He has made it clear that in his 20 years on earth he has gained all the requisite knowledge and doesn't want any tips or advice.

Finally, a 20 year old who knows it all! That's new and unique.

Plot twist.

His girlfriend wrote the responses.

When this cat was in Corpus Christi visiting his girlfriend, he declined helping a friend of mine to checkover an EM. (He was here for a week.)

He also declined any form of meetup or to play my pins. At the time (fishtales and SS Cleopatra).

Now I may be an asshole, but I'm a funny asshole. And NOT checking out new games and playing them.... Is NOT something true pinheads do.

Funny, I was him over 20 yrs ago when I was 20. I did it the traditional way, took out loans, cashed out my college funds etc to purchase a business. Sadly only 4 years later filed bankruptcy and forced six great people to have to find new work. Do I wish I had listened to everyone that was telling me NOT to do it, YEP.

Good luck kid. Really, good luck, learn those lessons while your young.

We were all stupid kids, which I think is my point. There's a lot of experienced people on Pinside who have obviously found the ability to make a lot of disposable income. If I was personally trying to be a successful business person, I would probably listen to their advice openly regardless of if I end up using it or not.

Luckily, 90% of the people I interview or talk to coming out of college aren't like Otaku. I did have one interview that I'll never forget that reminds me a lot of Otaku's attitude. We were hiring a new entry level programmer to help bang out some of the grunt work on this multi-year project we were doing. In the interview he stated he could solve the entire project with "a weekend and a laptop". Guess who didn't get the job.

It was a clear lack of experience that made him unable to grasp how big the scope of something was, and I feel that's the same situation Otaku is in. He has no clue what lies ahead, and he is unwilling to listen to people that have been there.

Woulda been interesting to give him a weekend and a laptop to see how far he got. Offer a job and signing bonus if they pulled it off.

Nice sweatpants

Hahaha, it crossed my mind, but I've done my fair share of experiments with new hires over the years. Some are colossal failures, some work out.

It can be pretty damn debilitating. Not saying a heart attack or back can't either. But being stuck on the toilet, running to the toilet every 5 mins, it gets really depressing and impossible to even get in a car !

Editing my post. He has Crohns & had part of his bowel removed.
And he can still work.

"I know, I know - I truly am the old 'get off my lawn' guy now. I used to be a cool heavy metal kid with long hair - now I'm a grumpy old bald dude....my how time flies."

Haha! Thanks - made my day.

I've seen this guy - "weirdo" kinda screams out from his general presence!!!

Yep, he hangs around pitiful looking EM's with the pf up the entire time at shows...................

I have trouble rationalizing these sort of requests for a free ride.

Here's an example of this in my career:

Guy is opening a pizza shop, small place, says he wants games. He calls me to recommend what would do well in his space. I tell him it is rather small but since his concept includes a bar, I recommend a pool table (depending on layout) a jukebox, an atm and one 4 player arcade or pinball machine. He then asks me how long will it take for him to own the machines I am installing. I explain we would do a revenue share and he would have nothing out of pocket for me to do this. He then says "how am I supposed to make $100,000 off of the machines to fund my business. I was shocked to hear this and basically said "listen bud, if you figure out how to make $100k off of a pin, a joke and an atm in here in your lifetime I'll let you keep all the money in"

He was very angry but started a go fund me and told me he didn't need me.

Good luck kid. I am not trying to be a mean old guy, I'm 35 but when I see people my own age trying to raise money this way for no emergency situations then I get a little boiled. I mean it's a for profit business. What do you learn about the economics of having your own business if someone bought it for you?

Wonder what single comment drove him off? One of the many calling him a "tool" or "douchebag"? Maybe the ones calling him a lazy shit or any of the others just flat out making fun of him? He did not start this thread and his crowdfund has nothing to do with Pinside or Pinside members. So easy to just ignore his crowdfund, which was not targeted to any of us.

This thread does reek. Agreed. Pinside should *try* to be slightly less caustic than the typical comments section of FB, Twitter, etc. This is pinball, not politics or a debate on transgender bathroom rights.

This is where I am. I don’t agree with giving him money for his start up thing here, but I also don’t agree with the piling on, group-think and poor self-confidence this thread reeks of. So I will be draining it. We can be better, Pinside.

It does. I would suggest a name that everyone can tell WHAT kind of place it is... something like, "Otaku's GoFundMe Arcade".

RDoyle, Sorry but Otaku has earned the piling on. As a new member you probably missed the drama he created here and the rude behavior he has exhibited in every thread.

