Great article. Considering I spent most of my childhood (and all my holidays), with my father (first operator in Australia), I've been lucky enough to see places crammed with machines and people lining up to play them. The late 70's was easily the most incredible time to be a kid. The call outs to "service" the KISS machines when they came out - only to find the coin boxes overflowing and jamming the coin acceptors. Some with Paragon, Space Invaders and later on - and rather strangely - GTB Street Fighter.
Although is sounds glamorous and easy, it was a 12 hours day, and it would have been one of the first occupations that required 24/7 support. You had to know Bingo machines, Juke Boxes, EMs, SS, Video games - and you had to troubleshoot and repair within minutes, or haul out the game and lose $. There were always games in "reserve", ready to go out if needed. It takes a devoted working class individual with knowledge of the industry and the drive and ability to work very hard and long hours. It was not always about unboxing games and clearing cash boxes. From my point of view, I feel very lucky that I was able to experience what I did, and happy that I can remember the good with the bad.
