Lol Nino, you actually paid to play games. sure you wernt flicking the switch off and on really quickly to get max creddits for free like the rest of us
In the old days, we used to use 20c that had a black texta "X" on it. That way the money went back into the till. That was for locations that Dad had HIS games. He never operated SYS80 games, so I had to go into the city to play them. This was around 1981-83 ish. It might have been "Flashbacks" at the time. There was a stairwell wont to a basement level, and on the left was a MacDonalds and on the right was the arcade. Pinball was slowly be removed for the video games. I remember the 1942 games were against the wall as new arrivals. I never went near the videos. In the end, there were not many pinballs there, but I remember the SYS80s and the last time I went there, there was a new Big Guns and Fire. Some of my personal collection reflects those visits - Black Hole, Spirit and Haunted House. Then Fire and Big Guns.
As a younger child, we used to go to church on Sundays and then head across to a location Dad owned called "Delfino's" in Edwards St Reservoir. We used to get $1 each, and that bought a Mars Bar and a Polly Waffle. Then we could play pinballs until lunch time. I spent most of my youth there, as it was just up the road, and it was owned and operated by Dad. This was the location that got all the NEW games - Imagine NIB KISS, Paragon, Space Invaders, Star Trek, Mata Hari, Eight Ball etc etc - all new - were located here first. The KISS had it's first callout after 2 days. The cashbox was so full, it had blocked the coin acceptor. Great memories.