The Phillytron & A Cabinet That Came Home
Alex Hillman
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Every first Thursday, our friends at Philly Game Mechanics host a video game playtest night at the Indy Hall Clubhouse, and this month we had THREE special guests — local-made arcade cabinets loaded with indie games made by the PGM community.
After a bit of discussion, we agreed to welcome the Phillytron 2 (shown above in the kitchen) to reside at the clubhouse for members to play for a while!
Not Our First Arcade Cabinet
Eagle-eyed readers will note that I called it the Phillytron 2, which implies the existence of Phillytron 1.
Phillytron 2 is the latest build from PGM member and game cabinet designer Brandon Weiss. If you remember the Hugby table in the kitchen for a while late last year, that was another one of Brandon’s creations we got to enjoy!
The original Phillytron was created back in 2017, and after a maiden voyage to Magfest, lived at our previous space from 2018 until we moved out in 2020.
This past Thursday BOTH Phillytrons showed up at the clubhouse — the original and the new one — along with a THIRD cabinet built by Drexel students.
But here’s where it gets wild: that third one had a familiar…face?
Adam did a bit of digging and figured out that it was ANOTHER one of our former game cabinets!
This one started life as a Mortal Kombat 3 cabinet that landed in Indy Hall’s meeting room in 2013, for $150, thanks to a tip from longtime member and Geekadelphia co-founder Eric Smith.
That cabinet changed hands a few times, eventually landing with a group of Drexel students who converted it into their own local game cabinet.
A cabinet that left this community and came home a decade later, rebuilt into something new by the next generation of game designers.
Life isn’t all fun and games. But on the long arc, maybe more of it is games than we realize.
Learn more about Brandon Weiss’s work →
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