Pinball whisperer: Casper firefighter finds joy restoring vintage pinball, arcade machines

CASPER, Wyo. — The blockbuster movie “Jurassic Park” made pop culture history when it was released in 1993.

The reverberations of that movie were felt for decades, and in some small way it led a Casper man into a new hobby: restoring vintage pinball and arcade machines.

“This is the one that started it all,” said Patrick Stafford, pointing to a restored Jurassic Park–themed pinball machine in his garage. “I got this one along with a ‘Lethal Weapon 3,’ and I got them both broke.”

Patrick is a longtime firefighter with Casper Fire-EMS, but on his down time he likes to stay busy — very busy. Aside from raising kids with his wife Shireen, he plays country music gigs around the state and has recently released an album of original songs titled “County 16,” which he recorded in collaboration with professional Nashville musicians. He also had it pressed to CD and a gorgeous colored vinyl LP.

Then there are the numerous vintage pinball and arcade games in his garage, which is now a dedicated workspace. With some classic rock playing on a ’70s-era stereo and reel-to-reel tape deck — which he also brought back to life — Patrick spends many of his downtime hours with his soldering irons, hundreds of electronic parts and schematics culled from the internet and other enthusiasts, meticulously bringing the noisy, thrilling games back from the dead.

In his workshop now are several games to be revived, including one from the mid-’70s featuring the legendary daredevil Evel Knievel and one dating from the early-’60s featuring a group of clean-cut American teens at a party.

The difference was striking, not only in the evolution of design, but also in practice. There are fewer bells and relays on the older model, and the flippers are almost comically small.

“When pinball started, it was a gambling game, like bingo,” Patrick said, so naturally the odds were stacked against the player. As they became more popular in arcades, though, the games became more thrilling and involving.

The conditions of the machines vary wildly. Some are cosmetically OK, and Patrick often likes to leave the wear and battle scars as part of their vintage charm. Others seem hopeless.

“This is the worst-case scenario,” he said, pointing out another machine in waiting. “This will be a complete teardown; somebody left it with the glass off and it’s covered in grime.” He had tested a cleaning technique on part of the playfield and was able to make some hopeful progress. “I just cleaned it to see what it would be like, and I can go from there.”

Before he bounced to pinball restorations, Patrick started repairing discarded Atari 2600 consoles. “I used to pick them up at garage sales, and I’d go through and clean the ports and connections, or I’d harvest one for parts and fix another,” he said. “That was around 2000 or 2001.”

“Then I found this game called ‘Space Zap,’ which was black and white with a color overlay on it,” he said. It had sound but no picture, so he opened it up and found a blown fuse and some broken wires. “It was a super easy fix, and after I got it running in about an hour, I was hooked.”

Patrick grew up in Buffalo and did all of the classic Gen-X things, much of which is evident in his garage. There are numerous skateboards and several classic BMX bikes he restores with his son. Games also played an important role in his childhood.

“In Buffalo, they didn’t really have a lot of the arcade games, but at the 7-11 they had ‘Dragon Slayer,’ which I still love,” he said. There was also an old department store that closed around that time, which became a temporary arcade center during the summer with a “Star Wars” game. “I don’t know how much money I spent on it, but I played it the whole summer,” he said. “I was like, ‘Man, I’m gonna get one of those things someday.'”

Indeed, in his workshop now is the same upright “Star Wars” game that he has restored.

Up in nearby Sheridan, his aunt’s father had a route supplying and maintaining arcade games to area businesses in the early 1980s.

“He had ‘Pac-Man’ and pinball machines and such, so when I would go to my aunt’s house they would let us play on them,” he said. “He was a really cool elderly man, and he’d just open up the coin doors and let us play.”

Patrick’s almost natural ability to understand how the old machines work can also be credited to a childhood influence.

“There was a kid named Justin when I was growing up in Buffalo, and he used to tear stuff apart,” Patrick said. “I’d watch him and go ‘Wow, that’s all there is to it?’ Then you get a multimeter and learn to check simple things, and when you get a soldering station and start rebuilding [circuit] boards, it goes to a different level.”

“You figure it all out and you start learning the little secrets, and sometimes you run into people who’ve been doing it for years, and they’re most helpful,” he said.

Patrick said there is a vast network of experts online trading tips and giving advice, along with specialized parts houses where he can purchase new-old-stock and new replacements. There’s even one supplier who specializes in restoring old and salvaged CRT monitors, which are no longer manufactured.

With such complicated devices, there are always plenty of parts to go bad and things that do go wrong.

“The inside of an electrical-mechanical machine is incredible,” he said. “I mean, there’s hundreds of feet of wire in there, all the coils.” New machines rely on computer boards, which can also go bad for numerous reasons. Sometimes they literally melted down after hours of arcade use; other times, little batteries that power the “brain” go bad and release acid. “It just moves all the way up the board and go into the resisters and transistors, and it gets into your chips,” he said. “That’s hard to fix.”

Patrick respects the electronics, but he holds a special love for the playfield artwork. “This is when they took pride in their machines,” he said, showcasing a vintage 1979 pinball he’s working on. “This is all silkscreened, and it’s just amazing.”

“So when we get them in, I’ll take everything apart, and I’ll wax the playfield with a special wax, put all new rubber rings on it, and go through and clean all the switches,” he said. “When I do a complete teardown on a machine, I work from the bottom all the way up to the top.”

“Owning a pinball machine is like having a dog,” he said. “You have to take care of it, you have to play with it and spend time with it.”

Patrick keeps a handful of machines, but the rest he repairs and sells to help finance his hobby. He’s also working on restoring a machine for a local worthy charity that will be auctioned off. Most pinball machines aren’t necessarily collectable, but the ones that are can demand higher prices.

“I alway say, the best way to buy a pinball machine is broken,” he said. “If you find them broken, and nobody else can fix them, I can fix it and keep them from getting thrown away.”

“My wife is very understanding,” he adds. “Pinball is what I do when I’m supposed to be doing something else.”

“It helps and it keeps my mind busy.”