As a kid, Jeff Gerson happily dropped quarters into arcade video games and pinball machine machines to prove his skills. He realized this was something he enjoyed and had fun at. To recreate those happy childhood days, Jeff Gerson has realized his dream and built a fully functional 80s arcade in his own home. Not only has Jeff built an arcade, he has also been able to recreate the atmosphere and feeling of those days gone by when the arcades were the place where teens and young adults would meet to hang out and have fun. Old School Gamer (OSG): Jeff, thank you for agreeing to some time to explain and give details about your Gameroom.
Jeff Gerson (JG): It is my pleasure Kevin.
OSG: So when did you start getting into video games?
JG: I grew up in Brooklyn by Coney Island. On weekends my dad would take my brother and I to the boardwalk with a pocketfu of quarters. This would have been about 1975. As the years went by, I remember playing all the classics including Space Invaders, Galaxian, and Frogger. I enjoyed the arcade games so much, my family bought me an Atari 2600. I spent countless hours playing that Atari with my brother. We thought it was just the best thing ever! As I got older….
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Since he played on the first Magnanvox Odyssey in 1973, Kevin was bitten by the video game bug. It didn't matter what the games looked like, they were just fun. When Space Invaders was released in the United States in the late 1970's, he spent a ton of quarters in his local Aladdins Castle trying (unsuccessfully) to master the game. He continued to play on various console and arcade games (even learning to program the Apple II+) until he joined the navy in 1983. Joined the navy in 1983 and became a Hospital Corpsman in 1984. While in the navy, Kevin was able continue his hobby of programming PC's and playing videogames. In the early to mid 1990's, Kevin learned to program the Atari ST and worked for Majicsoft for a couple of years. Before retiring from the navy in 2004, Kevin started to write FAQ's for GameFAQ's. His forte was arcade FAQ's since that was his real passion still. His FAQ's have appeared in many places that seek to preserve the arcade game history. This is especially true for the MAME project where his guides are a part of the documentation. After retiring from the navy, Kevin has been more involved in computer repair, networking, and computer security but he still is involved in the arcade history arena. He currently lives in Neosho MO with his wife and one son who is also a video game hobbyist.
