Estevan, Sask., Pac-man collects more than 100 arcade games
One Estevan man has an old tire shop full of collectibles — but they're not cars, they're arcade games.
Kevin Mortenson estimates he has between 140 to 150 but at one time had around 200.
"I started collecting in 2001, that wonderful world of eBay," Mortenson said. "I started off with consoles, you know, the Ataris, the ColecoVision."
"Somebody in Saskatoon was selling an upright coin-operated Centipede in the fall of 2001 and it's pretty much snowballed since there," he said.
"Three months later I was in Fargo, N.D. picking up a Wizard of Wor, which was my favourite when I was a kid."
"I've got a garage full. These things aren't small. They take up a four foot square foot print."
Some of the upright games are working and some Mortenson uses only for their parts. Mortenson said he's driven as far as McLean, Ill. to pick up a game.
"I've shipped games. I've actually just shipped one this past Spring to Italy," he said. "I've had games shipped to me from Los Angeles."
Mortenson said he does play some of the ones that still work.
"I don't want to say I fire them up every night, but it would probably be closer to once a month," he said. "I don't fire everything up but I'll you know plug one or two of them in and just have an arcade night for myself or couple of friends will come over."
He said the biggest challenge is keeping them running given their age.
"We're dealing with technology that's almost 40 years old now. And in a lot of cases the wiring is getting brittle," Mortenson said.
"Some of those circuit board chips they're getting a little sketchy and I've had some boards go down and we've had to send them away to get it repaired. Luckily there are people in North America that can repair them."
When it comes time to pick his favourite, Mortenson said he jokes he would like to be buried in his Q*bert upright game when he dies.
Mortenson said in the early 1980s Coca Cola introduced a Mellow Yellow drink and gave either states or distributors a Q*bert game to do a draw for people to win. He said it hopped from convenience store to convenience store until someone in North Dakota won it and the family had held onto it until he bought it in 2010.
"It's kind of a unique piece," he said. "That's probably my favourite."
