away, I dont mind. I'm glad you guys grew up enjoying the work that's really the greatest satisfaction.

Peter: I was restoring my Gorf machine last week and found myself wondering if you designed the cabinet for that game as well. It definitely has a lot of similarities with to Tron cabinet.

GG: I did the control grips, but not the cabinet. If you look closely at the red and black plastic insert on the back of the stick you'll find my name hidden in the red and black "pixel" array. The reason that there are similarities is that I started out with the basic Gorf shape when I mocked up the first one.

Peter: That makes sense. I always assumed the Tron grips came first, but I guess Gorf did come out before Tron. I'll have to go look for your name in the Gorf stick insert. :-)

GG: Yes, Gorf came out first. I had a Gorf cabinet laying around and I wanted to mock up the TRON cabinet quickly. The Gorf cabinet was designed by Dave Nutting. I designed the grips for Gorf and we were actually having a problem with the internal switch. I asked the molder to make me a set of clear grips so that I could see what was happening with the switch. I had those in my office years later when I started working on TRON. I was fooling around with a black light in order to get the cabinet to glow like the guys in the movie. I was leaving work one day and I turned off the lights in my office and I noticed that I had left one of the black lights on and I looked at the grips and they were glowing blue! So I turned right around and started working with the black light directly into the front of the control panel to glow the grips. The next problem was overcoming the fact that when you add UV inhibitors to the plastic for durability it kills the fluorescence of the plastic. So I worked with the vendor until we came up with a material formulation that was durable but still glowed.

Peter: Ah, I love the details! That's great! Thanks so much! Let me know if there's anything I can ever do for you!

Thanks again George! What a thrill! The Tron cabinet is truly one of the nicest video game cabinets ever designed, and holds a very magical place in my memories.

UPDATE: I was asked to see if George could tell us what it was he was working on in the photo, above. His answer was: "Yes, turn the photo upside down and you will see that I was proposing that the company go get the StarWars licence. I am working on a sit down cabinet that looked like a TIE fighter. It turned out that Atari got the license. Also on my table notice the gun prototype. I designed that gun that for a space themed gun game that never made it. I took a standard gun handle and frame and made the scope, barrel and stock in order to change the look of it."

Luna City in EGM Magazine

2008-04-06T16:16:00.006-05:00

EGM ("Electronic Gaming Monthly") Magazine has a shout-out to Luna City in this month's newsstand issue.

In a graphic titled "Retro Road Trip", one of the stops featured on their "tour" is Luna City Arcade! See the area circled in red, below (click the image for a larger version)

Thanks to all who pointed this out to me!

Game Day

2008-04-03T21:39:00.002-05:00

WOW! I can't believe how many people came for the impromptu Game Day last Sunday! I'm still recovering from it. Something like 60 people were in attendance. The last of the guests left at around 10:30pm. Visitors were for the most part people I hadn't met before. It was pretty cool seeing so many people showing up in tshirts with Atari, Pacman, Space Invaders on them. It almost felt like a convention.

I think the radio interview went well, although I'm a little concerned about my daughter being somewhat coached to say "my dad is crazy" on tape. Thanks.

Jason Scott made it out again. He actually flew out just to be interviewed, and ended up arriving after the journalist had left. Sorry Jason! I wish the timing had worked out better. He did have this to say about the visit, and posted some nice photos of the event as well!

I'm interested in any photos others may have taken. Especially photos of all the cars in the driveway!

Finally, here's some video!

Impromptu Game Day - Next Sunday, March 30th @ 2pm!!

2008-03-21T11:04:00.006-05:00

I will be having an impromptu Game Day - Next Sunday, March 30th @ 2pm!! All are welcome!

I'm sorry about the short notice, but I just found out the final date yesterday. Sharon Pettigrew, a journalist for NPR, will be there on the 30th to interview me for a documentary that will air on The Canadian Broadcasting Corp as well as affiliated NPR stations. They have requested that I get as many people there that I can so they could also be interviewed for the documentary. Here's your chance to be on the air and explain why you love the classic arcade machines!

