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Rob Berk owned so many pinball machines that he opened up his own amusement zone so that visitors can play them all!
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0:06
perfect when someone mentions pinball
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the first thing I think about is do I
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have the game are they selling that game
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or do they have a friend that's got that
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game my name is Rob Burke currently I'm
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the Guinness Booker records holder for
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the most pinball
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machines and the reason why I have so
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many of these games is during Co I had
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nothing to do people say hey you guys be
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sick man there's something wrong with
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you for me pinball represents a time in
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my childhood that was a happy time and
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so as a young fellow my dad had
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purchased a pinball machine which I
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didn't really know what it was and over
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years the more I played I said Hey Dad
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how about getting another machine these
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were fun the fuse was lit and who knew
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how far it was going to go I didn't
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know and then I went to college and
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there I was introduced to pinball like
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crazy because at the time there was no
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video games it was all pinball and I
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became a pinball not love playing love
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the thrill of playing it ignited a fever
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that's never stopped reading up on
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pinball learning about the different
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designers and artists and I said to
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myself these are the guys who are my
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real heroes because they built and
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designed the games I love enjoying so
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much so I started running ads in some of
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the trade Publications wanted to buy
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pinball machines and the next thing I
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knew I got phone calls from a guy in
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Halifax Nova Scotia it was in the winter
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time and it was cold but I flew down to
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see him and he had a warehouse full of
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machines and I ended up buying 40 from
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that guy then I got a phone call from a
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guy I bought 20 from him and then I got
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a phone call a guy and he had a
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warehouse at about 400 G oh my gosh this
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is crazy I say I can't buy all these but
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I did buy another 40 from that guy but
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the most money I ever spent for a
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pinball machine 12 to
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$15,000 The Collection started to grow
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and I realized that the passion was
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pretty
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strong about a year and a half ago cuz I
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had so many games I was like where am I
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going to put them all so I was so crazy
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cuz I had passed this building many
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times and I said hey maybe I can buy
2:07
this building put my games in there and
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whenever I feel like I to come in open
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up the door to the front door play a few
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games and call a night and my wife said
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you're crazy if you're going to go to
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that extent you might as well open up to
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the public let them enjoy the games as
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well so that's why pastimes was
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developed how it came about well guys
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welcome to pastimes and if you look
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behind us you're seeing well over 600
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pinball machines and video games and
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everything else you can
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imagine my favorite aisle cuz most
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people that go to any kind of arcade all
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they see is the games made in America
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this is a whole lot different down here
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Hank was a manufacturer out of Australia
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I am the only person in the United
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States that has all five titles made by
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this manufacturer but as we walk down
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here all these games come from either
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Spain or Italy games and titles that
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you'll never see anywhere in America
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America but they have their own style of
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games the own unique artwork I always
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thought this is a fun one here as a
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pinball player there's a lot of shots on
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here that we don't have in the US now
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this is a unique game here a lot of the
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European manufacturers copied the
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American games but just changed the
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artwork totally the American Title was
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called Rock This is the Spanish title
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Punk
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Willie as you can see a lot of the newer
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games have all LIC themes Ghostbusters J
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Jones Spider-Man
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NASCAR this game was made in America but
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it was totally refurbished my guy in
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Italy so what's unique about this game
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is the apron here where the instruction
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card is he totally tweaked out the apron
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where he cut out some forms of the
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skateboarders and that of the radical
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name so this is very very unique so he
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really as they say tricked it
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out and over here is one of my more
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favorite games came from Japan
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so this is one of the very few Japanese
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titles I've ever seen it's very rare to
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find a Japanese pinball machine anywhere
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in the American soil $1,500 just to airf
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Freight one game here but this one here
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was made 1972 very unique layout very
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unique design of the game so it's really
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kind of a fun part of my collection
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Pokemon this game was originally made as
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high score pool in 1971 but I met a
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fellow that redesigned this entire game
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for his kids who love Pokémon on so he's
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got all the Pokemon cards on the side
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and the Pokemon a little video here so
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this shows one man's passion for his
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kids and how he put this on the game
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pretty pretty cool this is a unique game
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here this this is a relatively low
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production run too this is a very usual
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game here Orbiter but it's almost like a
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bathtub here the way the the layout of
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the game is here's a unique game here
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where uh to play the game the ball is
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here in the middle you have to push a
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button to push the ball out but as you
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play the game it moves the cars along
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the
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back so the baseball concept was popular
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during this time and hit it pitch and
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hit again there's no flippers anywhere
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on here everything is handled through
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this this pitch and
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bat another reason why they did this is
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certain areas certain states banned
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pinball because they considered it
