In The Beginning... I had a toy - a plastic pinball machine (pictured left). It was manufactured the MARX company in the late 1950’s or early 1960's. I have no idea where it came from. There was also an antique pinball machine that belonged to my uncle (pictured right). That was even older. These were the toys that started my addiction. Early on I began building my own "home-brew" designs using wood and hangers. This is the only one to survive my childhood - an incomplete attempt. Growing up in NJ (Exit 9), we lived fairly near the shore and the boardwalks. Somewhere in Asbury Park or Wildwood, I played my first real pinball machine. Then, in 1976 (at age 13) my Grandfather gave me the gift of all gifts... King Of Diamonds! Every day I would rush home from school to play King of Diamonds. The score only went as high as 1999 and I quickly became good enough to roll the game over. When the machine had problems, my father would fix it. Eventually, I learned to trace and fix the all the electrical problems myself. I also learned how to remove and clean every part on the playfield, replace the bumpers, and wax the surface. But all was not good. This was the mid-70's remember, and I was a teenager. One weekend I decided the machine needed a new paint job - something a little more groovy, psychedelic. Several cans of spray-paint later, I covered over the original art work with fluorescent blue, green, yellow, and orange. My parents were less than happy; even I had to agree - King Of Diamonds looked terrible. At the time we also had a pool table in our basement, with gold colored felt covering the slate. My father ordered some extra yards of the gold felt and upholstered the sides of the machine. Ultimately, the machine looked pretty good and it definitely matched our basement's decor! But to this day, I still mourn the loss of the original artwork. I also received my first really good 120 volt electrical shock from that machine. The muscles in my hand locked up and for a few seconds and I couldn't let go. But that's another story... As we all know, one pinball machine (or video game) is never enough. A few years after King Of Diamonds, I used money I had saved up to buy Firecracker - cheap! I can't remember where it came from, but it was in bad shape. The backglass was missing and the game did not function. It took a number of calls to distributors around the country, but I finally tracked down a NOS backglass and got the machine up and running. It too became a fuzzy upholstered monster (hey, this was the 70's), but I have since removed the thick purple cloth which as it turns out, preserved the original paint very nicely. By now I had become pretty good at repairing these machines, and my Uncle (the entrepreneur of the family) suggested that I start a business. The timing was perfect. During the mid-70's, electronics began to replace the miles of wire and relays in the old electro-mechanical pinball machines. Soon the vending distributors at the shore had warehouses full of "outdated" pins. My uncle loaned me $500 and we took a trip to Asbury Park. I don't recall the name of the vending company, but I know I died and went to heaven as we walked through rows and rows of dusty pinball machines, each up on end with it's head sitting alongside. The $500 bought two machines - Out Of Sight, and a second which I don't recall the name. Out Of Sight was restored (by me) and went to my Uncle, who's family still owns it today. I also restored the second machine and quickly sold it to someone in my neighborhood. With the money from the sale, it was back to Asbury Park for more pins. I began advertising on a local cable channel; they were simply text ads that scrolled across the screen, but the calls started coming. Each time I purchased more machines for less money. Our family garage became my warehouse and our basement my showroom. At the height of my business, I purchased 20 pinball machines for $105 each! It sure beat working at Great Adventure (my other summer job). During those years, I played and sold a lot of great pinball machines. Of those I wish I had kept, Captain Fantastic and Spacelab come to mind. Once I traded a machine for a brand new Pong cocktail table. But the find of all finds (at the time) was Nip-It. This pinball machine was unusual for a number of reasons. It had a totally unique feature, the Balligator, which allowed the player (using a second button on the right side) to grab the ball into the alligator's mouth. It was one of only a few machines of its time to play multi-ball (others were Fireball, Capersville, The Wiggler, and Four Million BC, all made by Bally). Nip-It was also the last Bally pin to feature Zipper-Flippers. Lastly, it was a regular fixture on the 70's sitcom Happy Days.  At Arnold's Malt Shop "The Fonz" would bang its side for a free game. Time after time, the floor foreman at the vending company (a guy named Carmen) knew of Nip-It's value and  refused to sell it to me (no matter how many other machines I bought). But on one lucky purchasing trip, Carmen was out sick. I showed the list of machines I wanted (including Nip-It) to the owner and we negotiated a price. He was not as knowledgeable as Carmen, and I left with Nip-It in the van. The next time I did business with Carmen, he grumbled that Nip-It was worth more than all the other machines I had bought. Nip-It required a lot of work for a full restoration. The grabber was powered by a HUGE solenoid and custom mechanism. Given that the player could fire the grabber at will, it would invariably burn out or break the bracket. Every Nip-It I came across, including mine, had the grabber disabled. But my father came through and was able to locate a Bally distributor that had a NOS grabber assembly in stock, the last one! It's still works today. Eventually it was time to head off to college (Syracuse University). I closed my pinball business, but continued to service the machines I had sold when I came home for holidays and summers. The money I had earned over those years helped me buy my first car, a black 1985 Jeep CJ-7 Renegade. While at college, two things changed; my major, from Architecture to Computer Engineering, and my addiction, from pinball to video. Or maybe I should say my addiction grew to include video games. I remember playing each of the classics as they hit the streets; Asteroids, Pacman, Donkey Kong, and my all time favorite, Defender. There were some great new pins also. Firepower, Silverball Mania, Nine Ball, Black Night, Seawitch, and Xenon (sexiest game voice ever!) were some of my favorites. I still loved the old electo-mechanical pins, and in fact always kept one in my dorm room, but quarters were sucked from my pockets by the arcade games in the dorm lobby. Eventually my roommates and I purchased a Defender for $175, which I kept after graduation. Later, I added Stargate to my collection. In 1982 my uncle and I attempted to open an ice-cream parlor with an arcade. It was to be called The Nickelodeon. We found an ideal location - a new strip mall at a busy intersection with a high school across the street. Unfortunately, we needed approval from the Township Board which consisted of old geezers who didn't want a bunch of teenagers hanging around. So, needless to say, our dream arcade never became a reality - which was probably a good thing, because the whole arcade craze fizzled out a few years later. After college, my career evolved from hardware to software and my arcade addiction evolved to include computer games! I also married my college sweetheart and we have two boys, adults now. Needless to say, their pinball skills easily exceed mine! As a side-note, My wife (who is editing this site) wants to mention she always HATED the game Joust - FYI. Starting around 2010 I became actively involved with the arcade emulation community, have built a few MAME rigs, and coded a popular software utility (LEDBlinky) for lighting RGB control panel buttons. In the summer of 2015 my sons and I joined the PinCrossing Pinball League at the Railroad Street Bar and Grill (RR). The backroom of the bar had about fifteen machines, a mix from the 90's and newer. They had some really fun pins like Twilight Zone, Fun House, America's Most Haunted (Spooky Pinball, one of only 200), Scared Stiff, Theatre of Magic, Fathom, AC/DC, TX-Sector, Metallica, Kiss (Bally), and Kiss (Stern). This is where I first started playing modern day pins. Since then we have been supporting our league, attending pinball convensions, and competing in local tournaments. Glass for brand new Black Knight Swords of Rage at the Pinfest tournament. It just shattered in my hands! My pinball collection continues to grown and now includes pins from the 90's; Demolition Man, Star Trek The Next Generation, Cirqus Voltaire. And I've purchased two new-in-box (NIB) pinball machines; Pirates Of The Caribbean from Jersey Jack Pinball and Rick & Morty from Spooky Pinball. There are so many other pins I'd love to own, but the hobby has become so very expensive, except for American Girl's The Flip Side :) < < So that's me. Thanks for reading. Top