Funny and true arcade stories....and trade secrets. Haha

gabesdad1981

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Funny and true arcade stories....and trade secrets. Haha

A post made me think of about a million funny stories in the arcade business.....lets here yours...I will update daily and see how long this lasts...


1. I hadn't been working at the Arcade for very long and decided it would be a great time killer to play some Mortal Kombat... So about 30 minutes later I look up and see someone peeking over a newspaper at chic fila....yep it was my boss. He walks over and asked me if I was gonna test all the other game controls now that the MK was good to go....
 
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A post made me think of about a million funny stories in the arcade business.....lets here yours...I will update daily and see how long this lasts...


1. I hadn't been working at the Arcade for very long and decided it would be a great time killer to play some Mortal Kombat... So about 30 minutes later I look up and see someone peeking over a newspaper at chic fila....yep it was my boss. He walks over and asked me if I was gonna test all the other game controls now that the MK was good to go....
 
Most of mine involve vandalism. I got a service call once that the puck bowler wasn't working right. so I went out to the location, and about 4 of the little bowling pins that hang down under the deck were broken off.

The counter girl told me what had happened, basically a guy put a dollar in the machine (a Parker Bahn puck bowler), the game started and since the puck wasn't on the machine (they kept it behind the counter)... the guy went down to the lanes, picked up a 16 pound bowling ball, and used it as the 'puck'.
 
zzzzzzzzz

I remember one morning having to crawl under the skeeballs to change out a coil and for some reason I got sleepier than hell....that's when I figured out all the game sounds were like a lullaby

The Daytona screaming out with Tekken tag always telling me good morning and the occasional token or two falling off the Jungle Jive ledge were all pretty cool.

The killer instinct attract mode was pretty awesome too.
 
I remember going to look at a warehouse of games from some old redneck guy, when I got there he said he forgot the keys to the locks on the front door and he didnt want to drive back another 45 minutes to get them so he got his .45 out of his truck and shot the locks off the front door. The warehouse has some really nice stuff though so it was worth the fear of this guy possibly holding me up after I pulled out some cash.
 
I remember going to look at a warehouse of games from some old redneck guy, when I got there he said he forgot the keys to the locks on the front door and he didnt want to drive back another 45 minutes to get them so he got his .45 out of his truck and shot the locks off the front door. The warehouse has some really nice stuff though so it was worth the fear of this guy possibly holding me up after I pulled out some cash.

Ha! That's funny!

At least he didn't ask you to hold the lock..."No dammit, hold it steady!!"
 
I remember going to look at a warehouse of games from some old redneck guy, when I got there he said he forgot the keys to the locks on the front door and he didnt want to drive back another 45 minutes to get them so he got his .45 out of his truck and shot the locks off the front door.

LOL, awesome.

But I might have found it difficult to haggle with him on prices after that...
 
I remember going to look at a warehouse of games from some old redneck guy, when I got there he said he forgot the keys to the locks on the front door and he didnt want to drive back another 45 minutes to get them so he got his .45 out of his truck and shot the locks off the front door. The warehouse has some really nice stuff though so it was worth the fear of this guy possibly holding me up after I pulled out some cash.

Yep, only the guy who really owned the warehouse got "held up".
 
hmmm, now that I think about it. He may not have been the actual owner Would explain the keys.. LOL but he did know where everything was when I asked for stuff.
 
hmmm, now that I think about it. He may not have been the actual owner Would explain the keys.. LOL but he did know where everything was when I asked for stuff.

I am sure he was just some disgruntled exhusband that was getting back at his harpy of an exwife that took over control of his warehouse in the devorce.
 
My buddies and I used to "cropdust" SBD's past people while they were playing cockpit driving games. We would watch their facial expressions from afar when the smell finally hit them.
 
My buddies and I used to "cropdust" SBD's past people while they were playing cockpit driving games. We would watch their facial expressions from afar when the smell finally hit them.

You win. My face contorts just thinking of the smell.

Come to think of it, that's not funny. And I'd say that's more of a trade wind secret than a trade secret. ;)
 
My buddies and I used to "cropdust" SBD's past people while they were playing cockpit driving games. We would watch their facial expressions from afar when the smell finally hit them.

LOL, that is hilarious. Our favorite venue for that was the elevators in our college dorm. It was priceless to see people's faces when they'd get on.
 
Our favorite venue for that was the elevators in our college dorm. It was priceless to see people's faces when they'd get on.

My friend and I were in Improv comedy, and had a plan to set up a small table, two chairs, a single flower with vase, and our dining hall dinners in the elevator and eat.

Whenever the elevator doors opened, we would go "do you mind?" and hit the close-doors button.
 
Ah the memories....

