April 04 2003

Interested in coin-operated machines? There are several available at the upcoming Victorian Casino Antiques Auction, April 12-13, 2003 in Las Vegas. For more information, check out their web site at www.vcaauction.com

January 30 2003

This site is by collectors for collectors. Please help us build this site by uploading images. If you log in first then you will get credit for your contributions.

December 31 2002

In December 2002, the International Arcade Museum was formed to expand on work done by the KLOV over the previous two decades. Greg McLemore, the current "KLOV Keeper," becomes the museum's director and WebMagic, which was a key supporter of the KLOV, becomes the chief financial contributor to the International Arcade Museum.

The KLOV officially becomes became part of The International Arcade Museum and 6000 entries covering early coin-operated machines are added to the videogame entries to create the master encyclopedia available on The International Arcade Museum's Web Site.

December 05 2002

The International Arcade Museum site upgrade is coming together very nicely. We've added over 6,000 new entries, each with book references...

March 06 2002

Today we launched arcadedocs.com to host technical reference manuals and more!

December 31 2001

2001 brought expanded support for handheld mobile devices. After a long beta testing period, version 1.0 of the "KLOV for Palm 7" application was released on May 25, 2001. This 100% free application allowed anyone with a Palm 7 wireless PDA to access KLOV game entries with text and graphics while on the road. This application is no longer maintained since modern cel phones such as the iPhone and Palm Pre can directly display the KLOV's offerings via built in modern web browsers.

Additionally, after receiving well over 100,000 messages, the KLOV's popular message forums were updated in 2001, and the new system, at http://forums.klov.com/, quickly received an additional 850,000+ messages.

December 31 2000

Thus, in January 2000 at the dawn of the new millennium, Greg McLemore (the founder of several famous Internet companies including Toys.com and Pets.com) became the latest KLOV Keeper. Greg is an avid collector of both antique and modern coin-operated machines. His company WebMagic registered the Internet domain name 'KLOV.com' for the site on January 13, 2000, and continues to provide substantial financial support for the KLOV to this day as a chief sponsor.

Community message forums where quickly added to the site, as was a new moderated wiki-style information update system with extensive back-end support to allow multiple people to administer user contributions. Just as before, users contributions were screened before being added, though updates were now tracked and submissions would be automatically tied to the record they belonged to. WebMagic also replaced Brian's Perl and flat file data system with a PHP and full SQL database solution utilizing LAMP (Linux Apache MySql PHP) technology.

At this time the KLOV also further clarified its copyright notices and updated its acceptable use guidelines, which remain liberal to this day. These clarifications were designed to help prevent improper use of KLOV data -- in particular but not exclusively, to prevent mass copying. The growth of Pay Per Click advertising on the Internet had created a new problem. Poachers began to copy the content of other sites en mass in order to try to profit from their content. This is particularly problematic for sites such as the KLOV's with user generated content, as misdirected visitors are visitors that are unable to submit additions, corrections, and other contributions to the site's encyclopedia. While the new policies were well received by the majority of site visitors, it did cause a bit of a controversy among a very small yet vocal group of suspicious users.

The new user submission system led to a rapid growth in the KLOV, and by the end of 2000, the KLOV's encyclopedia had more than 3000 game entries.

December 31 1999

In late 1999, the KLOV finally reached 2000 entries. By this time the increasing level of submissions and suggestions was becoming nearly unmanageable for any single person to keep up with, and the work load began to exceed Brian's available time.

December 31 1995

In 1994 or 1995, a classic arcade game collector in Minnesota by the name of Brian Johnson volunteered to take on upkeep of the list and became the new "KLOV Keeper," a title used to refer to the maintainer of the KLOV by the Usenet collector community at the time. The KLOV launched as a full brand on or before November 9, 1995. Brian was instrumental in developing the KLOV's web site from a simple list to a full web-based encyclopedia. Brian's efforts included breaking up the list into a complete online encyclopedia with distinct pages for each entry, rewriting all the content, including pictures in as many listings as was possible, and in general creating a user-friendly and searchable website. Visitors could submit suggested changes to Brian, who could then edit any entries by hand.

December 31 1993

The KLOV video game list finally passed the 1,000 entry point in March, 1993. At this time, the largest entry had 4 lines of text with a maximum of 75 characters per line.

December 31 1992

Jonathan Deitch took over the management of both lists in 1992, which then received frequent updates during his watch. He moved the lists into their first structured database using the database part of the software package Appleworks on an Apple II computer. The KLOV was distributed via BBS systems, as well as via the Internet Usenet group "rec.games.video.arcade," both of which also provided a reference source for updates to the list.

December 31 1991

This text list became "Coin-Ops A Poppin' - Killer List of Videogames" in 1991. It's first known maintainer was Mike Hughey, and it's second, Jeff Hansen. Also by 1991, a separate list called 'The definitive arcade video game cheat sheet' was maintained by Jeremy Radlow.

Also by 1991, Arcadia® wasn't just being promoting its shows in England, but also in places such as Illinois!

December 31 1989

Long before the Killer List of Videogames (KLOV) offered the full video-game encyclopedia and related products and services it does today, arcade enthusiasts gathered on modem-based dial-up bulletin board systems and CompuServe forums. It was during this era in the mid- 1980s that a master list of coin-operated videogames was slowly built by these enthusiasts.

July 17 1982

Penny Arcadia® was incorporated on November 21, 1980. On March 1, 1981, it acquired the Ritz Cinema, in Pocklington, England, 12 miles east of York. Penny Arcadia had its grand opening on July 17, 1982. A unique combination of an expo, museum, theater, arcade, and magic show was created under a single roof. This was the start of the Arcadia® shows, exhibitions, and other services that continue to this day.