Official Announcement/Tour of Past Times Arcade & Museum - Girard, Ohio

Past Times Arcade·video·13m 5s·analyzed·Jun 8, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

Pastimes Arcade announces construction phase, seeks volunteers to stage/test 400+ machines before opening.

Summary

Mike C. Hale, project lead for Pastimes Arcade (a Rob Burke/Burke Brands venture in Girard, Ohio), announces the arcade's construction phase and solicits volunteers to help stage and test 400+ pinball machines and hundreds of video game cabinets. The venue will operate as a free-play arcade with hourly/daily rates, a small food service, and a retail area for arcade machine sales. Opening timeline is contingent on machine staging, testing, and volunteer availability; first major milestone is hauling machines to Pinball Expo in October.

Key Claims

Pastimes Arcade will have over 400 pinball machines exclusively down the middle of the main space
high confidence · Mike C. Hale, official announcement video
A warehouse 20 minutes up the road contains over a thousand games (mix of video games and pinballs)
high confidence · Mike C. Hale describing warehouse inventory
The arcade has 8 rails with 54 outlets each in the middle space, enabling 432 games
high confidence · Mike C. Hale touring the space and pointing out infrastructure
Many games were transported from Pinball Expo last year and will need tweaking before operation
high confidence · Mike C. Hale explaining game staging process
Pastimes Arcade plans to haul a semi or two of machines to Pinball Expo in October (outside Chicago)
high confidence · Mike C. Hale discussing Pinball Expo participation

Notable Quotes

“This is going to be our main area where we're going to have some sales. So we'll have some jukeboxes for sale, some arcade games, pinballs, maybe a couple shuffle bowlers, whatever we have to lay out here.”
Mike C. Hale@ 1:08 — Describes the retail/sales function of the arcade space
“We're looking for people that are going to come and volunteer to help us out, whether you have technical skills, whether you're okay with doing some monotonous things such as inventory or sorting. But mainly, we're looking for some tech folks.”
Mike C. Hale@ 4:50 — Explains the volunteer recruitment focus—technical skills prioritized over casual players
“If you're looking to come in and just play pinball or play games for the fun of playing, that's really not what we're looking for right now. We're looking for people that can have some technical skill or have a technical eye to help us out with that.”
Mike C. Hale@ 5:35 — Clarifies that volunteers are needed for testing/repair, not casual play during construction phase
“We're three minutes off of the Interstate 80 exit. We're near Youngstown, Ohio, if you're familiar with the geography of Ohio, but we're in Girard.”
Mike C. Hale@ 6:45 — Geographic location specifics for potential volunteers
“So we have something down here, for instance. So later today, through our social media, I'm going to cut this open. I'm going to be completely honest with you, and I'm not joking. I have no idea what's in here.”
Mike C. Hale@ 8:45 — Teases mystery pinball machine unboxing content for social media engagement

Entities

Pastimes ArcadecompanyMike C. HalepersonRob BurkepersonJaden BurkepersonGirard, OhioorganizationPinball Expoevent Winchester Mystery HouseproductSonicsproductPlaymaticsproduct

Signals

?
venue_signal: Pastimes Arcade, a large free-play arcade with 400+ pinball machines and hundreds of video games, is under construction in Girard, Ohio with opening timeline TBD pending machine staging and volunteer availability.
high · Official announcement by project lead Mike C. Hale; physical tour of space; warehouse inventory of 1,000+ games confirmed
?
community_signal: Pastimes Arcade actively recruiting technical volunteers for machine testing, staging, and troubleshooting; emphasis on technical expertise and diagnostic eye rather than casual players.
high · Multiple explicit statements prioritizing tech volunteers; form on website for sign-ups; geographic/logistical openness to volunteers from surrounding areas
?
event_signal: Pastimes Arcade planning to transport games (semi or two) to Pinball Expo in October outside Chicago; Expo participation is a first major operational milestone.
high · Mike C. Hale explicitly states intention to haul machines to Pinball Expo; mentions Expo as priority before full venue opening
?
operational_signal: Venue is in early staging phase; 400+ pinball machines and hundreds of video games require systematic unpacking, placement, testing, and troubleshooting before operational readiness.
high · Tour shows games in storage; Mike C. Hale describes phased rollout (video games first around perimeter, then pinballs middle); warehouse staging of 1,000+ games
?
business_signal: Pastimes Arcade combining free-play hourly/daily entry rates with retail sales (machines, retro video games) and food/beverage service.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.039

