The Wilcox Arcade Multicade: My Very First Arcade Game

To anyone who reads my blog or follows my social media accounts, it is a well-known fact that I’m a sweaty nerd who loves arcade games more than anything in the world. As such, I’ve spent the past few months of my life saving up for my first arcade game. And you know what happened?

I finally got it.

However, there’s a bit more of a story to this purchase, as the search for my first game was an adventurous one.

It all started many months ago when I first decided to take my obsession with arcade games and turn it into something productive. When I first started out, I wasn’t familiar with all of the avenues for finding games. I looked around on eBay and found a ton of games, and I soon found thepinballcompany.com. I later realized, though, that eBay listings were usually much too far away, and The Pinball Company is a little pricy, especially with shipping. (M&P Amusement, though, is very reasonable.)

Then, I found Craigslist. Though I knew what Craigslist was, I had never used that site before in all of my life. However, once I searched “arcade games,” I realized that there was a whole new world of games just within the area.

During the months it took to save up for a game, I missed quite a few intriguing games, including Double Dragon 2, Life Force, War: Final Assault, and some fighting games here and there. But you know what? I wouldn’t trade any of one of those games for what I ended up finding.

While browsing Craigslist (which I was doing quite regularly), I stumbled upon a 60-in-1 Multicade. I contacted the seller, but the Multicade had already sold. However, it turned out this seller actually built these on an order-by-order basis, and he just happened to have one where something had come up for the buyer.

Glad to have stumbled upon such a cool service, I began the process of making my order. We worked out all of the details, including the joystick and three-button setup, the control panel art, and my custom marquee. I figured that this Multicade would be the perfect way for me to enter the market as a vendor, so why not build my brand?

He had a few orders ahead of mine, but after that, my order was taken care of quickly. The day he sent the photo of the completed Multicade, I figuratively flipped (alliteration, people).

For those of you who may be wondering, the person I’ve been referring to this entire time is Adam Lamb of Lamb Computers. He repairs computers in Dover, Tennessee, but he’s been building Multicades and fixing dedicated cabinets for a few years now. If you’d like to know more about him, check out this Leaf Chronicle article.

So thence came the day I picked up the Multicade. My dad and I drove to Mr. Lamb’s house (after my Science Olympiad competition that I had completely forgotten about). He’s got quite a few cabinets now, including Crisis Zone, Tekken 4, Killer Instinct 2, 6-player X-Men, and San Francisco Rush. It was truly awesome seeing them all crammed in there. As much as I do want to buy some of these games, I was, in the moment, particularly enamored by the Wilcox Arcade Multicade (and that Crisis Zone). Mr. Lamb did a fantastic job, and he does very honest business. Since my story pretty much ends here, I’d like to do it more justice with photos as opposed to words.

And so, I had reached my goal of getting my first arcade game before I was 16—three days before I was 16, in fact! It's a milestone that I'm proud of, and I can't wait to continue my endeavors in bringing back arcades. Though I absolutely love the Multicade, I will be looking for more dedicated cabs in the future. A few of the games on my “hit list” include CarnEvil, The House of the Dead series, the Time Crisis series, Smash TV, NFL Blitz, NBA Jam, Gauntlet Legends, and many more. I'm also building my own cabinet to house Mr. Lamb's components soon. I think you all will really like how that one turns out!

I think things are really looking up.

Keep it real, sweaty nerds.