(Sci-Fi Journal,if you'd like to know more.) I went that day on the chance that my scheduled trip up there the following weekend to shoot a segment for my cable access show. Well,not only was I able to do that,but my wife and I spent the weekend in the lovely Lakes Region of New Hampshire - which also happens to have one of the biggest arcades on the planet - the legendary Funspot. While my wife & I had a great time during our mini vacation,the gaming & pinball portion of it was somewhat of an eye opener to me. The following is my story of how events unfolded. I can't say enough good things about The Pinball Wizard Arcade. To have a place like PWA within two hours driving distance of home is just incredible. Anyways, my crew & I arrived there Saturday morning and we got some playtime in before we started filming my segment. John is a "pinball wizard" - and the owner of the PWA. The tables there are from her personal collection,which is incredible in and of itself. She is very passionate about pinball,and also her arcade - I could tell how proud she was of TPWA during her interview. (This became more appreant to me over the course of the weekend,but more on that later) I pointed out that - to me,anyways.while I love the quantity of the selection of games there - that it is really the quality condition of TPWA that really stands out. I can't begin to tell you how long it's been since I've seen so many machines in good working order. Now,most of these machines are well over 15 years old-so there were a few not working.(TPWA has a proto WOZ that isn't working properly - that was my biggest disappointment)But overall,still an A+ in my book. I'm making it a point to try pins that I haven't played before - and my goal is eventually to play every table at TPWA. As an example,my first trip there,the Indy WMS table malfunctioned while I was playing it. A lot of these gadgets are in man caves or small businesses or even family campgrounds.I got my tokens back,and Sarah had it fixed and running again within ten minutes. Jukeboxes are simpler to fix than a pinball in many ways, but it depends on the mechanism. I supplement my pinball repair by also fixing slot machines, air hockey games, and other novelty equipment including jukeboxes as well as Hammond organs. “A lot of old-timers who used to fix pinball machines are disappearing from the business. I’ve worked on hundreds of machines over the years and used to sell them on consignment. But properly serviced, a pinball machine can last for years, like Gottlieb’s Humpty Dumpty, the first pinball machine manufactured with electromechanical flippers. Pinballs always need a lot of preventative maintenance, especially as they get older, because parts break there are connector and wiring issues bulbs burn out and pieces get loose on the playfield. After I got my driver’s license, I had a small van and ran some machines commercially, putting them in establishments such as bowling alleys and making sure they kept operating. I had it upstairs in my bedroom later as a teenager, I had five to six pinball machines, including a Cyclone and Jokerz by Williams. It was a Gottlieb single-player and it sure made a lot of noise - dings and chimes. I got my first pinball machine when I was 13 years old I bought it with my bar mitzvah money from a local kiddy time operator. “I was always fascinated by mechanical things when I was a kid.
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