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gambling and and this is what their way
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to get around it so these games would be
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permissible in these various States this
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is another interesting concept they had
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horse RAC was very popular in the US
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during this time this is
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67 but all the horses go back as you hit
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the certain numbers it makes that
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corresponding horse move
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[Music]
5:50
forward so everything in this area here
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is all the very very early beginnings of
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pinball whenever they added the uh lock
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in corn mechanism to start the game
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that's when the terminology pinball Came
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As We Know pinball today now as you see
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there's no flippers back then drawing
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the ball back hitting it you don't move
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it you just kind of Let It Go where it
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goes and and you add up your points
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manually it's a little bit later game
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1932 game called uh jigsaw this was made
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for the Chicago World's Fair but what's
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interesting is on this game is here is
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when when you go inside certain holes it
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flips the puzzle around and when it's
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all done it's the whole layout of the
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Chicago World
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Fair again more vintage games from from
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the 30s they they start adding more
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figures to it and little metal forms
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just to make it more intriguing more
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modernistic there's a little backrop to
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it with where the score is baseball is a
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very popular pastimes during this day so
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there was a theme there then this is a
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game made by Bal called bumper where
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they added yet another feature to add
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more excitement to the play of the game
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okay remember that name there Harry ABS
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see him see it in 1947 Harry MBS created
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an invention which he called The
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Flipper and this is the very first game
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that flipper appeared on and the whole
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idea being with the flipper you could
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keep the ball active and Alive it took
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the industry by storm after 1947 on
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flipper never went
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away this is the one section here is a
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favorite area for me these games were
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made by Williams in the 1960s but what
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makes them so unique is they had this
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little table here so you could lay your
7:33
drink there and your cigarette so in
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between pinballs you have a drink or
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have a cigarette but for whatever reason
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after the 1960 they quit doing it this
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row here are all games made by B in the
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1960s and the reason why I have so many
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of these games is during Co I had
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nothing to do I thought to myself what
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could I collect next I said ah
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ballad games from the 60s and the reason
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why is for the most part anyone that
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played or collected games of this era
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don't really care for these games you
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play them once and you walk away because
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the design was so simple I guess you
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could say I said to myself I'll show
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them I'm going to buy every b game I can
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find of this era they call this a
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mushroom bumper that that was their
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creation the uh theme Here was very
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crazy the Mad World just a part of
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Americana that is since gone again
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because this manufacturer is no longer
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around but again the the games they made
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were very unique but they weren't that
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much fun to play so during my travels
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with with pinball and one guy I met was
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Tom nean who was the head of marketing
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for B so wizard was one of the first
8:45
license he brought as you see cat and
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fantastic with Elon John was another one
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he did very well known and paid very
8:53
handsomely by balet because he was able
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to start something had never been done
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in the pinball industry and that's using
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licensing to sell the games uh Atari was
9:01
not to be outdone here's why in a second
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follow
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me as part of atari's marketing they
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decided to develop the world's largest
9:10
pinball machine the pinball is actually
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a billiard
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ball but everything is oversized the
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flippers the thumper bumpers every part
9:20
the and the sheer size of the game Atari
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they were able to have a a a marketing
9:25
frenzy because they created the world's
9:26
largest pinball machine and people
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wanted to see it Pas times has over 600
9:30
games of pinball and video but also we
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have a whole lot more this is one called
9:35
Periscope again another Unique
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Piece you're trying to shoot the
9:41
submarine as it comes
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across so maybe that's too easy huh guys
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face invader's frenzy we have a sit down
9:54
video game here St track you can't go
9:57
wrong with that we have a just it's a
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gun game here for the kids to play more
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than the
10:03
adults there's a chair you guys one of
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the king FR chair oh yeah so her's all
10:08
the the storage I mean there's just some
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of them as far as your ey can
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see and more down
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here
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[Music]
10:21
wow and there's more
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upstairs wow
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[Music]
10:30
that's the total
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collection but there's these games over
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here these games back
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here so everywhere you turn there's
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pinball machines this all the early
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games from the 30s so this is all the
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ones with no flippers how much bigger
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can you get than this thing it's pretty
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massive some of these games like this
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one here would would just sit on top of
10:56
a bar what there is here is a lot of
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history lot of games
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guys H all right kids all right you guys
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should be experts now we
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should yeah last count we're around 1150
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games how high is going to go who knows
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but it's still growing it's pretty great
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to get recognized for it cuz I know I
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put so much time and effort in building
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it and seeing it build and seeing it
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grow and I have a great team of people
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around me to help keep keep these games
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up and running so it it makes the the
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hobby more fun it's crazy cuz I I think
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I've reached my Max as far as how many
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games I can buy you know what happens is
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sometimes I someone just reached out to
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me recently from Spain is hey I got 95
11:45
games you don't have in your collection
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I oh no
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[Music]
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