Hope you can make it and show your support! :-)

Please email me for directions if you are interested in attending!

Gameroom Magazine Cover Story

2008-03-06T07:09:00.003-05:00

My family and I made the cover of the March 2008 issue of Gameroom Magazine. There's a nice interview with me, and another article written by Julie. And of course lots of photos of the gameroom.

March 2008 Gameroom Magazine

"Silver Sue"

2008-02-25T17:18:00.005-05:00

Yesterday Luna City Arcade was visited by Susan England, who from the mid-'70s until 1981 ran an arcade called "Silver Sue" in Chicago, home to such industry giants as Bally, Gottlieb, and Williams. Sue, her husband, my wife, and I all sat down for a nice chat about the good old days. Sue shared many vintage photos of and magazine articles about the arcade she ran, and she told me a few stories about the various classic game programmers and other celebs from back in the day. She has promised me some scans of the arcade photos, and I'll share those here when I have them.

Thanks for taking the time to visit Sue! It was really fun having you out to talk shop!

Jason Scott

2008-02-21T21:57:00.005-05:00

I was very honored the other day to get a visit from Jason Scott. Jason, who runs the website ASCII and who I respect a great deal, made a trip out here to see the arcade.

From left to right, that's Dan Moniz (one of Jason's buddies), Jason Scott, me, Nick DePetrillo (another of Jason's buddies), and my wife Julie.

Be sure to check out Jason's blog post about the visit as well as an album of photos he took while here!

- "Face to Face with Luna City"
- Jason's Photos

Another Kotaku.com Article

2008-02-21T21:37:00.003-05:00

Kotaku.com added another article about me. This one links to the DigitalLifestyle.tv interview.

"Video Tour of the Luna City Arcade"

http://kotaku.com/357388/video-tour-of-the-luna-city-arcade

More Radio Interviews

2008-02-21T21:29:00.003-05:00

Here's a couple more radio interviews with me. The first one is about 20 minutes long and the second one is about 5 minutes long.

97X FM: "Dwyer & Michaels in the Morning: Interview with Peter Hirschberg"
KNIX Country: "Ben & Matt: Interview with Peter Hirschberg"

I also added these to the "Press" web page on my Luna City Arcade site.

The Atari 2600 Television Set

2008-02-19T23:30:00.002-05:00

A friend of my neighbor Fred donated this retro TV set to me. It makes a perfect television set for our Atari 2600!

Cub Scout party - Part 2

2008-02-18T18:39:00.006-05:00

As promised, here's the video I took when we had all the Cub Scouts out for a Game Day party last week. Refer to my previous post.

Make sure you watch for the cute little "victory dance" a couple of the kids do near the end of the video.

I also received a really sweet Thank You letter in the mail from one of the kids, and another from one of the parents.

DigitalLifestyle.tv Video Interview

2008-02-16T18:51:00.001-05:00

Here's the video interview that DigitalLifestyle.tv did with me a couple weeks ago.

Interview with 'The Digital Lifestyle'

2008-02-10T23:37:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, a crew from The Digital Lifestyle, a 24-hour online video network dedicated to technology news, rumors, and lifestyle, did a video interview with me. I'll let you know whenever the video is online!

Here is a picture of me with the 2 people from the show that came out.

Cub Scout party

2008-02-10T23:09:00.000-05:00

My nephew had a party in the arcade today to celebrate graduating from cub scouts to boy scouts. He invited his entire den, and I think they each brought their entire families. It was pretty busy! Not as much as it was on Game Day I don't think, but with so many kids the gameroom was rather well-loved today.

I shot some video but I need to buy another firewire cord before I can upload it. For now, here's a couple photos of the cub-scoutin' action.

New Arcade Website

2008-02-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

I've created a new website for the arcade, lunacityarcade.com. I moved all the arcade-specific content from my personal website to there. I still have to rework my personal website now to point to lunacity.com.

