Actually a fun story behind the place. The original owner used to run games at the State Fair starting in the 40's, and he got out of it in the very early 80's. His newest game that I ever saw was that Jungle Lord, used to have a lot of old Keeny and Chicago Coin EM's around the place, and some EM arcade games. The old man loved to show people around the place and tell stories, I think he got a kick out of reliving some of the fun times when he was younger. I don't think many other people found the gaming stuff to be very interesting. He said he used to have a lot of modern (80's era) arcade games, but those had been sold off while the market was still hot. I have a Joust marquee I got from him in the game room. Used to have a lot of marquee's for arcade games in the front shop.
But his big thing was smuggling slots and bingos, not regular pinballs. Seemed pretty proud of it too. Once South Dakota started their video lottery he got out of the business. The original owner passed away sometime in the past 5 years, I don't know exactly when. The slot machines were sold off a long time ago I know. I think the pins have sat around mainly because they've been parked for so long, and the current owner doesn't know much about them, and doesn't want to invest the time/effort to dig them out and sort / clean it all.
I gotta say though, that warehouse sure looks like the kind of place that antique shops and goodwill dump off the stuff they can't sell. A lot of random junk to sort through.
-Hans
Johns Creek, GA
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