As a teenager , a Cheshire boy, in the 60s and a grandma who lived in Rhyl just 8 houses from the beach and about half a mile from the west parade where the arcades were lined up one after the other . Dad a shift worker would drive mum and us 2 kids there and dump us off for the school holidays . Once on the prom I could see the well known town clock tower half a mile away and once there the lights and sounds of bingo callers rang out mixed with the smells of burgers and candy floss , heaven with the occasional clatter of coins into win trays. Further along to the funfair at the west end of town. The fair itself had arcades around it too . A magic land where I would spend the entire summer aged 12-14 and I made friends with many local lads.
My sister too a few years older than me got a summer job working at Ronald Seldons bingo taking money and calling back winning boards etc . So I frequently hung round the arcades and fair myself.I soon learned some of the scams on various machines and how to win quite often especially how to spin the big brittania old 1d penny to light up desired fruit lines on Tooty Fruity machines.
Teaming up with locals we sometimes got chased out of some arcades - the lido arcade had a big island of sega / mills / Jennings arm pull bandits with the backs off to quickly in-jam any bent coins maybe? But we learned how to stop the reels with a reach around while the governor ran down to lock the reels so if the attendants weren’t near by stop on three bells or bell bell bar win 12d (a shilling) for just one or two pennies spent , trial and error as sometimes time was short to see the symbols needed.
With a pocket full of pennies we then went to Black Cat or Bright Spot which both had a few newish pinballs 3d coin per play. My favourite game Magic City or DingDong were in both and got quite good at lighting the specials for free bonus plays. I would start the day with maybe two shillings - worth 24 pennies and rarely went home with empty pockets . In fact filled a big jar with three penny bits one summer.
Later in the 60s I left school went to agricultural college and became a farm manager combine harvester / tractor driver so summer jaunts ceased for a while till in the early 70s I acquired a penny fruit machine . A taverners Millionaire bow tie start bar on the front and 27 ways (any window position ) to win 10p or smaller wins on cherries plums and oranges etc.
A game controlled electro mechanical relays 1971 so still popular when I got this one in 1974 and got hooked on relay tech’ and how they worked- to a degree! .
But this led me to help repair a friends old juke box and a pinball in a local pub. 1976 and having loads of shed space on the farm I began trying to restore several e/m pinballs and odd jukes with about 50% success. My interest was born and I sought out a few specific games I recalled from back in the 60s …. No stopping this guy now!!!!!!! In no time I had a shed full of seaside arcade cast offs often free or maybe a up to a tenner to buy? Often needing tlc or some serious wiring issues?
1977 I had been a leader of the local youth club which hired a pool table but it never got owner attention so I adopted it for £25 and so the op empire began……
The club also hired a nsm hit 160 jukebox of MAM INN PLAY a northern company but again they rarely serviced it through the year and it was £44 a month to hire and they sent 4 records a fortnight in the post to update chart hits ( handy too for my mobile disco I built for use at the club)
End of the year I bought a Jupiter L100 jukebox from a guy Jimmy Broderick of Star warehouse Camden lock London for £150 plus 15% vat was £172.50 but so popular it made lots of money just 4 nights a week. At 10 p play the proceeds were invested in a Garlando hoft footy table and a breakout video game (adapted build by competitive video John Richards from Surrey) also both on 10p. I have a photo somewhere?
By 1978 I was looking for a Space Invader when they came out but far too dear to buy new then.. so settled for a few more cheap pinballs and began siting them … I had a great source having met my future associate Colin at Lyon’s holiday park also in Rhyl. Doing his repairs in his four arcades we later became partners in seven holiday camp arcades . As new video games came out , I could often buy them recently second hand , or sometimes new and I paid around £600 for my first midway SI …. From hazelgrove music ops in Stockport … I had bought a few ex ops pins there so found it a great source for both new and used videos and pool tables in the years to come.. rest us history…Many small companies began making plain woody or black ash cabs with often dedicated games in as early 80s Electrocoin universal wiring was a new thing as was the zaccaria MGVS system…When jamma came to the market mid 80s games just flooded in and though pcb prices were quite high cabs with single play joysticks were easy to find as two player cabs were more desired? Cabs . We even began to make and supply new jamma cabs ourselves with latest game pcbs, between 1987 and 1995
Several Hundreds of machines owned into the 1989s and able to be in during the early years …. I wouldn’t change a thing 1984 I changed my career from farm manager over 3 farms to arcade operator with single sites all over Cheshire and north wales. I also worked for Associated leisure part time doing motorway service area arcades as I was called in for my pinball video and crane knowledge .? My youth club connections were part of the success as during that time 1979- 1985 I had approx 90 video games in almost 40 youth clubs , with pooltables in about 15 and jukeboxes in about 8 of them, plus videos in chippies and video film hire library shops across that area . 1982 our other partner joined us also in Rhyl and we had council contracts supplying places like Rhyl sun centre and some of the aforementioned arcades , with equipment on the promenade.
I did during our development acquire one Ding Dong with its 4x4 letter grid to light up like a mini crossword . (Sold that one on to Gary Flower, a friend on ‘pinball owners association’ who was author of “ The lure of the silver ball” a compilation history of pinball early years) and four Magic City pinballs one of which I still have , probably well perished rubbers , it will need tlc if I unbury it any time soon ?
Collecting took second place but I frequently picked out favourite games for home and my children born 81 82 86 clearly had the best dad with better toys, ( an arcade game collection) had begun at home. I still have that first 1974 Jupiter jukebox and the penny fruity I acquired in the 70s the latter being 50 years ago!
Sadly now retired I only have about 35-40 coin op items here now in the house and home workshop which if I could empty out a bit would be a great home gamesroom?
It’s about the size of 4 car garage and a quarter of it is the garage so now with this change in the weather it’s freezing in there!
Sorry, as usual it’s a long and poorly punctuated post … that’s me all over !
Found the photo our lectern style comp video breakout video game and our Jupiter juke and our garlando footy and pooltable.. the juke got the original front glass broke within a few weeks of siting it so had to fit a blue Perspex with a card mask design behind to give that effect from the flo tube lights, kids knees and sticking record … perils of operating in public places …..
