I had a custom table/shelf built to better house my pre-war pins. Check it out!
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| 88" long |
I can't stress enough how much my gameroom is a collaboration. There is basically nothing I could have done here by myself, and I am very grateful to the wonderfully supportive arcade/pinball community and their patience and generosity.
I have many friends who have worked on my machines, helped me move machines in and out, helped me transport machines, have given me knowledge and wisdom, and let me rant in their general direction. Without all of their assistance, this space would just be all storage.
I don't think I've mentioned it here before, but when I turned 40 I developed aggressive and severe cataracts and went fully blind in one eye before I got surgery. I healed ok, but in order to maintain my ability to drive I needed two lenses with very different focal lengths, thus making near-sighted correction impossible. I am no longer able to see things with precision close up with binocular vision. I might try a jeweler's loupe for the one ok near-vision eye, but I've lost all binocular vision for precision.
The reality of this sunk in went I had to adjust a basic rollover switch on Dolly Parton. Try as I might with different angles, illumination, and visual tools, I was unable to tend to the switch with any precision. My days of being an amateur pinball tech are sadly behind me, and that kind of feels like shit to say. Even the clunkiest of lug soldering is now impossible.
In response, I've obviously leaned very hard into the research aspects of the hobby, but oh I miss the satisfaction of aligning an AX relay. When the pandemic came, I made sure to come up with a plan to have my arcade stuff taken care of in case I died. I felt better to have a plan to ensure my family wouldn't be encumbered by a room full of arcade stuff.
I am so very grateful to still be here, to have regained some vision in my eyes, and to have had the chance to build a gameroom like this. I am grateful for all of my friends and acquaintances in the hobby who have assisted me, and the number of people and what they have done is large.
My collection pays tribute to an aesthetic I had been chasing since a young child. I am mostly into pinball, but the aesthetic root is actually kinetic ball devices. Very specifically, this was all the result of being taken to Expo '86 and witnessing the premier of Swiss Jolly Ball by mechanical sculptor Charles Morgan.
It was that spark of joy and inspiration that my collection is in service to.
On to the machines.
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