EGYPT LAKE
- Let the games begin - again |
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It
starts with an electronic game that has long since seen better days, between
10 and 50 years old. After years of use and abuse in an arcade, bowling
alley or bar, it finds its way into the home of a collector attempting
to relive his or her youth and post the high score on a favorite table.
Then,
finding that the bumpers don't bump and the flippers don't flip as well
as they used to, the game is packed up and shipped to Game Gallery Amusements and Rentals,
7941 N. Armenia Ave. That's where Bill Calosso and Dann Jarvis work their
magic.
It
starts by stripping the game right down to the wood, Calosso said. He
or Jarvis will spend hours taking the game apart, removing every piece
of plastic, rubber and metal.
Plastic
parts are soaked in a bucket of citrus cleaner, then cleaned by hand with
a toothbrush. |
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The
wood part of the table is cleaned and waxed, Calosso said, as he
draws a fingertip through the grease and grime accumulated on a
table being disassembled by Jarvis. Metal parts are put into a tumbler
and spun around in ground walnut to remove rust and corrosion. The
rubber on the bumpers and flippers is replaced, as are broken parts.
When
a game is put back together, ``Everything gets tugged on, everything
gets pulled,'' Calosso said. ``I don't need to hear from a customer
saying that something broke right after they got it back.''
It
costs about $250 to $350, on average, to refurbish a machine at
the shop, which has been in business for 25 years. It has been at
its current location about 10 years. One benefit of the job is getting
to play the games - all in the interest of giving the game a final
check before returning it to the customer, of course. |
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``We
play each game about 20 or 30 times before we let it leave,''
Calosso said. ``It helps us to find the little quirks that you
can't find until at least the 19th or 20th time.''
A
week later, that antique ``Star Wars,'' ``Kiss'' or ``Indiana
Jones'' pinball machine looks as good and works as well as it
did 20 or 30 years ago.
Calosso
has worked his pinball wizardry for 18 years. He learned through
trial and error, disassembling the games to find out what makes
them tick. There were no books or schools that taught arcade game
repair.
``I
just started going through them, learning about them as I went
along,'' Calosso said.
Pinball
restoration is only a part of the business at Game Gallery Amusements and Rentals,
owner Andy Kline said. They restore classic arcade games such
as Pong and Space Invaders, and sell and rent everything from
pool tables to jukeboxes. Clients come from all over the world,
Kline said. They have received games from as far away as Japan
and the United Arab Emirates.
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``A
lot of these people get these games on eBay, then they call us
to fix them,'' Kline said.
``It's
amazing what people put in their house,'' he said. ``We had some
people put these large Skee-Ball games in their house.''
Jarvis,
who used to repair video games in Detroit, said that working on
pinball games gave him a respect for the form.
``With
video games, you can play for an hour and you'll eventually beat
the game,'' Jarvis said. ``But it's very difficult to beat a pinball
game.'' |
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Repairing
pinball games also is tougher, Jarvis said.
``With
pinball, you've got mechanical parts and electronics,'' Jarvis said. ``Some
games even have hydraulics. But the classic video games are easier. They
just have electronics.''
Kline
said he started out 25 years ago, when Space Invaders was state-of-the-art.
Today, he's seeing those games make a comeback.
``Ms.
Pac Man, Galaga, Donkey Kong,'' Kline said. ``People my age can remember
those games and they want them.''
Antique
pinball games are a big business, Kline said, with some games going for
several thousand dollars. |
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``The
Medieval Madness pinball is going for $8,000 to $10,000,'' Kline
said. ``The [rock group] Kiss pinball is also very collectible.
People are paying $5,000 to $6,000 for that.''
For
Calosso, the best part of his job is returning a game to a customer.``When
people get their game back, you should look in their eyes when
they see it,'' Calosso said. |
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