I asked her how the landscape has shifted over these past three decades. She, with a newly minted electronic engineering degree, could tackle the new fancy video games. The old-timers she worked with at a vending machine company back then taught her to fix all of the old, mechanical games. Sarah says she came into the trade at the perfect time. They were just overloaded with quarters back in the ‘80s.” “Every two or three days, the cash box were overflowing with quarters, and the quarters would fall on the fuse holders. She tells me that she first started fixing arcade machines back in the 1980's. She looks like she might be into heavy metal, or maybe Pink Floyd. She’s sporting blonde bangs, and wears a plain black t-shirt. “Pinball Nerds, video-game nerds, and jukebox nerds.” “It’s like a Willy Wonka factory for pinball nerds,” I exclaim. Frankenstein of this laboratory is Sarah St. It’s an alternate universe, a pet-cemetary for vintage video games, a post-apocalyptic episode of Stranger Things. The brain of a Pacman machine, removed for diagnosis and treatment. On one workshop table, widgets of some kind fill plastic containers that once held cherry-red ring pops and Twizzlers. Piles of circuit boards the size of cafeteria trays lay strewn about like old newspapers across nearly every available surface. Throughout the building, the gutted corpses of ancient gaming cabinets are frozen in states of half-reanimation. My Arcade Repair is housed in a three-story (including the basement) multi-car garage. I’m telling you this so you can understand my excitement, when I stepped inside My Arcade Repair in Pelham New Hampshire. Once I had a key, I even used to skip school to hit the flippers.īy senior year, I was probably depositing half my meager paycheck back to my bosses, two quarters at a time. My coworkers and I played on breaks, or after hours. The free movies were an obvious perk, but even better was the pinball. My first job was at the six-screen theater in Keene, New Hampshire. ![]() ![]() ![]() There are old pinball machines and arcade cabinets littered here and there in dive bars and restaurants all across the country.īut have you ever considered what it takes to maintain and repair them? I have.
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