Videoverload Time
October 29th, 2009Book TNT Amusements’ warehouse for a birthday party and your 7-year-old’s school friends will almost definitely declare you the most excellent of parents. Adult associates, on the other hand, may well decide that your moral fabric has gone threadbare.
The TNT building, in a Southampton industrial park south of Street Road, houses 60 arcade games, including the hot new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle video challenge, the flashy TX-1 race-car simulator, and aisle upon aisle of talking, buzzing, dinging, flashing, wailing video games and pinball machines.
For $179 & up, your child and up to 24 playmates get the run of the place for two hours — with every machine set on free play. The sensory overload that ensues is a hellion’s dream and a doting nurturer’s nightmare.
Chaperones who can’t stand the commotion have the option of hiding out in the facilities clean, quiet party room, their solitude interrupted only during a scheduled half-hour break when ice cream, cake and Looney-Tunes cartoons are presented to the kiddies. But plenty of parents — male parents, especially — get caught up in the frenzy. “Even while we’re singing happy birthday,” says TNT owner Todd N. Tuckey, “the fathers are out there playing pinball.”
Above the din of the buzzers and bells, you can almost hear the sound of moral fabric ripping.
Love made the pinball go ’round
October 29th, 2009While thousands of Christmas shoppers wandered Willow Grove Park mall pondering their Christmas lists, Pam Metzger faced a bigger question — will you marry me?
Her boyfriend Todd Tuckey rigged a video game at Challenges Amusement Center last week to pop the question automatically. Metzger said “yes.”
“I was nervous,” admitted Tuckey who owns TNT Amusements, a pinball machine dealership in Southampton. Tuckey had to land the pinball in a certain slot before the machine would ask the question.
The engagement ring was tucked into the coin return. Tuckey smiled as he slipped the ring on his fiancé’s finger and gave her a kiss. Television camera crews no longer pretended to hide their interest and the diamond shown in the spotlight. “Nice ring,” shouted an onlooker. “Yeah,” said Tuckey. “Expensive too. It will take a lot of quarters to pay for it so I’ll have to sell a lot of pinball games.”
Tuckey said he thought the unique marriage proposal would be fun. He told Metzger, a Huntingdon Valley resident who tutors and works as a bank teller, that they were simply going to test the machine.
He then conspired with her mother to arrange that all her scheduled tutorials be canceled. “I was driving over, hoping everything would work right,” he said.
His technicians, Howard Poland and Curt Cesari had arrived early to double-check the machine. Challenges owner Allan Bruck was also in on the surprise, although he was not present for the proposal. Poland and Cesari guarded the hidden ring. A sign on the game said “Sorry Out of Order Please Try Another Game.”
Metzger said she was a bit suspicious when she noticed the television cameras. Tuckey assured her that they were there for something else.
In fact, according to Challenges manager Chris Schwartz, the news reporters who had assembled to cover the event were told that “if anyone asks, you’re doing a piece about the violence in video games.” On this occasion, however, it was love that made the pinball go ’round.
The couple has planned a small wedding ceremony at Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia to be held next May, according to Tuckey.
Pinball, Pac-Man for the home: Company makes a game of it
October 29th, 2009Todd Tuckey never imagined that after two decades of selling commercial-size arcade games for home use, his TNT Amusements would still be going strong, especially with the proliferation of home-computer games But thanks to nostalgia and the strong economy, things have rarely been better.
Plenty of people have been coming into his Southampton showroom and plunking down between $500 and
$4,000 for a standard game, or up to $10,000 for a used race-car simulator, such as Daytona U.S.A.
“Our customers might be 40 or 45,” said Tuckey “They have money and a car They want the one thing they can’t get at Kmart or Circuit City.” TNT’s revenues topped $1 million in 1997 and again in 1998, Tuckey said.
Donna DeFino of Voorhees said she and her husband, Michael, have furnished their basement with four games purchased from TNT, including two pinball machines, a basketball machine, and a football-tossing game “My husband will stay down there for hours for his amusement,” she said “When we have parties, the guests seem to gravitate there.”
Tuckey said he had sold more than 13,000 games since 1984 — everything from an $1,399 Centipede video game to a $2,799 Super Chexx bubble hockey machine Dozens of games fill TNT’s showroom, such as Bowling Shuffle Alleys, pool tables, Skeeball machines.
Ms. Pac-Man video games are still TNT’s biggest seller “A doctor told us he wanted Ms. Pac-Man because it got him through medical school,” said Tuckey “Couples may have met on the boardwalk in an arcade [The games] bring them back to simpler times.”
After the broadcast of a Seinfeld episode that featured George Costanza’s efforts to acquire a Frogger video game machine from a closing pizza parlor, TNT’s phones were ringing off the hook.
Tuckey, 44, began buying pinball and other arcade games in 1979, and ran a vending business for four years with a partner, placing machines in delicatessens, bowling alleys, skating rinks and other establishments After the arcade video boom had ended in 1984, the pair decided to sell their machines from Tuckey’s long driveway in Northeast Philadelphia Not only did they sell all the machines they had started with, they bought additional machines and sold them as well “It made us solvent again,” said Tuckey, who bought out his partner’s share in 1984 After selling almost 500 games from his driveway, the Temple University graduate was convinced there was a demand for an arcade atmosphere in people’s homes.
He left his full-time job as an administrator at Temple University, where he ran two game rooms and the movie theater, and devoted all his time to buying and selling He rented his first
showroom in Bensalem in October 1985 One month later, he purchased the Southampton building on Industrial Boulevard where TNT Amusements is based today.
