Meet our Tech of the Month, Michael McKenna. Nominated by Chris Doyle from the Alamo City Pinball League. Chris writes: “Mike is the lead tech for What’s Brewing? Coffee Roasters maintaining our 38 machines as well as running his own repair company, MJM Amusements, on the side from his main job working as a civilian for the Air Force. He is often on the Marco PinTech Livestreams. Here is an article from last year on him. Long story short, pinball in San Antonio would not be where it is right now without this man! Thank you.” Q: How did you read more…
Q: Where are you located, how long have you been around pinball and how long have you been working on games for?A: My name is Pat Choy, and I do full service pinball store – we do tech work, on site repairs – mobile repair service in your home, full restorations – play field swaps / full cabinet restorations and silk screening and installation of decals, and we retail and sell games too. Q: How did you first get into the hobby?A: Bought my first game in 1991, Williams 1980 Black Knight pinball. Hobbyist / collector from 1991 to 1998… read more…
ARCADE DUNGEON – ALAMOGORDO, NEW MEXICO Our Location of the Month is Arcade Dungeon, a pinball gem located in Alamogordo, New Mexico and is owned by Daniel Humm. They are open exclusively on Friday and Saturday from 5PM – 10PM on a purely volunteer basis. They currently have 12 machines and growing. In fact, that’s our motto; “With your help, every quarter will go toward the acquisition, restoration, and maintenance of classic arcade games.”. Q: When did you get into the pinball business? A: It was never our goal to be in the pinball business, actually. Brent and I (Daniel) read more…
Every day, we have customers that need help with their games beyond their scope of knowledge. We decided to create a “Rolodex” of vetted pinball technicians from around the world, so when our customers ask for repair help, we can send them your way! Please join our Pinball Technician database, today. CLICK HERE TO APPLY Thank you for keeping pinball alive! — Are you a frequent Marco Pinball customer? You could qualify for a Commercial Account for big savings! How to Qualify for a Commercial Account: Spend $3,000/year to receive a 5% discount on all parts for one year. Spend read more…
The end of stroke switch (EOS) is your pinball flipper assembly’s best friend. The End Of Stroke switch keeps the flipper in check, but it does have a hard job. It gets beat up; many times per game, and eventually, you will need to repair or replace that old end of stroke switch. Which EOS switch do you need, and what is an EOS switch for? Click “Read More” at the top right for more info.
Meet Phil Forrester Jr., located in Greenville, South Carolina. He, along with his dad (Phil Sr.) own and operate The Phil’s Pinball. We mainly refurb and rent pinball machines. We do some sales as well. We service mainly Upstate South Carolina and the surrounding areas. Phil says: “I got my start in pinball 4.5 years ago refurbishing a Gottlieb Charlie’s Angels with my dad. We caught the bug and have been working on machines ever since! Now we enjoy not only repairing them but playing them.” I dove head first into repair. The refurb, transformation, and bringing things back from read more…
Meet Ryan McNamara, located in Burbank, Illinois working under Midnight Arcade Repair & Service who has been repairing and tech-ing for 15 years now. Q: How did you first get into the hobby? Did you jump right into repairing machines or did you learn under someone else? Not one to mince words, Ryan said: “Worked for an old family friend and learned from others. “ Q: Some techs have a particular aspect they really enjoy working on or they have a specialized set of skills (ie: boards, EMs, new Sterns, restoring cabinet art, etc) — do you specialize in something? or read more…
MARCH TECH OF THE MONTH: MATTHEW MANDARANO Meet Matthew Mandarano, located in North Carolina working under Carolina Pinball Repair and a full time technician at Abari Game Bar located at in Charlotte, NC. He re-found this hobby in 2011 and began repairing machines in 2013. I would seek them out and put some quarters in any pin I came across. While my contemporaries were playing TMNT, The Simpsons, X-Men, Mortal Kombat, etc. I was the weird kid in the corner playing the pinball machines. Q: How did you first get into the hobby? “My best friend’s dad was big into read more…
This month’s laborer of love is Randy Walker – located in Maryville, TN between Knoxville, TN and the Smokey Mountains. A long time repair tech, Randy has begun to delve deeper into the restoration side of this hobby. I have only been doing [repair/restoration work] professionally for 3 years. Before that is was just for myself and a few friends Q: When did you get into actually restoring machines? A: “Well, I have been repairing and restoring pins for about 30 years. But I have only been doing it professionally for 3 years. Before that is was just for myself read more…
