My new arcade hero: Gust de Meyer

[Q*ris]

Maybe I'm gonna get flamed here but searching the web I stumbled on "Gust de Meyer".
I had never heard of him before but he seems to be a Belgian die hard arcade collector (and also vintage video games in general).
He put out an exhibition at the toy museum in Mechelen in 1999 and judging from the pictures, the machines displayed there were simply amazing.
Gust sure knows his classics! ...and remember that the pics are at least 13 years old... respect!

If you read this topic, Mr de Meyer, just login and share some more pics from your collection with us (or invite me for a tour, I'm pretty free this weekend ).

[DarthNuno]

That Pleiads you can see in your picture is mine, and I'm 99% sure that my Space Wars belonged to him too.
As far as I know, he bought some of their games in the famous game room Sportland at Blankenberge (Belgium). Some of these games have been sold to a collector in NL, where I got my Pleiads and Space Wars (see the road trip).

I love such topics... Arcade archeology and history! 

[Q*ris]

Haha, excellent!
Awesome to be able to track down the life story of a cab like that.

[level42]

Yes, the buyer of half that stuff is a member here, Marco.

Ive seen most of it but he has sold on alot of them.

[Thwocker]

Yeah, I bought the entire collection from the Toymuseum in Mechelen.
The lot was advertised on marktplaats. Gust only wanted to sell it as a lot,
which scared away most interested parties. The price was rather high at first
as well, but in the end I got a very good deal.

There were about 90 cabinets, lots of junk but also some real gems.
Some of the machines that I kept: Computer Space, Defender, and Sinistar.

I sold about half of the collection directly to Stefan from World of Arcade,
which was a huge mistake - after 5 1/2 years he still owes me money   

On the bright side though, this mega-buy got me into arcade collecting and
also led me to this site, where I discovered that I'm not the only arcade-loony   

Cheers, Marco

[Q*ris]

Hey, it's a small world.
Thanks a lot for the explanations, Marco.
Gust had some real gems indeed, glad you kept some.
I wonder if he imported some of them (15 years ago!) or if he managed to find everything "locally".

[Blanka]

Does the toy museum in Mechelen still have arcade games in their collection?

[Superully]

half of the collection to WOL? i wonder what happened to those games ...

[ckong]

Nice story, it's surprising how cabs go from one to another collector. I wonder if sometimes the circle closes and the original owner buys back a cab he once owned.

[liquidx]

A couple of those are in my hands also

[DarthNuno]

A couple of those are in my hands also

Which ones? Yeah... I'm curious... but in the name of history please 

[Q*ris]

OK, seems like everybody is intimate with Mr Gust except me here! 

[liquidx]

A couple of those are in my hands also

Which ones? Yeah... I'm curious... but in the name of history please 

Omega Race and Asteroids.
Also Galaxy Ranger but that one is now in Denmark.

[Q*ris]

Nice choice.
Any idea how he managed to find an Omega Race upright in Belgium in the 90's?
Yes, I'm curious too.  

I just found out some of his writings about video games on the web too (for instance:De socio-culturele betekenis van Pac-Man.)

[liquidx]

Nice choice.
Any idea how he managed to find an Omega Race upright in Belgium in the 90's?
Yes, I'm curious too.  

No idea, but it has the wrong coin door (later generation midway) with UK Pence pricing, so it may have been imported.

Then again, they must have been around here as I got a marquee from OR from a local operator. Also got a Black Widow marquee from there.