Who I am

I used to work in a few arcades back in the day when they were all the rage.

I started at one called Time Out located just north of Pittsburgh. Here I was just a lowly employee, with too much to do, and not enough pay. I had no official title, but I was responsible for doing everything from counting coins, redeeming tickets (back when you had to count them by hand!!!) stock the cranes with cheap toys, wax the air hockey table, repair coin mechs, wax the pins, repair the pins, order parts, and I even took out the trash a few times.

I worked there for a few years, learning as much as I could. Then the mall remodelled, and they lost a ton of stores, with rumors that ours was next.

So I applied at a competing arcade, and got hired right away. Better pay, with nearly 0 responsibilities.

That was part of the problem though. I didn't have keys to any of the machines, so I had nothing to do all day but clean gum off the carpet. I hated it! Fortunately it only lasted 1 day because some mall rat broke the window on my truck while I was there. I didn't return the next day.

Then I got a job muuuuch closer to home, working as the arcade manager for a local pizza joint. I loved that job. We were super busy, I had keys to everything, and I could run it how I wanted to.

Customers started to find other places to eat, and the arcade evnetually dried up.

I took quite a while to get back into the arcade games, working at places like radio shack, an electrical distributor, and even a few convenience stores, before I got back into the video game/pinball scene.

I now have a full time job, and do the arcade/pinball repairs on the side as a hobby.