Note for people looking to sign up to my mailing list - it is here:
http://lunacityarcade.com/mailinglist.htm

My Game Room on Engadget.com

2008-02-10T22:57:00.000-05:00

"The 2400 square-foot private arcade"

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/08/the-2400-square-foot-private-arcade/

My Game Room on Fark.com

2008-02-05T06:45:00.001-05:00

"Good: Collecting 65 classic arcade games. Great: Building a private 2,400 square foot arcade with black lights and 80's soundtrack. Awesome: Your kids leave it alone because they want to play Wii"

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3376135

The comments are pretty funny.

Wil Wheaton on my Gameroom

2008-02-04T19:56:00.000-05:00

Wow. I'm honored to be mentioned on Wil Wheaton's blog:

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2008/02/the-luna-city-a.html

If you don't know who Wil is, go here.

Wil, email me dammit! I contacted you a while back about my gameroom and you didn't reply.

My Game Room on Digg.com (again)

2008-02-04T17:28:00.000-05:00

"Retro Arcade Gaming Fan Heaven"

http://digg.com/gaming_news/Retro_Arcade_Gaming_Fan_Heaven_PICS_and_VIDEO

It was previously on Digg back in 2006 when the collection was still in my basement.

Article on my Game Room on Gizmodo.com

2008-02-04T17:26:00.000-05:00

"Retro Arcade Gaming Fan Heaven Is Worth Infinite Quarters"

http://gizmodo.com/352147/retro-arcade-gaming-fan-heaven-is-worth-infinite-quarters

Article on my Game Room on Kotaku.com

2008-02-04T11:35:00.000-05:00

"Pretty Amazing Personal Arcade Collection"

http://kotaku.com/351987/pretty-amazing-personal-arcade-collection

The coolest part is all the comments at the bottom.

Speakers

2008-02-03T20:49:00.000-05:00

The replacement speakers arrived to replace the 2 damaged ones I got before Christmas. Out of the 4 I got, all were damaged somewhat, but I decided to only exchange the 2 worst ones.

One of the new speakers arrived fine. The other arrived like this. I'm not kidding.

This isn't funny anymore guys! I also had to return the amp that I bought when it died after a couple weeks. I repeat - I am very disappointed with Pyle!!!

New Washington Post article about my arcade!

2008-02-03T12:13:00.000-05:00

This was in today's Sunday Washington Post newspaper.

It's also available online if you can't get a print copy!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/02/02/ST2008020201061.html

This article is somewhat of a follow-up to an article in the Post from 2006.

Game Day article

2008-01-31T23:04:00.000-05:00

Vicente Martinez attended my Game Day last week, and he has posted this cool article about his experience. It's actually kind of weird for me to read about Game Day from someone else's perspective. :-)

Here's the article:
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8598287&publicUserId=5798509

Sam Blackburn at my Arcade

2008-01-24T11:08:00.000-05:00

Sam Blackburn, former Battlezone champion and one of the stars of the movie Chasing Ghosts, paid a visit to the arcade for my last Game Day. It was really cool seeing you again Sam!

Here's some video of Sam playing one of my Battlezone machines.

Game Day Video

2008-01-23T01:58:00.000-05:00

Monday's Game Day was a HUGE success! Thank you to everybody that came!

We had about 40-50 people there. Insane! It was really wild seeing and hearing all the machines going at once, and seeing all those people milling around. I haven't seen anything like that since the early '80s. It was pretty trippy with everyone walking around video taping and taking photos.

Here's some video from the event!

We'll be doing it again in the next few months.

Updated Arcade Photos

2008-01-19T22:13:00.000-05:00

I've updated my website with pictures of the new arcade!

http://www.peterhirschberg.com/arcade/gameroom.htm

It's all ready for Game Day except Gravitar blew up last night. I hope nobody is a Gravitar fan. The brand new amp that I bought also died the other night. Between the amp dying and the speakers arriving all broken up, I'm very unimpressed with Pyle.

