When money is tight in a recession, thousand-dollar arcade games would seem to be one of the easier things to cut from the family budget.
Because of that, Dale Levin had been ready for the worst.
"I told my wife to be prepared," said Mr. Levin, who runs Chattanooga Pinball in Rossville. "I thought we were doomed."
But despite the downturn, the arcade game repair shop has gained an extra life thanks to international sales. The recession weakened the dollar against the euro and other currencies which made it more affordable for gaming enthusiasts overseas to get in the game.
Last week, Mr. Levin shipped a machine to Brazil. Australia and the United Kingdom are two of his biggest markets.
"There's not too many 60,000-square-foot warehouses full of these," he said. "I call us Chattanooga's best-kept secret."
In 2009 the shop did about $700,000 in sales, up about $100,000 from the previous year, Mr. Levin said. This year he hopes for a high score of $1 million on the ledger and currently has about 1,500 units in various stages of repair.
Inside his shop sit row after row of flashy, dusty game consoles that still beg for quarters even when they're not plugged in.
Well known franchises like Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, Terminator and Die Hard are mixed in among the classics like Tetris and not-so classics like Big Buck Hunter Pro.
At lunch Thursday, the team had just finished working their pinball wizardry on a Mrs. Pacman game, ready to be shipped out. As the company's Web site states: "If you can put a quarter in it, it's in our warehouse."
The game consoles sell from $400 for less than popular baseball arcade games to a rare $25,000 Star Wars simulator. The most popular consoles are the $2,000 "multicades" where Mr. Levin's crew retrofits a vintage game cabinet with beefed up processor to play 60 classic games. Mrs. Pacman and other similar classics sell for about $800.
"It's baby boomers," Mr. Levin said of his client base, which is about 60 percent personal use and 40 percent commercial. "It's stuff they played as kids."
Soddy-Daisy resident Matt Pykkonen, said that's exactly why he bought a Mrs. Pacman multicade for a rental cabin in Smokies.
"They've got all the old games from the 80s," said Mr. Pykkonen, 47. "Frogger, Galaga -- most any of them you can name."
It's quite a jump from the few machines he started working on his garage six years ago. Originally working on the machines was just a way for Mr. Levin to pay for his video gaming hobby. Mr. Levin described his shop as a "compulsive disorder gone bad."
The business eventually moved the contents of his garage to an 8,000 square-foot building on Rossville Boulevard before moving to the old Peerless Mill site two years ago. He had quit his job as a carpet cleaner to work on the games full time.
"It's amazing you can make a living doing this," he said.