Dr Pinball says the machines are making a comeback

A man who has fixed more than 500 pinball machines from the converted double garage of his home believes they are making a comeback.

Mark Squires, from Swavesey, near St Ives, Cambridgeshire, created The Pinball Surgery on retirement in 2016 having earned the nickname "Dr Pinball" as a teenage apprentice.

"Pinball as a hobby is thriving in the UK, kept alive by PC simulations and re-creations of old games, and there is that drive for people to rediscover their youth," he said.

The 64-year-old said he made only "a very modest amount of pin money" from the work, adding that "it pays for my beer consumption".

As an apprentice in electronics, he supplemented his wages by driving to the coast and repairing pinball machines in arcades.

"I did that with a friend and we picked it up as we went," Mr Squires said.

"I'd wear the brown coat we used in the factory to keep my clothes clean, and they would say, 'Look out, here comes Dr Pinball'."

He has owned more than 160 tables, although he admitted his wife did not allow them in the house.

"I love them, they're good for the soul, they help with relaxing... all those bells and lights... it's hard to take them too seriously," he said.

But fixing them is his real passion.

Mr Squires said: "In 2016, I retired from working in PR for a major multinational company, and that's when The Pinball Surgery came about."

He currently has up to 20 machines in for repair and restoration – but first he has to diagnose what is wrong with them.

"They're electro-mechanical devices with a lot of moving parts and a lot of computer parts, while older ones have relays, so the repairs can be anything from a wire off or a burnout after a fire," he said.

Some of the machines are brought in because their owners are hoping to rediscover their youth and remember happy times in rugby clubs, student bars or arcades.

Others have particular stories behind them.

"A gentlemen came to me who had a table which he wasn't bothered about – but it had close links to his father and he wanted it restored, money no object," Mr Squires said.

"Another abiding story is I restored a machine which used to be in the Magnet Bowling Alley down Mill Road, Cambridge, which my uncle proposed to my aunt over."

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