0:00

Greetings from Girard, Ohio. It is June 8th, 2022. My name is Mike Hale and I have the joy of being the project lead on a Rob Burke, Burke Brands endeavor called Past Times. So I'm going to give you a quick tour of the space as an update and an announcement to show you what we're looking to do. The timeline is still up in the air. I'll explain that very shortly. And I'm also going to connect you to some of our social media share. that out as well as tell you how you can help us out if you're interested. So let me switch over from my selfie mode here and I'll give you a quick tour of the space and give you a little bit of insight in regards to what we're thinking as of now. All right, so what you're seeing here as you walk in the main entrance, we're still in the construction phase. So we have a few things around but I'll be able to show you anyway. Over here on the side where you see where these jukeboxes are, these are temporarily here as we start to get our floors cleaned. Hopefully they're going to be finishing that up today in this large space. But this is going to be our main area where we're going to have some sales. So we'll have some jukeboxes for sale, some arcade games, pinballs, maybe a couple shuffle bowlers, whatever we have to lay out here. This is going to be our for sale area. As we scan over to the side over here, we're actually going to have some retro video games for sale. So Jaden Burke has a side business that he sells retro video games, some very rare games that are going to be for sale here, as well as through the website. Once we get that established, I'll talk more about that shortly. We pan over, the main desk will be here. This is where you're going to be able to come in. You pay a rate, daily rate, hourly rate. We're still in the process of figuring that out. And then you get to enjoy all the games out here that are going to be on free play. All the pinballs, all of the video games will all be on free play with the exception of a few, we'll call them carnival games. Some bigger games are going to be around the outside and we can share that out as that permits. So a quick scan of the room just to tell you the general layout as we go around. The main x-factor happening over here is we are going to have a little restaurant. So there's going to be some food. It's going to be, you know, catered to the audience. So quick grab food, not a formal restaurant or anything of that nature, but we'll have some booths, some seating areas. You can grab a drink, take a little bit of a break. And so that's in the process of being constructed right now, as you see. We pan the room. We have a few of these rails right here. Actually we have eight of them and these have 54 outlets on each of them. So we have the ability to put 432 games just down the middle of this space. We're going to lay out some pinballs in the middle here. We're going to have some games on the end caps here that are going to be maybe a few more two games and so on A lot of these games were dropped here from Pinball Expo last year So these games have already been gone through They have been played They probably going to need some tweaking as we open these up, get them on legs, and start shuffling some games around. Pinball Expo, end of October, outside of Chicago. So if you're interested in that, please jump over the website. And you can also bring a game if you would like. That would be great. So we're hauling a fair amount of games, taking a semi or two over of our own games, but we would encourage you to be part of that process too. So you see we have some electromechanical games here. We also have some digital solid states and a lot of these are just here for storage and staging. We have a warehouse about 20 minutes up the road that has over a thousand games in it, a mix of video games like we have over there, as well as some pinballs. So the main question you probably have is when are we going to be open? I can tell you from my perspective is when we start moving games down here from the warehouse and we start staging them and getting them set up and getting them laid out to figure out how many do we need, how many are spaced out, how many are ready to go. Same with these video games, which we're actually starting with. That will help us determine the timeline. So we want to make sure that when we open, we're ready. And this is how you can come in and help us out also. We are, as we start getting these up on legs, we are looking for people that are going to come by and volunteer to help us out, whether you have technical skills, whether you're okay with doing some monotonous things such as inventory or sorting. But mainly, we're looking for some tech folks, and we're looking for some folks that even if you don't have technical skills necessarily, that can come by and help us test. And when I mean test, I mean carry around a tablet, put some notes on each of the games as you start to find issues. Something as simple as that switch didn't score, that rollover didn't do this or that. So we are really looking for people who have a technical eye for the games to help us out with that. That's what we're looking for. If you're looking to come in and just play pinball or play games for the fun of playing. That's really not what we're looking for right now. We're looking for people that can have some technical skill or have a technical eye to help us out with that. As I mentioned, we're going to have probably over 400 games, pinballs exclusively, down the middle. And we're going to have a few techs on hand, a large few of texts on hand.

6:56

And if you're just passing through over the summer for something and you want to stop in for a bit and help us out, we'd greatly appreciate that. So the way that you can do that, again, is to submit your contact information through the website, the link that's on the website, pasttimesarcade.com. And we're also going to have our social media accounts on there for right now as our website is being built. So landing page right now with just an announcement. We're not going to launch our full website until we have more. We're further along in the process. We can put some rates. We can put some videos. We can indicate inventory and those types of things. So the updates and announcements and those types of things are going to be shared out through our social media accounts. Longer videos such as this one, which is probably going to be about 10 minutes, are going to go on YouTube. We're going to be doing some short little videos, some pictures, updates, and that sort of thing, primarily through our Facebook. And then we're going to utilize our Instagram account to share out really nice pictures of games and maybe share some history of them and some rare things. And so that's also something that gets me really excited about here is that we're going to have some rare games that a lot of you may have seen in private collections that you otherwise might not have the opportunity to be able to play. And we'll be sharing some of those out. So how's that for a little bit of a teaser? If you want to follow and subscribe, I will do my very best to filter the content that's going on our social media. We don't want to spam you. We don't want to share our opinions. Of course, no negativity. we're building an arcade. It's supposed to be fun. But some fun things that we're going to do along these lines is we have, well, we have something down here, for instance. So later today, through our social media, I'm going to cut this open. I'm going to be 100% honest with you, and I'm not joking. I have no idea what's in here. So we'll open this up. We'll share it out, almost like a what's in the box type of thing. It just says pinball machine on it. I have no idea. We have a fair amount of games from overseas, too, that we're going to share out. That, again, gets me excited. So we're going to have some Sonics, some Playmatics. We have a couple of these cabinets down here, this red one and this tan and brown one. Those are indoor games. And so those are games that most of us might not have the opportunity to experience, but they're going to be here. And I can tell you, if you ever move one of these things, Those are extremely heavy. So here's where we are next in the process. We are going to start moving these video games I talk about those Actually I walk through those as I talk about our next step We have a few hundred of these video game cabinets in the warehouse as well and we going to pull those down next So those are going to go around the perimeter of the space. We have 96 outlets here all around the perimeter. So we have around 200 individual plugs. and we're going to move those down next. We have some rare ones up in the warehouse. We have some unique ones here and then we're going to be looking for some of our friends online to be able to come help us tinker on them or test out some of these video games.