SWNS | Grandad dubbed 'Dr Pinball' with a four year waiting list to repair machines | SWNS @SWNS | Uploaded October 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 week ago.
A grandad dubbed 'Dr Pinball' says the retro games are becoming so popular that he has a four-and-a-half-year waiting list to fix them.
Mark Squires, 64, founded The Pinball Surgery where he repairs, renovates and services the retro games and said many are returning to play to "relive their youth".
His business has become so popular he has fixed more than 500 machines and owned around 180 himself.
Mr Squires, from Swavesey, Cambs, fell in love with pinball while working as an electronics apprentice after he left school and has worked on them ever since.
The retiree who used to work in marketing and communications said: "When you're an apprentice, they give you a brown coat.
"As I would walk into arcades on the coast to repair the machines, I had the coat on wanting to look nice and clean.
"People would say: 'Here he goes - Dr Pinball'.
"My wife doesn’t let the machines in the house.
"We've lived here 45 years now and when we first met she was keen - but over the years her love has waned."
The machines have been repopularised by the 2022 film 'Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game' depicting Roger Sharpe who helped overturn the ban on them.
The grandad-of-two found that working on repairing pinballs made him more money than doing the apprentice work at the age of 16.
When he retired in 2016, he took his passion and turned it into The Pinball Surgery, working out of the double garage of his home.
Mr Squires, who has fixed more than 500 machines, said they usually cost a couple hundred of pounds to repair but the most expensive was in the thousands.
He said: "I will do some little bits and pieces for free if it's just a wire but otherwise it can cost whatever it takes.
"I had one that was completely destroyed and needed rebuilding from the ground up and that was into four figures.
"I had a four-and-a-half waiting list to get through them - I had to temporarily close for new orders."
Mr Squires joked that his favourite machines were the 'ones that work' but he loves the 90s Medieval Madness machine based on Monty Python.
He also likes the Paragon pinball machine, based on Conan the Barbarian, and said the artwork, often done by students, is 'amazing'.
Mr Squires added: "You can't play them really by yourself, they’re for you and your mates.
"There's a big social aspect of people getting together to play and there's a whole part of the community who consider them a competitive sport.
"I just mend them and keep them going as it makes people happy.
"People want to relive their youth and when their children leave home - and they have an empty nest - people like to go back.
"There's a retro drive with men in their sheds recreating what they did at their student union bar.
"Pinball has been proven to be very good for people."
The Swavesey Pinball Weekend, organised by Mr Squires, celebrated its 18th year this summer and has raised thousands of pounds for charities like the Teenage Cancer Trust.
This year it featured machines like Bally's Twilight Zone, Stern's The Beatles and James Bond 007 - raising £1,059.40.
Mr Squires work has also been featured on the TV show Salvage Hunters: The Restorers.
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A grandad dubbed 'Dr Pinball' says the retro games are becoming so popular that he has a four-and-a-half-year waiting list to fix them.
Mark Squires, 64, founded The Pinball Surgery where he repairs, renovates and services the retro games and said many are returning to play to "relive their youth".
His business has become so popular he has fixed more than 500 machines and owned around 180 himself.
Mr Squires, from Swavesey, Cambs, fell in love with pinball while working as an electronics apprentice after he left school and has worked on them ever since.
The retiree who used to work in marketing and communications said: "When you're an apprentice, they give you a brown coat.
"As I would walk into arcades on the coast to repair the machines, I had the coat on wanting to look nice and clean.
"People would say: 'Here he goes - Dr Pinball'.
"My wife doesn’t let the machines in the house.
"We've lived here 45 years now and when we first met she was keen - but over the years her love has waned."
The machines have been repopularised by the 2022 film 'Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game' depicting Roger Sharpe who helped overturn the ban on them.
The grandad-of-two found that working on repairing pinballs made him more money than doing the apprentice work at the age of 16.
When he retired in 2016, he took his passion and turned it into The Pinball Surgery, working out of the double garage of his home.
Mr Squires, who has fixed more than 500 machines, said they usually cost a couple hundred of pounds to repair but the most expensive was in the thousands.
He said: "I will do some little bits and pieces for free if it's just a wire but otherwise it can cost whatever it takes.
"I had one that was completely destroyed and needed rebuilding from the ground up and that was into four figures.
"I had a four-and-a-half waiting list to get through them - I had to temporarily close for new orders."
Mr Squires joked that his favourite machines were the 'ones that work' but he loves the 90s Medieval Madness machine based on Monty Python.
He also likes the Paragon pinball machine, based on Conan the Barbarian, and said the artwork, often done by students, is 'amazing'.
Mr Squires added: "You can't play them really by yourself, they’re for you and your mates.
"There's a big social aspect of people getting together to play and there's a whole part of the community who consider them a competitive sport.
"I just mend them and keep them going as it makes people happy.
"People want to relive their youth and when their children leave home - and they have an empty nest - people like to go back.
"There's a retro drive with men in their sheds recreating what they did at their student union bar.
"Pinball has been proven to be very good for people."
The Swavesey Pinball Weekend, organised by Mr Squires, celebrated its 18th year this summer and has raised thousands of pounds for charities like the Teenage Cancer Trust.
This year it featured machines like Bally's Twilight Zone, Stern's The Beatles and James Bond 007 - raising £1,059.40.
Mr Squires work has also been featured on the TV show Salvage Hunters: The Restorers.
Please subscribe for daily viral videos and check out all our social channels here: https://linktr.ee/swns
To license this video for editorial or commercial use please contact video@swns.com