Some of my favorite experiences in the Amusement Vending world:

1) Received a service call from one of my inner city locations that a mouse was in the candy crane. Show up at the location and there is a group of kids trying to capture the mouse with claw. The mouse was running for it's life :) The location greeter who called in for service never put the game out of order.

After removing the kids & mouse I dumped the candy in a trash bag and began to disinfect the play field. One of the kids mothers kept hounding me on what I was going to do with the candy in the trash bag as she wanted it. I kept telling her it was contaminated with mouse pee and other stuff and had to be trashed and was not edible and I had to dispose of it. She told me to F-off and called me a racisit mother-F'er.

2) Picked up an upright from Betson and they loaded on my pick-up. I always load my games on their back when moving in the pick-up but they loaded upright and tied in with some rope.

Drove down the Mass Pike and I hear a snap sound, look in rear view mirror and see the game tumble over. Hit the brakes and the game almost fell off the back of my truck. The joysticks caught the tailgate and the game was hanging upside down on the back of my truck. I think the guy behind me needed to change his underwear as I know I did.

3) Had three instances where we had a kid crawl in to the Pinnacle cranes and get stuck. Two of them resulted in the fire dept smashing the side glass on the cranes. One they actually called and we showed up with the key to open the door.

4) Working on a kiddie ride outside of a Bradlee's store in Dorchester Ma and the locals decided that it would be fun to throw bottles at my head. Good times.
 
- Finding out that kicking the Die Hard coin mech gave out free credits.

- Seeing a cute girl there and running all the way home and back as fast as I could to grab some money so I ask her to have a game with me, then being rejected.

- Falling off the DDR machine and landing on my arse while drunk, still managing to get an A.

- Saying I put a $10 note in the change machine and it didn't work, then having the operator open the machine and discover there was no $10 notes in there.
 
I was on a location servicing the games when I see a woman get the ball stuck on the pinball machine. I walked over to see what was going on and as I get to the machine she shook and got the ball free but tilted it in the process. She tells me she got it free and I go back to what I was working on. About ten minutes later she walks up to me and starts ranting about how she lost her games on the pinball machine because the ball got stuck. I remind her that I saw it happen and that she only tilted one ball. She continues to rant about it. This location has a policy of no refunds (mostly due to the kids constant lying about the games taking money to try to get free games or money). I was saw that she did have a legitimate ball hang so I offer her a few free games on the pinball machine. That wasn't good enough and she continued to rant on and on. The rant was going on about fifteen minutes at this point and I was called every name in the book. I take a dollar out of my pocket and hand it to her just to get away from the insanity. She storms away goes over to the change machine cashes the dollar and puts them in the pinball machine and starts to play.

A week later I am at the same location and run into the same woman, she starts talking to me like she was my best friend and now wants to buy the pinball machine from me. Needless to say I declined to sell her anything.
 
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- Saying I put a $10 note in the change machine and it didn't work, then having the operator open the machine and discover there was no $10 notes in there.

Happens way too often....

Had a Walmart manager call on a Sat and claim that a customer's child mistakenly put in a $100.00 in the plush crane. Assured him that the DBA could not accept that denomination. He would not believe me so I had to leave the cookout I was at and drive 3+ hours to prove to him. Needless to say I was pi$$ed.

One that cost me personally - Collected a location in a rush. Normally I tywrap the bags closed when I'm finished but was in too much of a rush. Loaded up my truck and knocked over the collection bag with the coin counter. The sound of falling quarters sounded like rain. Look down and I'm parked over the storm drain. Lost $300.00 out of my pocket due to my stupidity. I never made that mistake again.

One Sunday I start to receive calls from location managers asking when our truck was going to drop off their replacement video games. Found out that two guys rented a Penske truck and hit 18 of my locations in New Hampshire on Saturday. They walked in and said they were swapping out the videos for new ones. Their truck was picking up the old ones and the other truck was coming behind them to drop off the new ones.

Not one location questioned them, asked for an ID or business card and of course no plate or truck number.
 
One Sunday I start to receive calls from location managers asking when our truck was going to drop off their replacement video games. Found out that two guys rented a Penske truck and hit 18 of my locations in New Hampshire on Saturday. They walked in and said they were swapping out the videos for new ones. Their truck was picking up the old ones and the other truck was coming behind them to drop off the new ones.

Not one location questioned them, asked for an ID or business card and of course no plate or truck number.

Wow, 18 different locations and nobody questioned them? You must've lost some faith in humanity that day. Were the games insured against theft or was this a total loss for you?
 
I never had anything that bad, but I went in a bowling alley one day, and the megatouch was gone. Nobody had seen a thing. I drove over to the other alley in the same city owned by the same people, and the megatouch was gone there too.

I tried explaining to them that it had to be somebody that worked there, since the other two alleys in the same city didn't have any problems, but they couldn't understand.
 
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