GameTap Interview

2008-01-19T19:08:00.001-05:00

Today I had a video crew out to interview me for an upcoming GameTap segment called "Tapped In". I was interviewed about my collection, the new gameroom, Missile Command, and the Vectrex console. I was interviewed for about 5 hours and was pretty tired by the end of it, but it was fun.

If you’d like to check out the series, go to http://www.gametap.com/home/views/watch/watch.jsp, click GAMES on the left hand side, then click Tapped In. Unfortunately you have to install a player to watch, which only worked in IE for me. Bummer. I'll keep people posted when any of the interview shows up on the GameTap site.

Construction Update

2008-01-13T21:57:00.000-05:00

Yay! The steps are finally done! I called the builder last night and left a voice mail saying that we've got this big party coming up, and it would be REALLY nice if the steps were done, and he had his crew come out today (on a Sunday!) and finish it all up!

We just need to tell the stain guy that it's done and he'll come out to stain the new parts.

I've worked my butt off all weekend getting the place ready for the next Game Day. I'll take photos after I get the place tidied up a bit and vacuumed. I got all the pinball machines set up, and also put up this cool Asteroids scene in the bathroom (that's why I wanted the walls black in there), and a couple Space Wars ships on the ceiling.

Construction Update

2008-01-09T23:46:00.000-05:00

I got the shelving installed for the stereo system. I'm still waiting on an RMA number so I can send back the 2 speakers that were damaged in shipping (actually all 4 were damaged when I got them, but 2 were particularly bad).

And the proper blackout film for the windows showed up yesterday. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to install it.

Nobody has shown up the last two days to work on the steps. Grrr.

Construction Update

2008-01-07T23:36:00.000-05:00

They actually got quite a bit done today on the steps. Looks like they are almost done! I'm glad they showed up today. The weather was in the 70s (in January!), so I would have been disappointed if they had squandered the day. It's supposed to be nice tomorrow too. Maybe they'll finish it tomorrow??

Construction Update

2008-01-06T18:04:00.000-05:00

Today I prepped and painted the wall that needed repainting. Tomorrow I can put up the shelves where the stereo components go.

Here's a photo that also shows the Chuck E Cheese sign.

And the other sign.

GAME DAY - Monday January 21st

2008-01-06T01:18:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about having Monday January 21st (MLK Memorial Day) be a Game Day. This will be the first Game Day in the new building, and the first Game Day in a really long time.

I'm still trying to gauge interest. Email me if you think you can make it that day. I have a "Game Day" mailing list that I'm going to send out invites on soon.

Construction Update

2008-01-06T00:47:00.000-05:00

I think I'm pretty much done with the posters and artwork. Sure, there's still some things I want to add, remove, or move. But I'm calling it done.

I also hung up the 2 large Chuck E Cheese signs (the front parts). Age and shipping has taken their toll on the poor signs, but I think I found a sturdy and not-too-ugly way to get the front parts to stay on the sign. Unfortunately the photos I took of the signs didn't come out. I'll try and get better photos tomorrow. They look SO COOL!

Still left to do - window tinting (whenever I get the correct blackout film) and repainting the wall where the breaker panels are (it got torn up when routing the stereo wires). Once I repaint the wall I can mount the shelving where the stereo components go. And of course I've got to straighten things up in there! I never did figure out where I want that huge "arcade" sign. I couldn't find a place for it that I liked.

The Arcade Formerly Known as Luna City

2008-01-06T00:40:00.000-05:00

The decommissioned old gameroom.

Kinda sad seeing it all empty. It looks so tiny now. I thought it would look bigger with the games out.

I am still calling the (new) arcade Luna City Arcade. For the record or whatever.

And since people always ask me - the old gameroom is going to be used as a family room / rec room. We'll probably get rid of the blacklight carpeting whenever we have money.

Construction Update

2008-01-04T19:39:00.000-05:00

Nobody showed up to work on the steps today. Oh well.

I spent all day putting up posters and artwork. I - am - so - tired!

Here's what I did today. The large Battlestar Galactica poster is 12' wide x 8.5' tall.

