Pinball wizard restores old game machines for fun and profit

by George Hassett

In the cellar of a quaint, blue home on the corner of Highland Ave. and West St. lies the answer to many a child’s prayer—a room full of pinball machines. But before they made it to the coveted cellar, Paul E. Silva spent countless hours in the garage working his magic on a beloved pastime: fixing and repairing antique pinball machines, jukeboxes and video games.

“I was always into electronics as a kid. I would fix radios, televisions, anything I could get my hands on basically,” said Silva.

This childhood fascination grew into a profession for Silva thirty-five years ago when he landed a job as a technician at Melo-Tone, a vending company he still works for today.

“Throughout the years I have continued to do private work repairing jukeboxes, pinball and videogames – all types of antique boxes,” said Silva.

The antique box business is an unpredictable one, but Silva has remained afloat because of his versatility.

“This year pinball was big and last year jukeboxes were big so you never really know. I work with all of them so changes like that don’t hurt my business,” said Silva.

Silva said he owes his success in the business to his reputation for good work and his aggressive pursuit of new clients.

“I’ve been doing this work for decades so everybody in the business knows me and knows the work I do. I pass my business card all over the state and I always try to get new clients,” said Silva.

Yet Silva’s most prized clients come second to a handful of special people who get first-run at all the new video games.

“I had the grandchildren over this weekend and the first place they ran to was the cellar and the games,” said Silva.

Comments

[Brenda P]

I have an older Spiderman pinball machine manufactured by Groleib (sp?) and am needing information as to it's value. Can anyone steer me in the right direction? I live in Missouri and can send pictures.