Bubble Bobble, one of the great Nintendo Classics. I grabbed a copy for my NES off eBay a while back. Seems like this would be an affordable machine if you could find it.
Yeah man, Bubble Bobble was one of my favorites as a kid--it was fun as hell to play, and I think I still have an old copy of the NES cartridge around somewhere (but no NES to play it on).
I had no idea there was actually an arcade version of this, but then again I kind of stopped playing on arcade machines when the NES came out.
I still regret to this day that I did not keep my NES from my childhood, happy to hear you still have yours.
The arcades are around 2000-3000 USD depending on condition and the game, so yes definitely affordable.
Yeah, I kept mine for years until it finally stopped working and then I threw it away. I think you can still get working ones fairly cheap on eBay, but I bought the SNES Classic not too long ago and that's good enough for me. I'm not a hardcore gamer anymore.
And arcade machines are definitely collectible, and they're beautiful show pieces. There's a lot of history behind each one in addition to all the fun playing them. If I had a bigger place and thousands to spend, I'd probably buy one.