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Dr Pinball says the machines are making a comeback

Jozef Hall/BBC Mark Squires, with short white hair, wearing a grey polo shirt, standing in front of three colourful pinball tablesJozef Hall/BBC
"I just like bringing them back from the dead – they give a lot of harmless fun," said Mark Squires

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".

Jozef Hall/BBC Two colourful pinball arcade games tables – one based on Pirates of the Caribbean and the other on Black JackJozef Hall/BBC
Some of the machines reflect popular films and TV programmes of their time, including Star Trek, Judge Dredd and Pirates of the Caribbean

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'."

Jozef Hall/BBC A side view of Mark Squires with short white hair, wearing a grey polo shirt, in front of a Dirty Harry pinball machineJozef Hall/BBC
Mark Squires enjoys playing pinball machines as well as fixing them

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.

Jozef Hall/BBC Mark Squires with short white hair, wearing a grey polo shirt, wearing an eye shield and holding a soldering iron in his right hand while looking down at an electronic board on a workbenchJozef Hall/BBC
Some fixes involve repairing a single wire while other customers ask for a full restoration, which can take months to complete

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.

Jozef Hall/BBC Mark Squires with short white hair, wearing a grey polo shirt, smiling at the camera, holding up his right hand and pointing to wires and connections inside a pinball machineJozef Hall/BBC
At a push, Mark Squires reckons the 1990s Monty Python game is his favourite – he has restored five of them and owned three over the years

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."

Jozef Hall/BBC A close-up of a very colourful Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine table, with a yellow background, writing and lights glowingJozef Hall/BBC
Mark Squires went on a hiatus from pinball while he worked and had children, "but fell down the rabbit hole again" when he was asked to fix a machine

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