The Videogame & Arcade Preservation Society (VAPS)
Enthusiast Society - Videogame and Arcade Census Project
14,774 Members — 71 Countries — 154,280 Machines — 7,043 Different Games
Visitors can sign-up for free to become a member. If you already have an account on one of our sites (ie: forums.arcade-museum.com), do not create a new one, just log in above after you have read our simple rules below.
First, the acronym: VAPS is the Videogame & Arcade Preservation Society. For twenty years of its existence, VAPS stood for the Video Arcade Preservation Society, and many still know it by that name.
Started in the 1980s, VAPS as the organization you see today has been dedicated to serving videogame and arcade collectors since 1990. The VAPS site strives to reflect its CENSUS project mission by providing collectors, collectors-to-be and enthusiasts a way to track and save physical pieces of our videogame heritage.
VAPS may also be reached by the short cut: www.vaps.org.
Read more about the History and Structure of VAPS.
Becoming a Member
Membership is free — all we ask is to be loyal to the community and to treat other people as you would want to be treated yourself, and that you keep your membership profile active and current.
To become a member and remain a member, you must agree to meet the following requirements:
- Use your real name (middle names are unneccesary and not encouraged - your uniqueness is your electronic mail address) and be honest and forthright when submitting any membership information.
- Maintain a valid electronic mail address, and be regularly reachable there. Mail will mostly consist of semiannual audit alerts.
- Perform self-audits of your collection as requested, semiannually. Requests may come in the form of multiple mail messages. They are not spam, and please do not report them as such. If you would like to drop out of VAPS, just contact us and we will remove you.
- Own or want (that is easy) at least one working video arcade game that is listed in The International Arcade Museum or The Killer List of Video Games. (In fact, all games listed must meet that criterion.) You may list any game that is 100% working, although it is not required to have a cabinet. You may also list any videogame board sets that can be installed in under 10 minutes, resulting in a 100% working game. All games and board sets must play just like the original.
- Identify where you live. You do not have to enter the city or town that you live, although this will help other collectors. However, you must list either your state/province (if in the US or Canada), or your country.
- Never initiate an offer to buy another member's games. You are welcome to respond to another member's offer to sell games, however.
- Refrain from contacting any member regarding a visit unless that member has explictly indicated in their VAPS entry that they are willing to do so.
- Agree that all submitted information will become public knowledge.
So, do you meet the requirements? Are you prepared to abide by them?
You may now Create or Modify Your VAPS Profile.
Please Keep Your Data Current
Please keep your data current. Even if you have nothing to change, please just hit 'save' on your bio or a game entry at least once every six months.
Please note that if you have not added any games owned or wanted within six months of joining VAPS, we will likely remove you from the VAPS system, though your email address, password, and username (if applicable) will likely remain in the system for years allowing you to use the rest of the site.
If you are inactive for between between one and three years, we will likely delete all want
records associated with your account.
If you are inactive for between three and five years (or more), we will likely eventually delete your entire account.