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Curt Vendel Donates 8 Rare Games to
American Classic Arcade Museum |
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By John McGray
Curt Vendel of New York had a dream; the establishment of a permanent Atari Museum. Unfortunately he realized that was not likely to become a reality and this left him with a problem - an extensive collection of rare coin-operated games in storage gathering dust. So how does one solve such a problem? What did Curt do? He called Mike Stulir of Back In Time Classic Gaming and Mike hooked him up with Gary Vincent of the American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot in Weirs Beach, NH. Because of this connection, Curt donated several classic games in his collection to Funspot's American Classic Arcade Museum.
With his initial problem solved, Curt now faced another; how to get eight classic video games to the largest arcade in world three states away! "No problem," said Mike, "we'll drive 'em." With that declaration hardly off his tongue, Mike went down to Staten Island, and met with
Curt to prepare for the big move. "I didn't really realize what I was in for," Mike recalls, "Curt had a pretty big collection." The two rented a 24' Uhaul truck which just barely fit all of the
games, everything from Breakout,
to Skydiver, to Basketball, Nightdriver and many,
many more. "It was quite a site to see that truck packed to the gills with all those games," Curt remembers.
With the truck loaded to the max everything
was ready to roll. First stop...Curt's new
pad north of NYC to drop off some of the collection destined to become part of his new home
arcade and game room. Then they hit the road to the green hills of New Hampshire
and Funspot.
When Curt and Mike finally arrived, Gary was anxiously awaiting them with Dave Nelson, the holder of many classic arcade game records. Gary had enlisted Dave for help with the job of unloading the games and getting them into safe storage at Funspot.
As the task progressed and more and more games were safely tucked away in the workshop, the foursome's excitement grew. "The shop is like a candy store and we all
felt like kids!" Gary Vincent recalls. "The place is big and there are some games there that no one has seen in 20-30
years."
At last, the final game came off the truck - Super Breakout. Among the other
games donated were Super Bug, Le Mans, Tank II and
Outlaw.
"They couldn't have gone to a better
home," says Curt, "and I am very happy to know that they will
be played and enjoyed by many people looking to
relive old memories, and for a new generation of
gamers to experience the treasures of the past
and try them for the first time."
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