''GameRoom Magazine'' is an American magazine focusing on game room products (pinball, arcade games, jukeboxes, etc.). It was founded in 1988 by Dave C. and Donna Cooper of

New Albany, Indiana New Albany is a city in New Albany Township, Floyd County, Indiana, United States, situated along the Ohio River, opposite Louisville, Kentucky. The population was 37,841 as of the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Floyd County. It ...

, and was created to serve the growing market of

coin-op A currency detector or currency validator is a device that determines whether notes or coins are genuine or counterfeit. These devices are used in a wide range of automated machines, such as retail kiosks, supermarket self checkout machines, ar ...

memorabilia collectors, hobbyists, and restorers. The first issue, dated January 1989, focused on

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

es. The magazine also covered other coin-operated playthings, such as

pinball machine Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

slot machine A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...

s, and

gumball machine A gumball machine is a type of bulk vending machine that dispenses individual gumballs in exchange for money. They were developed around the early twentieth century. History Although vending machines for stick or block-shaped gum were seen as ...

s, in addition to related items such as

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (International English), or galloper (British English) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders. The seats are tradit ...

s, gas station memorabilia, and antique ice cream scoops.

History

In 1993 ''GameRoom'' absorbed a competing periodical, ''The Pinball Trader''. To serve this market, ''GameRoom'' increased its pinball machine coverage. ''GameRoom'' was subsequently sold to Tim and Jacqueline Ferrante after the passing of Dave Cooper in September 1996. After relocating the magazine's homebase to

Keyport, New Jersey Keyport is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in northern Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A waterfront community located on the Raritan Bay in the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region, the borough is a ...

, the magazine grew to feature regular columnists, more pages, a website online, and a merchandise department. Coverage of arcade video games increased in January 1997, and in 2001 ''GameRoom'' published ''The Arcade Video Game Price Guide'', the world's first comprehensive pricing guide for arcade video games. In late 2005, after nine years, the Ferrantes sold the magazine to Kevin Steele, best known as the creator of RetroBlast!, a website focusing on the home arcade industry. The first issue under Steele's direction was the January 2006 issue. Under his ownership, ''GameRoom'' featured increased content, usually around 64 pages an issue, and full color pages throughout the magazine. Around November 17, 2010 a notice was posted to the magazine's website announcing the magazine was no longer economically feasible to produce and would cease publication immediately. The last issue produced was October 2010 - volume 22 number 10. On May 1, 2014, The Pinball Company announced it had acquired the assets of ''GameRoom'' and had plans to re-launch the magazine in the fall of that year. The magazine is now a quarterly publication and provides more high quality images of new and classic pinball machines and arcades. It continues to feature articles related to game room products and those who play and collect them. Five issues have been published (as of September 2016) under publisher, Nic Parks, and Editor Meredith Hoenes-Buckman, both of Columbia, MO.

Focus

Coverage of pinball games, jukeboxes, arcade video games, and arcade emulation cabinets are frequent topics, as are tips on repairing and restoring these machines. Interviews with game creators and programmers, spotlights on individual collector's home game room layouts, reviews of topical books and DVDs, and news items of interest to those with game rooms are also featured monthly.

References

External links

GameRoom website
Monthly magazines published in the United States Defunct video game magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1989 Magazines disestablished in 2000 Magazines published in Indiana Magazines published in New Jersey {{Videogame-mag-stub