I noticed that I covered over where the speaker mount is supposed to go in that corner. I'll have to switch to using tripods for the speakers. At least for that corner.

Also, I scraped off two of the windows and was going to put on the blackout film I bought, only to find out that they shipped me whiteout film instead. Oops. Back it goes. I should have the correct film by Tuesday. This is to block out light from coming through the windows (and to keep people outside from peeking in).

Construction Update

2008-01-03T23:11:00.001-05:00

They did a painfully small amount of work on the exterior decking / steps today. At least they showed up I guess.

Construction Update

2008-01-03T00:23:00.000-05:00

I've been working nonstop on the gameroom since the last post. My friend Fred helped me again in getting 2 of the 4 speakers installed on the wall. The other 2 speakers were damaged in shipping and I'm trying to get a response from the seller so that I can get them exchanged. Yay.

I've rearranged the games since last time. Instead of a single huge row down the center of the room, I went with 3 smaller rows going widthwise.

Here's me going through my hundreds of posters. I've got about half of them hung on the walls at this point. What a huge job.

And here's what I've hung so far. I'm still working in there so things are pretty cluttered.

I also applied some vinyl Space Invaders cutouts to one of the walls.

And finally, here's the newly installed 10 fluorescent blacklight fixtures buzzing happily away with the carpet glowing under them.

Construction Update

2007-12-28T18:58:00.000-05:00

My friend Fred helped me installing the blacklight fixtures today. We got all 10 fixtures installed, and all but 3 wired. We also got the other Chuck E Cheese sign hung. Thanks Fred! I am soooooo sore and tired! We spent the entire day up on scaffolding with our arms above our heads. Ouch!

Sorry - no photos - too sore! I'm gonna hurt in the morning.

Construction Update

2007-12-27T22:28:00.000-05:00

This is what 40 blacklight bulbs look like.

Half of these were salvaged from the old gameroom. These are all for the 10 ceiling fixtures I'll be installing.

Construction Update

2007-12-27T11:59:00.001-05:00

They made more progress on the steps / deckwork yesterday, even though it was really cold out. Today is a lot warmer, but nobody showed up. Oh well. I think they could finish it in one day or maybe two.

We also finished moving the last of the machines (the 3 pinballs from the old gameroom) over to the new building. There's still some project machines in the garage, but for the most part that's the last of it! I need to get all the other pinball machines set up now.

Another nice article about me

2007-12-24T23:14:00.000-05:00

The guys over at Benevolent Robot have posted a very flattering article about me. Thanks guys! You're always welcome to come visit the gameroom!

http://benevolentrobot.blogspot.com/2007/12/blogsleuth-peter-hirschberg.html

Gameroom Magazine

2007-12-24T22:57:00.002-05:00

The January 2008 issue of Gameroom Magazine has a little mention of my new arcade building project. Kinda neat. I appreciate the publicity. :-)

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T22:57:00.001-05:00

Happy Holidays everyone!

ARCADE UPDATE - Game Moving Progress

2007-12-24T22:41:00.001-05:00

Every machine except for the 3 pinballs and some project machines have been moved into the new building. Boy the cockpit games were a challenge. Special thanks to Fred, Darrian, and Daniel for their help moving the machines! And thanks to everyone that offered their help! I should be able to move the last 3 machines over in the next day or two.

Up next - I'm going to hang the fluorescent fixtures for the blacklights and start putting up all my posters and artwork!!

I also think I'm going to convert that giant center row of games into several rows going width-wise. I think it will lay out better that way.

Construction Update

2007-12-21T23:42:00.000-05:00

More deck/stairs work.

Construction Update

2007-12-16T17:06:00.000-05:00

The last bit of the construction - the deckwork and steps, got some work done on it on Friday. It was too dark to take photos when I got home Friday, and yesterday I forgot since I was moving machines all day, then last night we got an ice storm. So you'll have to put up with ice-stormy photos of the decking.

