About 10 more games added in the past month including a couple more modern pins, air hockey, Nintendo Players choice 10, and a row of cocktail arcade games. Seems to be getting better. Wish he would level up the Ms Pacman that seems to have a broken leveler. If I see a couple more EM pins back working again, I'd be back.

I’ll give credit where it’s due. He is adding a lot of stuff. I wish he would take a day and fix all his marquee lights. Everytime I see his stuff with nothing lit it drives me nuts.

Looks like things are going really well for Steven. He continues to add new things to the lineup, including pins that are NOT EM's. As others have mentioned before, I know he pissed off a bunch of people, rubs quite a few people the wrong way, doesn't listen to sound advice all the time, BUT at the end of the day you have a very young person who had a vision several years ago and he made that vision come true. It's good to see someone of his generation have the ambition that he has for his business.

If things are going so good at the arcade maybe he should donate the funds collected from pinsiders for grandmas basement sump pump to pinside or another charity. What was that money spent on?He claimed he was unable to work but was out running around picking up machines which is actually harder on the body than most jobs.

It all comes down to motivation. Many people here would love to operate a arcade. Some are part time operators BUT they also work a full time job.

He would have full support from everyone on this site if he hadn’t acted the way he did and has never apologized or tried to make things right. Once whoever is paying the bills and financially supporting the arcade stops,he’s in for a very rude awakening.

I stopped by last week to give the place a try. Sadly, I was not very impressed. The Getaway had a few bulbs and switches that were not working, The Mousin around had switches not working and the right ramp did not work properly, The Sorcerer had the coin door wide open and playfield has seen better days, the Comet had a sign on it that said please ask for credits, the mata hari had no GI working, half the EM's were not even on. The only game that actually played decently was the Earthshaker.

Also, I wanted to pay for a half-hour when I walked in and they told me you pay at the end. I thought Hmmm... This is their marketing strategy to get someone to stay longer so they lose track of time while playing and in the end pay more when they leave.

I'm sorry but I really wish this guy the best on his arcade but he really needs to fix the games. I don't understand how someone can proudly advertising an arcade all over facebook and have that many pins not working properly.

Probably the same way they could ask for money for a hardship, then spend it on pins and never return it to those that donated.

I haven't posted (or even visited) the forums in a while, but I knew this was being talked about here. I just had to share this post from FB

"Lots of people don't know we are one of the few arcades in the world that not only does our own repairs but also does our own extra-advanced repairs and circuit board repairs in-house right here in Ephrata, which is usually done by others mailing out items to specialized repair centers.

96 microscopic pads to remove and re-add molten solder to today, with a 750-degree soldering iron, and you have one shot to make sure you don't burn off any of the delicate thin pads... nor letting even one pair of the metal pads get connected together with just the slightest bit of extra molten solder or you could blow countless parts up. Just another day in the life... and this was only a "minor repair" to fix a minor inconvienience on a game

Takes a steady hand and years of Gameseum's owner Steven's experience... hundreds of hours of practice at just 21 years of age (another much lesser known fact, don't let the scruffy hair fool you!)... not to mention being the man behind the whole arcade's large collection and business operations. He loves what he does - sharing Gameseum with the world!"

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Microscopic.

He ever hear of humility?

Has the tip on that soldering iron ever been cleaned?
How can you expect good heat transfer from that nasty looking tip.

Did you expect his tip to be clean? He can't even clean his sweat pants.

Or his rat nest hair or his Funkadelic teeth

A++

as i slowly scrolled down that picture my mind went straight to "if he shows his soldering iron there is no way its got a clean tip" lol

and blamo, was not disappointed

too hot...
poor heat transfer (the blob solder seen above the row)...
bad tools...

Yup.. fits the hack perfectly.

shit, with "hundreds of hours of soldering" that solder job looks like a first try effort.

They meant on that board.

LMAO!
Plus, you know that "they" is "him" speaking about himself in the third person.

Just like almost every post sounds like it is on FB, etc.

I know similar things have been repeatedly said about self promotion; Not a bad thing within reason...
But so SO much of this stuff is insanely over the top and full of false information/exaggeration/flat out lies/etc. that it is hard not to just keep laughing at, at this point.

At what point will he stop mentioning his age in every post? 25? 30? 65?

I'm not impressed by your age.

.

What are you talking about?
Can’t you read?
“He’s sharing Gamesuem with the world”

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I guess we can agree on some things.

LOL, for the first two sentences, I was thinking "who is this dick?!"

Why yes he has. He created the word and submitted it Webster’s.