The 5,000-square-foot facility contains about 120 machines on display plus a work area and storage space for thousands of circuit boards. An additional 1,500 games are stored at a 10,000-square-foot warehouse nearby. TNT has 10 full-time employees and six part-timers. Newly acquired games are subjected to a vigorous overhaul.
TNT has about 15 >private birthday parties a week for up to 50 children (or adults) who can play the games in the showroom an unlimited number of times. The company will also rent out games on a per-day basis to families throwing a party, and still serves as a vendor to a few stores.
But the majority of TNT’s business comes from home sales, accounting for 80 percent of revenues.
Tuckey said he does not sell pinball machines built before 1977 because they are neither computerized nor reliable. “With the digital machines, a customer can call us with an error code and most of the time we can solve the problem over the phone.”
Things are not so rosy for another segment of the game business. “Large arcade companies have been going bankrupt left and right,” said Michael Bershad, owner of Penn Vending Co. in Bensalem. “The cost of the equipment has skyrocketed, and the cash box is reduced.”
Bershad, whose vending company operates a large number of games and jukeboxes in the Philadelphia area, said a brand-new video game used to bring in $300 or $400 per week. Now a new game might bring in about half that, he said.
“Today, a giant deluxe game at an arcade might cost 75 cents to play,” Tuckey said. “But people still don’t perceive the value of the games to be more than 25 or 50 cents.”
While most of his business comes from word of mouth, Tuckey said he spends thousands of dollars on advertising in Yellow Pages and cable television, and maintaining a Web site. The Internet has been boosting the company’s sales, accounting for 30 percent of TNT’s business, he said.
A half-hour-long infomercial staring Tuckey airs nightly on Comcast cable TV systems, and weekly on WMCN-TV. During the show, Tuckey tours around his showroom cracking jokes and performing peculiar antics.
One viewer invited Tuckey to a catered party at his Main Line mansion because his son wanted to meet Tuckey.
Tuckey’s antics have attracted the media spotlight. The businessman proposed to his wife, Pam in 1994 in a Willow Grove Mall arcade where he supplied games. He had rigged the machine to produce the message, “Will you marry me?” as she played, and ensured that television news crews were present to catch the moment. A similar pinball machine was later placed outside the church where they were married.
Article by Claire Furia Smith
Top 10 Reasons to Buy from TNT…
October 29th, 20091. OUR INCREDIBLE SERVICE PLAN!
A FREE 30 Day Parts & Labor Warranty is always included. We also include FREE, our 5 Year low cost Service Plan. If anything fails on your game (excluding acts of Nature or vandalism), we will fix or repair components at the following rates:
- Small Displays $50 to $100
- Power Supplies $50
- Main Logic boards and Television Monitors $75
- “X-Y” Television Monitors $100
- Large Displays $70 – $90
- Dot-Matrix Displays (on the latest games) $100
- Solenoid Drivers and Lamp Drivers $50
- Sound Boards $65 to $75
- We put these prices in writing and guarantee them for 5 years — but will ANY of our competitors?
**NOT COVERED in the 5-year plan** : Antique Jukeboxes, hard drives in deluxe or countertop games, touchscreens, large screen TV’s, LCD flat screens, CD players in jukeboxes and dollar bill acceptors. These will be repaired at current market rates. Games being used commercially (not in a private home) also must pay market repair rates.
Check out our FAQ page, response #3 if you live outside our 120 mile delivery radius on how all service is handled “from when your game initially arrives and future service down the road”
2. LARGEST SELECTION OF USED GAMES
We have the largest selection of games in the world! With over 100 ready to play in our showroom and 2,000 other games available, our inventory is constantly changing.
3. 30 DAY FULL CREDIT TRADE BACK
Make sure you’re happy with your game, or exchange for another (you only pay a redelivery charge)! Applies only on original purchase.
4. FREE PHONE SERVICE TIPS
We will try to fix any game we sell, over the phone — at no cost to you! When a game is truly reconditioned, 90% of all problems can be solved this way!
5. GREAT TRADE-IN DEALS!
We Guarantee In Writing at Least 50% Trade-In Credit toward another purchase! You ALWAYS will have credit good at any time!
6. FULL PARTS & REPAIR CENTER
We assure QUICK repair when needed and also have extended showroom hours which allow “Last Minute” parts pickup.
7. OUR GAMES ARE EXTENSIVELY RECONDITIONED
We have a 51 point checklist to assure quality. You CANNOT buy a TRULY RECONDITIONED Pinball Machine for $1000, as parts and labor (an average of 10 to 15 hours) always exceed that. A video game also requires similar overhaul (5 to 10 hours on average). Do you really want to make a major investment decision at an auction or a private party’s basement where the reconditioning consists of 1 hour cleanup and a quick fix?
8. WE TAKE ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS!
We also finance purchases (through PNC National Bank) up to $8,000 if approved which offers 90 days same as cash on your loan. We can send you a simple application form to apply for this credit.
9. IN-HOME DELIVERY & SETUP
Our experienced staff will deliver in our local area (Eastern PA, New Jersey, Delaware, parts of New York and Parts of Maryland)…call and we can quote you a price.
We can also arrange for a professional trucking company to pick up the machine from us and deliver it to your curb anywhere in the USA. This charge is $175 and up depending on location and the games dimensions.
We charge a modest $35 to pallet and package your machine for shipping.to carefully pallet and package each machine. We use heavy strapping material and wrap the machine in both cardboard and wrap to prevent damage.
10. YOU BUY ONLY THE BEST OF THE BEST
Used games are like used cars — do you want a "high mileage" game that has heavy unseen wear? Of course not! TNT sells only the TOP CONDITION examples of that game. That’s why we ‘re willing to stand behind them for 5 years. Never settle for second best!