ARCADE UPDATE - Game Moving Progress

2007-12-15T19:09:00.000-05:00

Moved a bunch more machines over. Also moved a ton of posters and artwork (which is going to take a REALLY long time to get all hung up!).

Don't read too much into the arrangement of the games. I have a specific place in mind for the pinballs, and a specific place for the cockpit machines, but other than that, I'm just winging it. These are probably not the final place for the machines. I'm just trying to get all the machines over to the new building before we get snow!

I have to say, it's actually pretty sad to see the old gameroom getting all emptied out. It's something I didn't expect - to feel a sense of loss from setting up the new place. It's weird. I'll definitely post pictures of the old "Luna City 1.0" once it's all cleared out and officially decommissioned and de-sanctified.

Chasing Ghosts at the New York United Film Festival

2007-12-13T00:16:00.000-05:00

Chasing Ghosts will be playing at the New York United Film Festival this Saturday, December 15th, at 6pm. Be there or be square.

Click here to visit the site!

ARCADE UPDATE - Game Moving Progress

2007-12-12T23:17:00.001-05:00

I moved over another 8 machines tonight.

Here's a sign I had made to go above the circuit breaker panels (it's a Ghostbusters reference if you don't get it).

Birthday Cake

2007-12-11T00:45:00.000-05:00

My wife got me this cake for my birthday. :-)

ARCADE UPDATE - Game Moving Progress

2007-12-10T22:42:00.000-05:00

I decided to start using a new title for my posts, since for the most part the construction is done (still waiting on the steps outside to be built, but that's not stopping me from moving machines).

After work today my wife and I moved a bunch more machines. All these are some of the machines that have filled our garage. They are for the most part totally unshopped (unrestored and nonworking), but I have to get them out of the way so I can bring the bulk of the machines through the garage. I think by the time we are done I'm going to need spine surgery or something. Curse my 42 year old body.

Here's a row of pinball machines against the back wall (not set up). Every one of those machines need shopping. Whew.

More videos added to the lineup.

My funky '70s-style trashcan and Atari 2600 store sign (jeez, gotta get that black wall painted!)

Primal Rage - hidden off by itself. :-)

And the bathroom sink fitted with a trippy illuminated faucet. It lights up either blue or red, depending on the water temperature.

I just need to find a place that sells the glow in the dark toilet seats now and I'll be set.

Construction Update - IT HAS BEGUN

2007-12-09T20:47:00.001-05:00

My friends, IT HAS BEGUN. The carpeting is now complete.

I moved a couple machines over before it started raining. Two machines down - about 60 or so more to go. I just need to get some blacklight action going in there!

Construction Update - CARPET!

2007-12-08T18:18:00.001-05:00

The blacklight carpeting is being installed!!

Yippee!

Sorry I don't have any blacklights installed yet. The fans are just blue neon - they don't make the carpet fluoresce as some had suggested. I have rough-ins for 10 blacklight fixtures. I just need to buy them and get them installed.

It sure is a lot less echoey in there now.

Construction Update

2007-12-04T20:41:00.001-05:00

Looks like the carpet guys were here today. They prepped the downstairs floor, including filling the expansion joints and installing tack-strips around the perimeter of the room.

Tack strips.

And we have a bathroom finally!

The toilet is leaking on the floor a tiny bit, and the hot water isn't hooked up yet, but - woot!

Construction Update

2007-12-01T22:35:00.000-05:00

The upstairs carpeting is finished! The downstairs blacklight carpeting should be underway next week if all goes well.

I just had to make sure the rolls of blacklight carpeting were the right design. :-)

R.I.P. Evel Knievel

2007-12-01T10:17:00.000-05:00

http://www.evelknievel.com/

Construction Update

2007-11-30T20:08:00.000-05:00

Whoohoo! The 5 rolls of blacklight carpeting arrived today! My precious....

This the same design as my current gameroom. Click here to see a picture of the carpet pattern.

This is 5 rolls (12' wide) of 43 feet. It was such a large order that they had to make a special run of the carpet just for me to make sure all the rolls matched.