"Gameseum: Mega-Arcade & Museum - Play Pinball, Arcade, and Consoles is at Gameseum: Mega-Arcade & Museum - Play Pinball, Arcade, and Consoles.
19 hrs · Ephrata ·
Our COSTUME & COSPLAY PARTY is in THREE days - Saturday, October 26th, 2019 - and we're so excited we think we might spew. You're invited!"

Yuck.....

The man is a God apparently.

Just make sure you leave at the stroke of the hour when your wristband expires!!!!

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He had hundreds of hours experience walking on water by the tender age of 17.

Pic of kids at the Gameseum party room bored because all the games are broken. I guess someone didn't tell them they could play skeeball - just use an abacus to keep score.

Hey that's a propitiatory system pal

The looks on their faces makes me think they can’t wait for their wristbands to expire.

Playstation 4 and X-Box One or old console games and arcade games. Unfortunately that's not much of a choice for some younger people.

Bahahahahahahahahaha!

I enjoy watching this thread shift from people saying I'd never open, to people backpedaling HARD and assuming the ridiculous idea that somebody must be supporting me externally because I surprised them with my success and they just can't handle defeat. The damage control and just totally off-base assumptions as a result of people being so non-receptive of my success is genuinely enjoyable. That's a very interesting way of saying "good job" dude, but thanks! Just can't admit you were wrong, huh? Figures, figures.

If you're gonna bash me - at least be man enough to accept you were 100% wrong. Somehow I'm not surprised that the most immature bunch also can't handle defeat whatsoever.

Thanks DJRedDog
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I love watching you avoid the whole scammy beginnings truth. So, judging from that last post, you're surely about to man up and admit you were wrong.

Now you're starting to sound like Mr. ultimategameroom!

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A++ . You are living their dream

Hmm. Hard to earn respect begging!

Steven, what happened to the money you (most or all of it donated from people here on pinside)collected from the go fund me “grandmas basement needs a sump pump/ waterproofing”?

I’m sure that all of the people who have posted in this thread love pinball (that’s why we are here and why many donated) but unfortunately the way you have acted makes it impossible to support you.

I don’t know if this is another account created by Steven, or his girlfriend. Why don’t you tell us who you are and your location? Or stop posting.

And I can assure you my dream is not to run some dinky arcade in Ephrata.

I personally do not care how successful you are or become. Unless you pay back all the money from people that you scammed in this hobby (and continue to do with donations and GoFundMe pages). And unless you stop claiming that you are the only tiny arcade in the world that does certain things...like repair their own games. Every arcade does that.

And BTW...learn how to tin a soldering iron.

That's what got me banned from his Facebook page: my response to him saying something to the effect that you couldn't play pinball anywhere.

Oh Colson my Colson, we're going to run out of tinfoil for hats at this rate...

Not me or anybody I know, mods can confirm if need be - but not sure what's wrong with a supporter of a great idea.

Again, are you guys so hurt by my success that you automatically assume it's not legitimate, and that anybody supporting me, must be me posting under a secret account? Oy vey. That's some 1984 content if I've ever seen any.

Let's just remember the only thing bothering y'all with my presence is yourselves. I didn't make the thread, didn't ask for donations here except that one first time when I was 16, all further LOCAL fundraisers meant for my local community were linked by a third-party here, didn't advertise my events here and it was posted by a third-party (emkay), I don't bump the thread, I don't start other threads, etc., etc. - all of this hub-bub is generated by people other than myself (and generally always has been). Just a reminder that if you are bothered by it feel free to stop posting about it any time, and not only will that exclude you from the discussion, but due to the nature of the scenario will generally cause the discussion to cease as well if people stop pouring gas on the flame. If you hate me so much... by all means, LET IT GO!

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IF YOU DON'T BOTHER TO READ THE WHOLE THING, DON'T BOTHER TO KEEP REPLYING

Didn't want to go here but I guess I'll give it one more shot. The whole story and nothing but the truth... for the LAST time. From now on I'll be not givin' a damn around your remarks as usual, because there's nothing else to say.

(For the many people here "contributing" to the shitstorm without ever being involved or even on the site, short version: was 16, basement flooded, was poor, asked Pinside for physical help, nobody showed, asked Pinside for monetary help, 50% donated, 50% complained, untrue claims of scamming, other 50% likes to follow me around for years)

As I've said for years, all the "scamming" claims are *COMPLETE* BS and always have been. I would be happy to just donate the amount to a good cause to get everybody to get off my case but that also comes with a degree of "pleading guilty" to something I am not guilty of and kinda seems like a shitty reason to donate to something. Even if I donated publicly I already know it would reak of people saying I just did it to avoid my actions, what a cop-out, blah blah blah, not something I would ever do anyways. It is a cop-out. I'd rather just explain how the funds were used in the method intended, and pay it forward privately.

