Running a Successful Arcade | Legendary Artist Doug Watson
Chicago Expo ’24 was chock full of tantalizing events and activities. Matt and Don report on the Arcade Roundtable and Doug Watson’s Pinball Art Masterclass. Epic. Games Discussed: Terminator 2...
Highlights
- Doug Watson's Terminator 2 playfield was the first time he was allowed to fully locate inserts on the playfield and direct shot flow through insert alignment
- Steve Ritchie showed Doug Watson a vertical insert alignment method on Terminator 2 that became standard practice
- Portland arcade market has exceptionally high pinball density per capita relative to its metropolitan area size
- Successful arcade operators (Electric Bat, Wedgehead, Logan Arcade) all personally maintain their own games to some degree
- Card-based credit systems create confusion and potential predatory outcomes by leaving unused credits on cards that customers cannot redeem
Notable quotes
“Draw something. Draw something.”
“What do you want me to do? Stop?”
“This particular example is abysmal... this doesn't make any sense here... I was just trying to show off, prove to people that I could paint pretty things.”
“If you want to start an arcade don't bother unless you have the maintenance stuff figured out in advance... find the money to pay someone if you can't do it.”
“You're also doing a disservice to pinball as a whole by having these games out and not showcasing them the way that they should be.”
Entities
- Electric Bat Arcade· company
- Gottlieb· company
- Logan Arcade· company
- Wedgehead· company
- Chicago Pinball Expo· event
- Attack from Mars· game
- Black Knight 2000· game
- Indiana Jones· game
- Terminator 2· game
- The Shadow· game
- Bash Pinball Podcast· organization
- Pinball News· organization
- Alan· person
- Doug Watson· person
- Ian· person
- Jamie· person
- Jim· person
- Kale Hernandez· person
- Rachel· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
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