I’m 49 now. By the time I started to hit the arcades as a kid the video craze was here. EM’s were still operating and I would play them on occasion but only as a change of pace.

As I became a bit older I would ride my bike to an arcade at the Hyatt hotel in Rosemont, and Aladdin’s Castle in Harlem and Irving mall in Norridge IL. Video games were still the thing.

I love old stuff. Ever since I was I’m my grandpa’s basement in Chicago as a little kid, looking at things he had that I had never seen before, I was hooked. Fast forward to my mid 40’s and I started to collect anything old that caught my eye. Several years ago I attended the Coin Op show in St. Charles and decided to buy an EM (old, beautiful, and I could do more than just look at it!). A week later I bought my first machine (a Target Pool off CL).

You might find this odd, but I don’t recall ever playing a SS pinball machine.