I was a naive (and very easily offended) kid all those years ago but certainly not a thief, and generally asking for monetary help is very acceptable outside of Pinside so I'll never blame myself for asking - it was an innocent idea from an innocent kid, that wouldn't have blown up if the existence of GoFundMe didn't upset so many boomers - I don't regret it at all and it was completely in good faith. People create fundraisers for flood damage/assistance all the time. Heck a kid I went to school with just lost his colored pencils and made a GoFundMe for it, and while I wouldn't donate, I wouldn't bust his ass about it and nobody else did either - they just didn't donate.

Also don't forget I asked for, and the BASIS OF THE THREAD, was for physical help first and nobody bothered to show up, and the PayPal donation thing was an itsy bitsy single sentence at the bottom of several paragraphs asking for physical help/suggestions/explaining, and was only there because I had several friends I knew wanted to help but lived hours... seas... etc... away and obviously could not come physically help out. A tiny little detail people latched on to and made the main story over the years, when it was the smallest detail of the scenario originally. Over the years the folklore expanded it into something it wasn't, and never was. I even recall Buzz saying it was perhaps asking for donations was warranted as nobody had showed up to assist me with physical help after several Pinsiders suggested it was better to ask for physical help more than monetary. It tells the story pretty well.

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I think you guys are so deep in some story about me (and half the people in this thread were probably not even registered on the site back then) now that you don't even remember how it happened. I have photos of me sealing the basement, etc., which all tell the story of the funds being spent legitimately and it was posted here before. I've ALREADY posted about it... YEARS AGO. The pictures are on here somewhere, unless I ran off by then because of all the negativity.

@beezleboob was local and loaned me his Escelera (which looking back was basically saint-like for a guy to loan a multi-thousand tool to a teenager without supervision) and he saved my ass more than anybody, and I'm forever thankful. After all the games were out I sealed the basement with the products, tools, supplies, etc., bought with the funds and maintained it with things like a pump and dehumidifier bought with the funds. I think I got about $500 altogether, by the time I bought the dehumidifier, a shop-vac (only owned a normal vacuum and it was needed for the water of course), multiple gallons of drylok, etc., it was gone plus all of the personal money I had contributed as well for any outstanding balance - not sure how people think I could have bought a game or personal items when it was gone about as soon as I received it, in full honest manner.

Most of the people who donated asked for me not to return their money, as they were donations and not loans. Asked that I just pay it forward, which I have done since then.

The biggest part of the false story others think of, comes from me (like an idiot) EARNING SOME REAL MONEY about a MONTH LATER from a big repair job I had just finished, (and since nobody wanted their money returned), bought a pin at that year's Pinfest WITH MY OWN MONEY, and then (like an even bigger idiot) posted about my find on Pinside because I was very excited. People were pissed and I agree it was in bad taste but I was young, dumb, and overly excitable about pinball machines. Over the years that has morphed into "bought the game with the funds" but is *NOT*, I repeat, is *NOT* the case of what happened at all - ****AND WASN'T EVEN WHAT PEOPLE WERE MAD AT IN THE FIRST PLACE****, and is just the result of the years of hearsay. I spent the donations as intended, earned more money legitimately, and spent my legitimate money - completely legal. Two completely separate things, with no monetary connection, and since people had not asked for their money back there was no legal or personal obligation to somehow pay it back. If I recall, I even TRIED to do so, but as soon as the first five to six people said "just pay it forward" I stopped bothering to go down the list and decided to just do that.

I've since deleted the PayPal account I used back then and moved to a new business account when I opened my business and with no other documentation there's no real basis for returning any money even if I wanted to (which I don't see any use to - most donors have forgotten, are glad it helped, and don't care unlike the peanut gallery), and contributing the money elsewhere would be like some sort of cop-out publicity stunt/crowd pleaser, I feel it is more genuine to be charitable on my own time and without posting about it - which I do - silently, as stated.

It's ridiculous this is still going on years later. Even if I had scammed a single soul, the amount of flack and just completely horrid insults you guys have given me over the years should've paid my debt, and I didn't even scam anybody! Good riddance...

