My second "real" job was in a video arcade. Cashier and babysitter, mostly. Back when everything cost a quarter. But also the technician for all the cabinets. And, reluctantly, the technician for all the pinball machines.
Fun to play. But no fun to maintain. They take a lot of abuse - they're packed full of moving parts, delicate sensors, and complex light arrays - and the popular machines are always jury-rigged with half-malfunctioning parts to keep those coins flowing in. They cost Big Money to keep running in prime condition, the sort of money collectors will pay but business operators will not. Once you get an eye for these things you can't avoid seeing all the paperclips and rubberbands and hairsprings and glue and lube and cardboard scraps used in the improvised repairs, lol, it takes the fun out of the game when you see it not really working at original design specs.