You are right, pinside can be better and we will be with fewer people like otaku.

If I weren't made of such strong stock, it would have driven me from Pinside when you called me "dishonest" for no good reason in a recent for sale thread!!!!

In the future please try to be less caustic.

Has it been YEARS?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sos-in-nj-help-needed-after-flood

The internet never forgets.

Sorry, but he’s the product of the everyone gets a trophy generation. The sooner they realize they’re not special snowflakes the better. Want something? Earn it. This is exactly what happens when one lives with parents, young men need to be out on their own at 18. Tummy hurts? Too bad, so does everyone else’s. Everyone has some crap to deal with, deal with yours. Some may say I’m an a-hole, but I won’t mollycoddle my boys. They need to grow into men. If the shit truly hits the fan, I’m there for them, but I won’t carry them through life. Wanna open an arcade? Great, I’ll support your effort by patronizing your establishment and offer my advice as needed, but I won’t hand you cash out of thin air for nothing.

Holy crap! Is this what happens when there's no new pinball news??

Where's the Star Wars topper?!

Better!

This is pinball news. Someone is opening up a location in Ephrata, PA.

I did learn something from all of this. It's "If-ra-tah" not "Eef-ray-ta".

Sure thing.

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No dude i saw the whole scenario, I guess I just disagree with the bullying since he’s split PS so now this is just a gossip thread. Anyway, like I said, I said my piece, I’m out, you guys do what you gotta do.

I feel he is seeing what others have done by using gofundme to start businesses or produce a product and feels he should at least try to take advantage of that. I can't fault him. If folks want to spend their money on him that is their business. Getting free money is a smarter move than trying to take out a bank loan. I can't imagine he could get one unless he established credit when he turned 18, but he has a legal team that can maybe vouch for him? Curious how he is paying for THAT in particular.

I'm a little disappointed that you would put IBS in the same frame as a "tummy ache." I guess you have to experience it to know how debilitating it can be, I should know. Literally curled up in a fetal position because your insides feel like they are being squished to death is not fun. Nor is running for the toilet every 5 minutes. You can't even get in your car! There are ways to control it through diet (avoiding certain foods) and lowering anxiety, and medication, at least trying to control these 3 has allowed me to function. But man, 10 years ago, damn it was rough. I still worked. And I quickly learned what restrooms on my route to work were cleanest / less likely to be being used!

I don't think this guy should use IBS as an excuse of not working. But I question how he can run an operation everyday and deal with those problems too.

I just see an issue with patience here. At 20 years old he is ready to go and seems rushed. He has his whole life ahead of him. I would tell him to fund it himself over the next 2 years and really examine this decision. When you are putting your own money on the line and still want to do it, then you know you are ready. Location will be EVERYTHING. Getting something open is not the problem. Staying open is. I don't like his rushed mentality and will not be contributing.

I was diagnosed with ibs at the age of fourteen, add on rheumatoid arthritis. I still manage to work. It’s not fun, but I like eating so I have no choice.
Maybe I’m hard on him because of that, kinda like ex smokers are hardest on those who make excuses about quitting.

No good reason? You advertised an LAH as 100% working when none of the magnets worked and it had a broken drop target.

Actually I advertised it as 110 % working EXCEPT. How did you know the game had those two issues? Surely you don't think your average pinsider is dumber than you, do you?

STOP TRYING TO RUN ME OFF PINSIDE!

Let's see. 100 Games. Needs 6000 dollars. The solution seems easy.

Sell 6 1000 dollar games or 12 500 games to fund the museum.

Hard to feel sorry for someone who has a solution staring them straight in the face.

He also has to pay for his legal teams.

Close - it's "Ef-ra-tah"

Agreed on the $10/hr figure - I would never pay this either.

In the Pacific Northwest, the only time I've paid on a per hour basis was $5/hr at a barcade in Bend, OR that served beer and had 10 or so SS & DMD pins as well as many arcade games. The recent Tacoma, WA pin show charged $25 (11.5 hrs) & $30 (13.5 hrs) of 400+ pin/arcade play for the first two days (that's about $2.25/hr).

Examples of no admission/pay per game with lots of pinball choices are the PHOF in Vegas with 400+ pin/arcade games (0.50-$1 per play, I believe), Blair Alley in Eugene, OR, some 30 pins of all eras & also arcade games (0.25-$1 per play), and Level Up (also in Eugene) with some 25 DMDs all at 0.50/play plus arcade games.

