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Hello! My name is Steven, and I live in northeast New Jersey. I just turned 35 years old. I hope that this is the right subforum for this. I'm certainly looking for advice in this thread. I would love to learn more about how I could get started repairing and maintaining arcade and pinball games, perhaps even turning it into a career. I'd like to give a little bit of background about myself and my experiences first.

I'm diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. I don't think that that's required to be said, but it might help explain some things. I really struggled with college. My program had to be applied for me to get through it. I went through a few universities before graduating a few months ago with a bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity Technology from University of Maryland Global Campus. I ended up getting my student loans relieved through the federal government. Now, I can't work for three years because of that relief. Because of this limitation, I'll be starting a master's program at University of Maryland Global Campus in October.

I'm terrified of an office setting because of my own personal limitations. I have it in mind to do remote work when the time comes. I really like to work with my hands, though. I enjoyed time playing arcade and pinball games growing up, whether it was in hotels when on vacation, at Sports World in Paramus, New Jersey, or in France visiting my relatives for the summer. I tend to enjoy the technical aspects of things just as much as playing the games, too!

Two years ago, I got in contact with Billy over at Billy's Midway in Hawthorne, New Jersey. Billy is an absolutely fantastic, kind, and empathetic person. I wanted to learn more about repairing these kinds of things. He tried to think of what he could do to offer me "observing" because he knows the rules of work and I was clear that I didn't want to jeopardize my eligibility for student loan relief. Billy and I ended our conversation that day with him telling me that he could help if I wanted to turn that into a career. Unfortunately, though, my mental health was in a terrible place then. My father had just died, and a previous university wasn't working out for me. I continue to talk with Billy via email and to visit his arcade sometimes, but he has health difficulties and he's been dealing with a low volume of customers at his arcade.

To be honest, seeing the houses down the block from Billy's Midway when I visited with a friend two weeks ago got me started with a dream of buying a house within walking distance of Galloping Ghost. The idea behind that dream was that I could have my other hobbies that require less maintenance in that house and that I could go to Galloping Ghost for my arcade fix. But then, I told another friend about how there's not much pinball at Galloping Ghost, all things considered. As a result of the discussion with my friend, I looked up "pinball repair Chicago," and I ended up with at least three search results of businesses that I assume are mostly operated by one person and that offer pinball repair in the Chicago metropolitan area.

So, anyway, I'm not afraid to move someday if it would help turn this into a reality. Given my current circumstances now, though, where I cannot work for the time being and where money is tight, would anyone have any suggestions on how I could learn to fix and restore arcade and pinball games? Thank you so much.

P.S. I looked up "Sega Hikaru" for my avatar and I found a photo of a PCB on Sega-Retro. I picked a Sega Hikaru board because my father took me to Sports World in Paramus when things were rough for me at the age of nine. I played Star Wars Racer Arcade there that day.
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