GREEK ARCADE MUSEUM
The Greek Arcade Museum is a concept that was generated by two collectors of video games, during a purchase of video games. During the time that it took to create the museum and through the (numerous) challenges that we had to overcome, one collector decided to withdraw, rendering the museum the exhibition from a single collector (and one flipper machine collector).
The total collection consists of approximately 300 arcade machines and over 160 unique video game consoles.Unfortunately, our initial humble space permits the exhibition of 85 arcade machines and 50 consoles.. Ελπίζουμε σύντομα να είμαστε σε θέση να μεταφερθούμε σε μεγαλύτερο χώρο ώστε να μπορέσουμε να συμπεριλάβουμε ακόμα περισσότερα παιχνίδια. Δυστυχώς σήμερα, στις αποθήκες μας υπάρχουν πραγματικά αριστουργήματα τα οποία απλώς δεν χωράνε να μπουν στο μουσείο. Και αυτό δεν μας αρέσει. Η ιστορία δεν έχει καμία απολύτως θέση σε αποθήκη, αλλά πρέπει να είναι προσβάσιμη στον κόσμο. Η ιστορία της τεχνολογίας έχει πάρα πολλά να αφηγηθεί και ακόμα περισσότερα να διδάξει.
What do we aim to achieve
We hope to achieve our goal to offer an interactive educational experience to our visitors, who will have the opportunity to experience the development of the gaming technology live, with the ability to use the equipment, which date from 1972 until recently.
We picked arcade machines as the medium for this experience, as we consider them an excellent platform to offer a hands on interactive method to narrate the development of technology. First and foremost, gaming is one – maybe the most important – factor for the development of computing technology. Graphics cards, sound cards and other equipment were developed for gaming and this development of technology benefited many more sectors of computer technology.
Games may have developed faster as bulky and heavy, ultra expensive equipment for professional use, but soon thereafter moved into home devices. We are very interested to highlight the points where the technology met between the professional versions and the home versions. To demonstrate the development between the machines at your local arcade to the home console to the mobile gaming devices. This development has much to teach.
Is it a real museum?
Well this is the goal and the aim.Making a retro arcade, as much as we would love it (and we would love it a lot), is not what we are after. This would be a beautiful journey down memory lane for the eldest of us. But it wouldn’t offer the younger generations the opportunity to experience the development of gaming technology. We believe a lot in the journey of how game graphics and gameplay evolves.
As part of our trials to develop the museum and whilst operating the private collection, we noticed how younger people love retro video games and engage with them very quickly. There is something of a mystery on learning about the predecessors of the video games they have at home. In today’s ultra fast of consumable video games, the good old and slow generation (or generations) of retro video games and arcade games that maintain true aficionados decades later is a fact that interests us a lot and we believe deserves to be historically studied. And this is what we are looking towards.
Are you a business?
The legal entity is a Private Company. For the moment, unfortunately we are unable to change this due to the provisions of law 4002/2011 which regulates video games. We are in communication with the Ministry of Finance and the Gaming Commission, and we hope that soon we will be enabled to become a non-profit.
We don’t expect that the operation of the museum will generate significant excess revenue. The games do consume a lot of electricity due to their age. Even where they operate on a coin / credit basis, each of those is charged at 50cents or 1 euro. We offer infinite credits for free. The entrance fee is aimed at making the museum self-sufficient. The staff is salary employed (no volunteer work) and has social security coverage. The premises are rented and the most consistent delivery we receive are all the bills! So, we don’t particularly expect that the museum will generate much more revenue than the costs. But should it do so, any such funds will be promptly invested into a bigger and better space.
The museum, as it exhibits a personal collection of games, does not need to make any recovery on any investment, nor does it need to distribute profits. Its founder keeps working normally on his work, as he did before the museum was founded, and should you happen to meet him at the museum, he’s there solely due to his love for video games, or with his children and wife. The staff you will meet are professionals. You may come across a museologist professional or a gamer. The museum is a forum that is able to combine these two categories and we take pride in the fact that it is not in many museums where this can happen!
The machines have imperfections
For over 20 months we have worked for numerous hours, mainly evenings, since the museum was born as an after-work project. It has taken a gigantic effort to prepare the arcade games so that they can be operational to be able to welcome you and give you the opportunity to enjoy them. These machines were created between 1972 and approximately 2000. As we hope you will understand, they break easily, and they break often. Nonetheless, we are there to restore them. At the same time, we have a full restoration process for some of the games that need love and care, and this programme will intensify once the museum is fully operational. We wish we could have done it earlier, but if that was the case, you wouldn’t be able to visit before 2026…
Our aim is for the machines to be fully operational as to the games and secondarily we work to obtain their aesthetic restoration to their original condition. This is through fresh decals maintaining the original artwork, woodwork maintenance and hopefully soon we will be able to have all of them restored to their ideal condition.
What is your vision?
You won’t believe us, as we are healthily crazy. But our vision is a multiple functions venue where technological education and entertainment will coexist. A space where 300 – 400 arcade games will operate and 220+ unique consoles will be connected to television sets, ready to offer the experience to the visitor. Our dream is a space where your favourite games will be connected on the maximum number of multiplayer setup (8-seat Daytona anyone??), but at the same time the maximum number of titles will be available as part of the exhibition. To give you an example, we have one Metal Slug at the museum. The first one. And its siblings are in storage. Why not have them all one next to the other, so that you can experience the development of the franchise? Why not have all Tekken games in the museum? Why have just Shinobi and not Shadow Dancer as well? And many many more ideals that run around our head and we hope at some point in the future to make available to you. If time is our ally and we succeed in getting you to love the museum, we are committed to trying hard to develop a world-class experience here in Greece. Are we there yet? NO. Do we want and do we believe that we will get there? YES!!!
Are you receptive of comments?
We thrive on them and look forward to them. As we have emphasized, this is not a commercial project but instead a project that aims to be effected with professionalism. We try to operate with the very high operation standards of equivalent international museums, despite the inherent restrictions of our current premises. And this is due to the fact that we had to start somewhere. So, we look forward to your well hearted strict criticism so that we can further advance and develop both the cultural and educational, as well as your general experience.