Unfortunately, the truck driver delivering the carpet ran over our mailbox pulling in. I don't think he even noticed. And I don't mean he knocked it over, I mean he RAN IT OVER. Pole and all. Amazingly my Netflix DVD didn't get damaged. Tomorrow I will be mailbox shopping.

They worked more on the steps.

And they worked on the upstairs carpeting. They are coming back tomorrow to finish up.

I had a really hard time finding replacement bulbs for the Chuck E Cheese signs. They use a weird single-pin fluorescent bulb. I finally found a local electrical store that had a bunch. And looks like the ballasts and starters are good on both units too.

Construction Update

2007-11-29T17:34:00.001-05:00

Update on the steps/deckwork. Looks like it's slow-going. Hopefully after they have all the supports in place, it will go quicker.

Boy, that door is really way up there, isn't it?

Construction Update

2007-11-28T20:18:00.001-05:00

At long last, they have begun the deckwork/steps that go from the upper floor of the garage to the existing house deck, and from the existing deck to the ground. After the removal of our front steps early in the construction, we've been forced to enter our house through the garage ever since. They originally removed the steps back on February 5th!!! Gaahh!! Here's the blog posting about it.

Anyway, it looks like these are the holes for the footers.

Chuck E. Cheese Signs for the Arcade

2007-11-25T16:44:00.000-05:00

I installed one of the two giant illuminated Chuck E. Cheese signs I have. Well, partially installed it. I got the frame hung. They both need new bulbs, and the plastic trim pieces that hold the plexi front panels on the frames are all broken apart. It's going to be tricky to figure out a way to hold the plexis on there.

These things are HEAVY. Jeez they are heavy. I had a near catastrophe installing the first one, and ended up with a huge bleeding gash on my hand. Havin' fun, havin' fun.

Seattle Science Fiction Museum

2007-11-17T20:54:00.000-05:00

UPDATE!
I found a bunch of photos from the museum on Flickr. Please take the time to flip through them. It's worth it!

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=science%20fiction%20museum%20seattle&w=all&s=int

While in Seattle this week, I visited the Science Fiction Museum. A definite MUST SEE for any true sci-fi movie fan. Heartbreakingly, they did not allow photos inside the exhibit. I took this single photo of "Gort" at the entrance to the exhibit, before you actually go in.

"Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"

Since no photos were allowed, I'll see if I can describe some of the things I remember seeing. Please note, these items are for the most part entirely originals used during the filming of these classic films and TV shows.

Hal 9000 "eye" assembly
Full size Cylon costume from "Gun on Ice Planet Zero" (original series)
Original Muffet dagget costume (originally worn by a chimp for the show) from Battlestar Galactica.
And entire wall of '60s style "ray guns". I think I remember seeing Deckard's gun from Blade Runner in there somewhere.
From the original series Star Trek, they had the Enterprise filming model, the captains chair, a "computer console" from the bridge, and several authentic uniforms worn during the show including Kirk's and Spock's uniforms.
From Aliens, a full size loader exoskeleton as worn by Sigourney Weaver, and a full size (I think) Queen Alien (which was unbelievably awesome).
Robot B9 from "Lost in Space" and Robbie the Robot from "Forbidden Planet" - both were in the same exhibit and were "bickering" back and forth.
A full-sized ET (not sure if this was a filming copy or not)
An R2-D2 (didn't look original but I could be wrong)
Original "Twiki" costume from Buck Rogers in the 25th century. It looked like time had started to take its toll on that costume as some of the rubber parts of the suit looked like they were degrading.
Original latex masks worn by some of the Cantina creatures in the first Star Wars movie.
A Stormtrooper costume (I believe this said it was fan-made, but it looked cool)
Original Death Star model from the 1977 film. The model was lit from within - the tiny windows formed by scratching holes in the paint. Oddly, the model was only built on one side (the side with the giant laser dish) - the other side was clear plastic. They may have added the clear plastic rear side just for the exhibit. The inside was plywood, with the thin plastic shell over it.
A controller for the full-size robotic T-Rex in Jurassic Park. I assume the operators would move parts of the small armatured model which had sensors on every joint, and the computers would reflect these movements into the full size Rex.
An "egg" (or I guess a cocoon, to be exact) from "Cocoon".
Some costumes from Blade Runner (including the clear plastic outfit worn by Zhora).
Lots of Borg prosthetics and appendages.
A small model of all the sets for the original Star Trek Enterprise. This was cool to see them all laid out together to see how they sort of connected. I imaging this was the layout they had them on the soundstage.
Small "Squiddies" models from The Matrix.
Movie posters from perhaps every sci-fi film ever made. I'm not kidding.

