Back in the game

Tom Wallace, Star Tribune

Cory Blantner unloads a pinball machine to Eclipse.

Save up your quarters. A St. Paul store owner aims to revive "this nostalgia thing" with a vintage coin-operated video arcade.

By TONY GONZALEZ, Star Tribune

Last update: August 27, 2008 - 4:48 PM

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Now he knows: A Canadian quarter can clog a vintage pinball machine. Joe Furth had been basking in the glow of his growing collection of classic arcade games for only a few days at his Eclipse Records store in St. Paul when the rogue coin "mucked up" the game.

He never found the coin-dropping culprit, but that problem aside, the vintage arcade long on Furth's mind is finally beginning to glitter in all its pixelated glory in a cavelike room inside the store on W. University Avenue. Furth has big plans -- 30 vintage games -- and the permit from St. Paul that he'll need, but he's a long way from his all-retro goal.

"There's something about dropping a quarter in instead of hitting the reset button. ... There's something about, if you're waiting to play the game, lining up the quarters on top," said Furth, who remembers seeing video games everywhere, including at the grocery store, when young. "It's this nostalgia thing you can't put a price on."

Nostalgia will make Tim Daly's job as general manager of Awe Vending and Amusements more difficult. The St. Paul company delivers games to Eclipse. Awe has some game cabinets and "boards" (the guts of the game) in its warehouse but also searches and buys parts before repairing, assembling and delivering the games.

"He wants retro," Daly said. "It's going to be a challenge, because there aren't really any new manufacturers making what he wants."

Only a few clients seek vintage games, Daly added.

Furth wants the most concentrated collection of vintage games in the Twin Cities.

"How often are you going to find a stand-up 'Millipede' game?" Furth asked, referring to the old Atari gem that he considers the best among the first 10 games installed in the past month. "It's not something you're going to find every day."

Arcades used to be dark and dingy and a common hangout for truants, but the games have lost that aspect of their allure, Furth said. He painted the room black anyway.

And he keeps the overhead lights out in the three-walled game area, so the only light comes spilling from the main room. And the twinkle of the games.

"There is something about the original game, in its setup, that can't be replaced," Furth said. "If you can play at home [on simulators] with your control that has no connection to the actual game controls, and get more of a thrill, then you should do that."

He wants games like "Donkey Kong" and "Tempest," but for now Furth has mostly non-vintage games as Awe Vending finds and restores older machines. Eclipse (www.myspace.com/eclipserecords651) currently has five pinball games (including "Bride of Pin Bot") and five stand-up games.

Steffen Kellogg, 33, works near Eclipse and stopped in to play recently with his daughter Emma, 10, who had never seen an arcade like Eclipse's. Her dad hadn't played since he was 15, and, old school or not, he was hooked.

"You got a fighting game in here," he said, eyeing Furth's "Marvel vs. Capcom" game (circa 1998). "You might not get me out."

Tony Gonzalez • 612-673-7415

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