Hi! My name is Mike, but I usually go by handle Ping I came from South Korea back in 1991, and have been in Southern California ever since.
This website is mainly to keep track of all my Video Game / Arcade related hobby. I really enjoy arcade games due to the fact that I can enjoy a round or two of game without much to think about and quickly walk away from it when I need to do something, games don’t really “grab” me like PC games or MMORPG games. It’s my main de-stressing, relaxing activity.
I loved video game ever since my very first game when I was about 6, Circus Charlie was my very first video gaming experience and i remember the day I saw it at one of kids in my apartment had it. There were about 10 kids taking turns playing the game. This was mid 80’s in South Korea, one of those moments that’s frozen in side my head.
Skipping few years ahead I had received Famicom as a gift and enjoyed every game from Mario to Twin Bees, but one of things that got me really hooked was probably when my dad in importing industry for Arcades and Arcade boards being introduced from Japan to South Korea, it was first time ever seeing a Arcade cabinet, I was probably around 8 years old, the games looked amazing and such higher quality. I do not remember the name of the game but it was a shooting game with machine guns attached, me and my brother spent hours with unlimited continues by just clicking the coin switch, until we beat the game. All those times we spent at my dad’s office trying out every arcade games definitely left a huge impression about Arcades and how much fun they are.
Anyhow, I can go on forever typing up all my arcade / video game related stories even after I arrived to USA, and growing up here, epic Arcade adventure stories during high school days too, but let’s save that for later.
Arcade game collecting has been my hobby for over 15 years collecting my favorite games to trying to complete a system collection. I used to keep some boards even before being able to play any games, due to lack of cabinets to play on. I’ve owned 8 different cabinets, couple of the more American version of wooden standup arcade cabinet and few of them were Japanese Candy Cabinets. I mostly enjoy fighting games and top down shooting games, which I can safely say they are the original arcade game genre of 90’s. Capcom’s CPS2 is what I started with, now owning over 25 CPS2 boards all still in their original form some with even original banners and marquees and they fully maintained with backup battery checking always on top of my list, it is my best collection.
[More Later]