The outside of the building was EXTREMELY unusual, and I was allowed to take photos (at least I assume, and if not, kiss my butt). It seemed to be made of thousands of squares of curved metal all riveted together.

I found this article which describes the architecture of the museum. There's even a monorail that runs through the middle of the building. Here's a nice illustration of the museum I found on the site.

Construction Update

2007-11-17T15:23:00.000-05:00

The flooring for the bathroom was completed today. We should be able to get the fixtures installed now!

Peter Hirschberg's Journal

Jon St John (voice of Duke Nukem) - Photo Op for Vector Tanks at MAGFest Convention

An Update on Peter Hirschberg and 'Vector Tanks' on Touch Arcade

Vector Tanks (Classic) update released today

MAGFest - Vector Tanks - Jon St. John

MOON ATTACKED! WAR DECLARED! SURRENDER DOROTHY!

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Luna City Arcade News - Shawn Haines

REMINDER: Luna City Benefit Game Day - Sat, April 25 - EVENT DETAILS ENCLOSED

Vector Tanks mentioned in the Washington Post

Vector Tanks mentioned

Vector Tanks review

Vector Tanks now available on the App Store

Vector Tanks website live

Vector Tanks status

Vector Tanks submitted to the App Store!

"Adventure" Fan Art

"Chasing Ghosts" on Showtimes (more air dates)

'Adventure' for iPhone / iPod Touch!

"Chasing Ghosts" on Showtime!

August 23rd Benefit Game Day results!

Benefit Game Day - This Saturday, August 23rd

Toy Collector Magazine Article - "Game Not Over"

"A quarter keeps the fun going at Peter Hirschberg’s Luna City Arcade"

Visit from David "Auric" Hernly of Tron Sector

Think Geek Game Day

Upcoming Benefit Game Day - August 23rd

Arcade Tiles in France

More upcoming Game Day info

Upcoming Benefit Game Day - August 23rd

UPCOMING GAME DAY

Linux Theme

Lost & Found

Battlezone trivia article that mentions me

Virtual Luna City Arcade 3D model

Radio Interview is up!

Radio Interview

Adventure: Revisited on Youtube

Mini Interview with the designer of the Tron arcade cabinet - George Gomez

Luna City in EGM Magazine

Game Day

Impromptu Game Day - Next Sunday, March 30th @ 2pm!!

Gameroom Magazine Cover Story

"Silver Sue"

Jason Scott

Another Kotaku.com Article

More Radio Interviews

The Atari 2600 Television Set

Cub Scout party - Part 2

DigitalLifestyle.tv Video Interview

Interview with 'The Digital Lifestyle'

Cub Scout party

New Arcade Website

More articles on my gameroom

My Game Room on Engadget.com

My Game Room on Fark.com

Wil Wheaton on my Gameroom

My Game Room on Digg.com (again)

Article on my Game Room on Gizmodo.com

Article on my Game Room on Kotaku.com

Speakers

New Washington Post article about my arcade!

Game Day article

Sam Blackburn at my Arcade

Game Day Video

Updated Arcade Photos

GameTap Interview

Construction Update

Construction Update

Construction Update

Construction Update

GAME DAY - Monday January 21st

Construction Update

The Arcade Formerly Known as Luna City

Construction Update

Construction Update

Construction Update

Construction Update

Construction Update

Construction Update