Man turns home into arcade, is left by fiancée

Photo: NYDailyNews / JB Nicholas

Chris Kooluris, a senior vice president at a global PR firm, did not intend to turn his Manhattan pad into a retro gaming den, but found himself doing just that after moving in with his partner. Surrounded by his fiancée's possessions, the 37 year old placed his Murray Hill apartment on the market but failed to find a buyer.

Then, he came across a sci-fi book, Ready Player One, which brought back his nostalgic longing for video games.

"The book just blew me away," he tells the NY Daily News. "It awakened something in me and I started thinking that I can't believe I'm not surrounded by all these things that I grew up loving."

And so he did the natural thing anyone would: sold all of his furniture and spend the money on 1980s arcade machines.

At some point during the $26,000 conversion, though, his fiancée decided to call game over and leave. Kooluris was left with everything from Street Fighter II and Pac-Man to Donkey Kong and Tron, but had to enjoy them on his own.

His friends, though, do come round for gaming nights.

"It's like a 'Field of Dreams' for geeks," says his 35-year-old pal, Josh. "From the outside it seems like Noah building an ark. It's easy to think, 'Oh man, this guy is a lunatic.' But when you see how happy it makes it him, and how it provides a place for his friends to come together, it turns out to something really cool."

Chris, meanwhile, is more sanguine about his high-scoring achievement.

"Now that my fiancée and I are no longer together, it's hard to enjoy the room as much as I want to," he says. "I always end up thinking about her."

The one cheat he has learned for any other gamers planning to complete the room-to-arcade challenge?

"If you are going through relationship issues, you need to invest time in the relationship and work on it. Do not work on your arcade more than your relationship."