Quoted from mbaumle:
I generally try to stay out of the drama, but hearing that many of the games on the floor were not working, doesn’t surprise me.
Case in point, when he would bring games to the shows (one I vividly remember was actually the JJP open house), he brought a magnotron and I think a domino. They were both BARELY playable, and looked like they were salvaged from the bottom of the ocean. Then 1 hour later, they were both down, hoods up, schematics out, and if I recall correctly, they weren’t really playable the remainder of the event.
EMs are reliable, but you gotta put in the work to get them there. You need to rebuild every stepper, score reel, and triple check every relay is operating properly without sticking. That takes a TON of time. I can only imagine just how horrendous the insides of his barn finds are, and how overwhelming it must be to keep up with the sheer volume of games he has. There’s not enough time in the day to maintain/repair all of that AND run a business. I suspect he wipes them down, and gets them running with as little effort as possible—leading to breakdowns in the future.
Anyway, I still do wish him the best in his endeavors. I’ll have to check it out sometime.
The games he buys or are given are often total garbage. The fact that he doesn't know how flippers works makes the fact that he thinks these games are ready for public use even more alarming.
He went after Lloyd from Coin Op Warehouse last year for "stealing" a ratty, mold covered Spinout from him on a Facebook sale, whining about how Lloyd is a jerk off for "flipping games" blah blah blah - you know, for doing what he's been doing for eons to feed himself and pay the bills. Hauling ratty old games out of basements for small profit margins might not be as glamorous as begging for money on the internet but it's honest and difficult work, not the kind of thing a lazy entitled wannabe should be bagging on.
Shouldn't surprise anybody who knows his body of work - Steve LOVES going after hard working, honest people who have been making their living AND contributing to the pinball hobby and community for decades before he ever slipped on his first pair of sweatpants. But his complete misunderstanding about how the world works never ceases to amaze me. Nobody owes you anything, not 5 changes to a shipping address for your order of $25 worth of parts, nor first dibs on a moldy, $150 Gottlieb Spinout that you want to charge the public to play.
You'd really think he'd be more friendly to the vets around here, people who could offer him help on why his flippers aren't working. Nothing Steve does really surprises me any more, but I have to say even I'm shocked that the proprietor of a "museum" for EM pinball machines is asking for advice on how to make his EM flippers work. If you can't handle that I don't see how you are going to be able to maintain any kind of of functioning inventory.
I say this with no joy because we need all the arcades we can get, but I'm giving the Gameseum 6 months.