retro arcade – Ready Up NJ

19 year-old Dustin Wilcox discusses the arcade business, and what goes into creating his brand, Wilcox Arcade.

This week I caught up with with Dustin Wilcox, 19, from Hopkinsville KY. He is a student at Murray State University majoring in journalism. Dustin is the owner of the Wilcox Arcade blog, where he reviews and discusses everything in the world of arcade gaming. He has loved and enjoyed video games and arcade games ever since he was a kid. He is extremely passionate about arcade gaming, and that passion translates into his insightful and well written articles.

Dustin’s passion for arcade games ironically came from a lack of arcades in his town. He loved playing the few games at the couple of locations that housed them. This lack of games drove him to want to provide other people with access to them. He started his blog in 2017 at 15 years old. One day when talking about arcades with his dad, his dad offhandedly mentioned starting a blog, and Dustin took off with the idea.

“I’m so close to getting 3,000 views a month now, I love it,” said Dustin about his blog. “I can’t stop now, I’ve made a lot of great connections, I love what I’m doing, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Listen to Dustin detail the story of why he started his blog:

“That’s the biggest difficulty, not being able to cover everything I want to.”

Starting his blog at age 15, and currently a college student, I wanted to know how Dustin balanced his life responsibilities with running his blog, and what the most difficult part of running the blog is. He stated that through high school he would wake up at 4 or 5 a.m. to get a couple hours of work done. He always takes care of his important responsibilities first, which means the blog is worked on when he has the time to squeeze it in. And this in turn results in Dustin not being able to cover everything he wants to cover.

“The most difficult thing for sure is having the time to write about everything I want to write about…”

Hear Dustin finish explaining whats most difficult about running his website below:

But don’t let that fool you into thinking Dustin isn’t working extremely hard. Not only on his website, but on his Wilcox Arcade brand as a whole, as Dustin’s website is just part of what makes up Wilcox Arcade.

Dustin also has a route of coin operated video games in his town. He explained exactly what this meant.

“A lot of people assume that games they see at, say, a restaurant, or movie theater, or a bowling alley, are owned by the location. But in many cases they’re not. They’re owned by an outside operator, a third party, who is sharing the profits with the location owner. That’s what I do, I’m the third party.”

Dustin said he saw “a need in the market” for more coin operated video games. Hear Dustin detail what it took to get his arcade machine into his first business:

I asked Dustin what he thought the future of arcades will be in 20 years. He hopes to be apart of the arcade scene in the future. He stated he wants to rejuvenate the industry by targeting more hard-core gamers, as opposed to the more casual ones.

“In 20 years, my hope is that I’m apart of arcades then. My goal is to rejuvenate it by targeting, for lack of a better way of putting it, the hard-core gamers as opposed to the more casual fair you see peddled by the family entertainment centers.”

“In 20 years, my hope is that I’m apart of arcades then.

Hear Dustins other thoughts on the future of arcade in 20 years:

I then asked Dustin where he see’s his website and brand going in the future. He wants to continue to grow, bringing in more viewers, and making Wilcox Arcade bigger and better. He stated that it has always been a dream of his to start a gaming magazine. But his ultimate goal is to open his own arcade one day, and to build it exactly how he wants.

“I want to start a dedicated arcade facility as well. That has always been my goal. I appreciate so dearly that these local business owners have allowed me to put games in their establishments. But that also doesn’t change the fact that I think it would be so, so cool if I could have my own place that I could decorate however I want and curate what I consider the most ideal game selection, and give people what I’ve always wanted. And while I know great arcades like that are plentiful in existence, they’ve never been near me, and I want that.”

Listen to Dustin explain his goal of owning his own arcade:

Dustins 3 favorite arcade games are Target Terror, Skycurser, and Dance Dance Revolution.

Check out Dustin’s Wilcox Arcade blog here: https://www.wilcoxarcade.com/

“The Arcade Blogger” Tony Temple on running his retro arcade blog.

Tony Temple with his Missile Command machine. Photo provided by Tony Temple.

This week I was able to catch up with Tony Temple, 51, from the United Kingdom. He is the creator of “The Arcade Blogger” website. His blog covers arcade history, arcade locations, arcade machine restoration, and more. You’ll find engaging articles that gather information, pictures, and videos from across the internet, that Tony mixes together to create intriguing articles that are fun and easy to read.

Tony started collecting arcade machines in 2005. He purchased a Missile Command machine, which was his favorite game as a kid. He broke the high score record on the machine multiple times, scoring 4.4 million points in 2010. After this, his interest in the hobby began to evolve.

“I got more interested into restoring classic arcade games. The hobby sort of morphed for me, from setting high scores to buying old arcade machines and restoring them.”

One day when searching the web for information, Tony realized that there was tons of information and history on classic arcade games, but that no one had ever pulled it all together. He found himself having to visit multiple sites to find the information he needed. This motivated him to build his website. His goal was to create a website that anybody could come to and get something out of it.

“I took it upon myself to build the website that I never saw, and just wanted to create something that was accessible. That’s the key thing. There is a lot of history out there but a lot of it can be very technical and nerdy and not presented very well. So I really wanted to pull this information together and write a series of articles related to arcade restoration, arcade history, how people go about finding old arcade games, and some of the stories behind that.

“What I don’t want to do is state the obvious and regurgitate what’s already out there.“

Tony says the most challenging part of running his blog is finding interesting content and expanding on it. He tries to write things that are different and interesting, and he tries to take a different angle when writing. A problem he sees is people making posts on information that is already readily available and easy to find. “What I don’t want to do is state the obvious and regurgitate what’s already out there.”

As for the most rewarding part of running his blog, Tony says it’s when he gets positive feedback from people coming up to him and saying they enjoy his website and his content. He says it’s not about how many people visit his website, and he doesn’t make money from the website. Having people enjoy what he does keeps him motivated and connected, and prevents him from getting bored of running the site.

I asked Tony what advice he has for people trying to maintain a website like his.

“I would say the biggest thing that people need to focus on is to keep producing content. And the one thing I learned is that if you don’t keep updating regularly, people won’t come back, and you won’t build that brand…. I just try to grow organically, and I think the only way you can do that is to keep producing regular content.”

Tony has been to the US multiple times and visited arcades across the country, so I was excited to ask him about any differences he saw between US arcades and UK arcades. I was fascinated to find out the biggest difference he saw was the variety of games we have here in the US. Tony stated there are several games the UK never saw. The visits he takes to the US arcades have allowed him to see and play games he never was able to before.

“The real appeal of visiting the US, which I try to do once a year, is an opportunity to get to see and play some of the rare titles we never got to see over here. It fills the gaps in terms of arcade history.”

“I think there’s a healthy future for classic arcade gaming, because I think there will always be interest.”

I also asked Tony about the future of arcades, and here’s what he had to say:

“I think there’s a healthy future for classic arcade gaming, because I think there will always be interest. When I get out of the hobby, I’m quite sure there will be younger people coming up who will want to be custodians of these machines, either in terms of a commercial arcade or a private collection in their house… But certainly, in terms of classic arcades I think its healthy right now and I think its only gonna get stronger.”

Check out Tony’s blog here:

https://arcadeblogger.com/