And in the end, even WITH THE MONEY BEING SPENT LEGITIMATELY, my idea now is that the OPTIONAL gentlemen thing for me to have done at the time would have been to donate to a charitable organization the equivalent of the money I received, as soon as I came into that amount of money myself - not to re-pay any sort of debt or liability whatsoever, but rather as a sign of thanks and goodwill. I did not think of that at that time in the slightest, I didn't think that deep back then - I was 16, and was being hounded by Pinside and was more concerned with somehow correcting the controversy than thinking well about ANY of my steps at the time.

I will say the most important thing to note is that, as stated in much larger post above, the money was still spent legitimately. Heck, the whole scamming thing was only invented like a year ago anyways - wasn't even part of the original controversy! Just total fiction!

You know that game you'd play in kindergarten the first person in line whispers something into the next kid's ear, so on and so forth, and by the time you got to the end of the line of kids the sentence would be something utterly ridiculous and incorrect? Read carefully: The group hounding me talked enough and cut out enough of the details through hearsay that people thought I BOUGHT a pin with the donations, instead of their original case of calling me a jerk for buying a pin WITH MY OWN MONEY so soon after asking for donations. Two VERY VERY different situations that eventually morphed into a totally fictitious claim that had nothing to do with what people were ever pissed about. Even back then, it was all about calling me a douche for not optionally saving money/donating money/returning money once I made some money myself, and the case of me being a "scammer" didn't even originate until like last year when the story got all chopped up by people digging too deep. It's nuts. The original controversy didn't even have ANYTHING to do with that, it's just totally false and people weren't even inferring that until like a year after it happened and everybody got the story twisted and didn't even know what they were angry about anymore. Somebody got it twisted, heavily, along the way - and here I sit taking the brunt of something ridiculous.

If anybody has anything to say after that, they either didn't read both of the last two posts all the way through, or just aren't getting it and just like to yell.

Nothing was stolen. Nothing was scammed. The worst thing was being shown goodwill and me not paying it forward immediately, but rather later when everything settled down... which... actually makes a lot of sense. Get over it. (I also said a lot of mean things to a lot of people saying a lot of grown men saying even-more-mean things, and I apologize for stooping to their level. Which sounds weird, considering I was 16 and they were like... 46. But anyways. Biggest regret is wasting so much TIME!)

Everything now has a very valid explanation. Of course everybody will draw their own conclusion but the whole "grand scheme" conspiracy theory is so off base it wasn't even a part of the original discussion and is only the child of improperly-altered hearsay... not even a valid claim. You can be mad at me for asking for donations, and think I was one douche of a 16 year old for not making a charitable donation or something after being shown goodwill, but "option C" really isn't an option and never was... nobody was even accusing me of that back when it was all going down - it's hard to put into words how offbase that is, it is literally the result of somebody getting the story wrong when passing it on... YEARS LATER.

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Ahh yes, here we go! Turned into a monstrosity. I think a lot of people got confused as to what they were even angry about, like people in this thread. Me being a scammer (lol) was never even part of the original argument, it was because of asking for donations, etc., so WTF?

The fact that this thread went from accusing me of something and then accusing me of something totally different shows how much of a shitshow this really is, and why mods should have closed this thread months ago. Ridiculous - absolutely ridiculous. You can't even keep YOUR story straight about what I supposedly did! Come on now, y'all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers

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To reiterate as apparently you need to say something 1,000 times here for it to have any effect:

The issue went from the relatively-lackluster "Otaku was asking for a handout, what a douche, and a month later he spent money he earned from his new job, on a pin, poor taste"

to the completely utter lie with no factual basis of:

"Otaku scammed a ton of people and used donated money to buy a pin"

Can you see why I'm a little miffed about such a serious accusation - considering that's not even what people were accusing me of in the original thread? There is huge error in that claim even aside from it just being false - and again, wasn't even what people were upset about by a longshot. Oy vey!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers

Goodnight y'all. Get straightened out what you're even mad at me for, lol!

Otaku, It sounds like you tried to give back all the money you took, but everyone refused it and said you should pay it forward. So you did, and gave it to “The Human Fund”. And you did it anonymously to boot. Well done.

Well that clears things up

I catch your reference. No, actually, legitimate causes - I'm happy that opening a business has given me a chance to donate to more of them. When it's not money, it's donating free passes places raffle off as part of gift baskets - which a lot of people ask for more than money especially since we are now a focal point in town. I get a LOT of requests. I love supporting my local community as well as medical causes, causes for animals, etc.. Would've done it regardless of Pinside's opinion of what I should and shouldn't do, of course.