A little more math --

Many newer DMD titles I've seen are $1/play or $2/3 plays -- at these rates, for $10 you can buy 10-15 plays.
Can you squeeze in 10-15 plays in an hour ? (that's one game every 4-6 minutes).

Unless you drain every ball quickly and don't learn from any mistakes, I find this hard to do and thus not worth anywhere near a $10/hour fee.

EM & SS titles are generally 0.25-0.50/per play, so you'd have to squeeze in 20-40 games in 1 hour to equal a $10/hr admission fee - impossible (well, for most).

Hell, I wouldn't even have time to drink a beer and most barcades do serve beer.

Granted, some large pinball museums charge admission fees so one can experience an expectedly huge variety of games, but a small private arcade w/ only EMs (& probably no beer served) at $10/hr -- no way, much better choices out there.

too cheap to pay $10 an hour to play pinball? I don't know what to tell you. It's 10 bucks. That's less than a movie or pretty much any other entertainment option. And ALL of these places have a "day pass" for $20-30.

For a gay museum, hourly just makes more sense. You don't have to make change, break bills, or deal with getting all the coin mechs working.

Most of the larger places I've been to do this. Modern pinball NYC, the silverball museums in Jersey and Del Ray...they do hourly. It really is a smarter model.

Timeline Arcade York/Hanover: $10/hr, $25/day

Pinball Gallery in Malvern $8/hr, $20/day

Morristown Game Vault: $10/hr $25/5 hours.

This is his competition...the model works here on the east coast. But I doubt he will have many returning pinball customers if all he has are beat EM's.

Chrissakes dude - Well, I'll tell you upfront -- not about being cheap, just being sensible.
If the museum has lots to offer with a variety of games in playable shape, maybe I'll give it a try.
PHOF doesn't charge admission, so you'd better rag on Tim he's doing it all wrong.

That is one of the many questions beggared by the non IBS portion of his pitch.

What's the audience here? He's in the middle of nowhere next to a record store and a mom and pop Gamestop.

He's gonna have a bunch of ratty EMs and a small selection of beat up barn find vids.

SO who's gonna keep the lights on? Kids will have no interest in this shit. Grown ups may come once and never again.

I hope the redemption game laws are lax in that corner of middle of nowhere PA, cause he's gonna need to do another gofundme in a few months to fund the kiddie gambling room.

What's "saved pinball" is beer. Pinball is a loss leader to get people to buy drinks. At least all the grown-ups I know go to barcades to drink and play. If there was only playing they probably wouldn't go as much.

You can just leave without announcing it, we don't really give a shit.

People like to announce that they're leaving in this thread.

The reason for the bashing and backlash is that he STOLE MONEY FROM PINSIDERS . Actually some of us are trying to prevent it from ever happening again. The sarcasm and mudslinging is just an added entertainment factor.

Given his track record do you really think he will have an all day option? I doubt it, the point isn't about being cheap its about wanting to relax when you go and play pinball. I wouldn't want to be watching the clock the whole time to make sure I don't "Go Over" the allotted time. Now $10 for the whole day or even $20 maybe $30 if the games were super nice wouldn't be an issue. Neat about the NYC arcades, I'd check those out if they have the day pass option.

I have a separate question in regards to this situation. I remember when the basement spill happened he had around 40 games. This was last year right? So how in such a short time did he get 60 more games if he doesn't work a job? Or am I getting the timeline wrong.

Levi,I used to disagree with quite a few of your posts/opinions-but lately all I seem to do is agree with you 100%! I wish I could upvote this post 100 times. If this “arcade” is anything other than a personal residence/home full of machines with an open door to the public occasionally making a few dollars it will be closed within a few months.Sorry to be part of the heatwave that melted the perfect snowflake.....but reality/the real world is harsh!

I can't believe anybody actually donates to such nonsense. He's SOL as far as I'm concerned.

Either you are getting smarter or I’m getting dumber

Agreed, the business model of many barcades -- draw in the crowd with pinball/arcade games, stay and have a few beers and food.

Money is made on the beer & food far more than the games.

I think $10/hr. is perfectly reasonable for a clean, nice facility with top notch games and decent restrooms. None of which he has, I'm guessing.

His hourly rate may be the only thing reasonable about his idea, lol.

I noticed one of the contributors is funny man Todd Tuckey ! Good for him, if that is really him.

I'm loving the neck beard.

https://www.reddit.com/r/justneckbeardthings/

Who "donated" to interlock/Otaku???

He is flaunting it over on klov, but will not sell anything to "fund his dream".

Guys you're being too mean to the guy that stole pinsiders monies. Have a heart.