The Village BBS
Florida Arcade and Pinball Collectors => Florida Arcade and Pinball Collectors => Topic started by: number six on November 06, 2023, 07:05:33 PM
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Got a few messages on this from different sources so it appears to be true.
AtariJim has passed away.
For those that don't know, Jim was an old school Arcade / Pinball repair guy and one of the corners of this community. After the arcades died out he started doing a lot of work for collectors and quickly became the go to tech in the area.
He was definitely a unique individual but his talent was amazing. I've seen him take a board, bend it a bit.. use some sixth sense of his then know what the problem was without even having to actually fire it up. I lived about 5 minutes from him and many times I'd drop something off only to get a call before I got home that he had already fixed it.
Jim loved to share his knowledge, you'll see his posts on our repair forums pretty frequently. He didn't suffer fools so make sure you ask a sensible question.. but if you did he usually had an answer. He also did some really great Q&A panels at the early GameWarp shows.. I do how those on video tape somewhere.
I'm sure he's playing his Class of 1812 in the sky now, I know this community lost something we'll never get back.
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This is truly sad. He was a tech wizard to say the least.
My first arcade in 2010 (Mortal Kombat II that I still have today) had monitor issues shortly after buying it. Took it to him from a suggestion and he had it fixed before I even left his garage.
RIP
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When I first got in the hobby while living in Plant City Jim was my go to guy for anything pinball tech related.
As others have said he was truly gifted when it came to repair, I can’t say I’ve met anyone since that had his level of knowledge.
We’ve lost a legend
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Sorry to hear, a good summary number six, sad
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What?!?
Jim was one of most talented repair techs I’ve ever met.
He will be sorely missed.
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Ive had the pleasure of knowing Jim for almost 20 years now. He was rough around the edges but once you got to know him he was a sweet man who absolutely loved life and his family. We would talk football, fishing, fireworks(one of his passions) cruises(he took several cruises a year) and family for hours. I never left his garage ONCE without learning something new. And if you showed a true interest in what he was saying/showing you about your busted game, he went out of his way to explain everything he was doing in detail. I did get the pleasure of stumping him once, and that is NOT an easy thing to do. I had a Williams Flash and the MPU was sending out a strange signal and the game was not booting up. 6 hours later, he found the crystal was bad, something he says he rarely ever runs into. We lost an incredibly intelligent and talented friend within our hobby. Godspeed you cranky goat! Thank you for being a wealth of knowledge and friendship all these years!
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RIP fellow tech :( never met him always heard good things.
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No way :'(! I am beyond depressed and sad now.
What a terrible loss for the village and his family.
Jim was am amazing guy and will be sorely missed by so many!
:'( :'( :'(
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Unfortunately, it's true. My girlfriend lives on the same street, so I had already heard that he was in Stage 4 cancer. As everyone here has already said, he was an amazing technician, and as rough as sandpaper until you broke through his grouchy force field. I still remember calling him for status of a game and going to voice mail, listening to his long and crazy answering machine message. Jim was a hoot and often times seen wondering around in a speedo after hanging out in his pool! He totally shopped out my STTNG bringing it back to life, and while in his garage I saw his amazing work on a Scared Stiff that was sent from far up north for him to bring back to life. He had that kind of far and wide reputation. He was generous with his neighbors and known for putting tree fruit at the end of his driveway for anyone who wanted it. I live 2 miles from his house and brought him over one day to look at an old Batman Forever. By the way, that took a lot of convincing because he preferred games brought to him. He violently jerked the playfield out and within 60 seconds figured out the problem. He was that amazing!
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His wife has reached out and working on sorting out liquidating his games/parts, please respect the family, she will reach out to me when she is ready, Celebration of life will be during FPF, but as soon as I have the details I will share it, I will be leaving FPF to attend and then returning to FPF.
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RIP AJ…
I 1st met Jim in the mid to late 90’s when he was a manager for Gameroom Superstores f/k/a: Apollo Amusements. They had a smaller warehouse near the Sarasota airport in the airport mall.
He was a “real†arcade tech and “real†arcade manager. He was extremely brilliant at anything arcade related. I could honestly listen to him for hours. He would post on RGVAC / Usenet back before the BBS and was a great resource to all.
Jim helped me run my small but full scale route almost 2 decades ago but geez’ it seems like yesterday.
He was hands down the smartest tech I’ve known in 30+ years of collecting.
I was and still am very appreciative of all his contributions to the hobby and the coin-op industry.
I’ll have a cold Yuengling a little extra early for ya’ tomorrow Jim.
Big Al
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I never met the guy, but always heard he was truly a good tech.
Sending my condolences to his family and friends.
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His wife has reached out and working on sorting out liquidating his games/parts, please respect the family, she will reach out to me when she is ready, Celebration of life will be during FPF, but as soon as I have the details I will share it, I will be leaving FPF to attend and then returning to FPF.
FPF should have something in honor or him during the event for those that want to attend. Only fitting.
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It saddens me to hear this but I know the cancer was bad. My thoughts are with him and his family during this difficult time.
Atari Jim was such a character. I learned so much from watching him bring countless games back to life.
Who would have known that this tough biker wearing cut-off jean shorts drinking a beer at 8am would all grow on us and give back so much to the community.
In memory of Jim, may he rest in peace. He will be deeply missed.
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RIP, atari jim. godspeed.
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RIP Jim. He was a true asset to the community. I brought him pieces of hacked up vids, mind-bogleing troubled pins, and he always had a fix. He was rhe best, and what a resource to have at my finger tips when I lived in Valrico. I was warned early on that he could be gruff, but I was always straight with him and told him when I had screwed something up and I never was on the receiving end of any of his sterness.
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RIP AtariJim
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RIP Atari Jim :(
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RIP.
Yah, he was a character but in a good way.
His level of skill and depth of knowledge was pretty amazing...
I don't know how many games I brought to him where he would gripe and lecture me and then by some magic fix the thing and it would never have issue again.
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My deepest condolences to his family and friends. While I did not know him personally. I have always heard of his expertise and willingness to help. This is a tremendous loss for our community.
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Jim was a solid dude.
There was never any bullshit with him.
Everything came straight up, without any crap or drama.
I appreciate that kind of person.
You will be missed.
RIP.
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Legend. He was a truly skilled troubleshooter. RIP Jim.
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Hard for me to process, he was a great person. Helped me out numerous times with my stuff. When I used to work for an aquarium we had a pin setup to take quarters and the money went to the turtles. Jim would actually drive down on his own dime and refused to take any money to fix it a couple of times. He loved fishing but also loved the oceans. I just told my wife last week that next time we were up that way we should see him, sadly that won't happen. Got to see him quite a few times in his short-shorts. ;D
To me he was always kind and helpful and I will always think of him when driving up by Tampa.
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Terrible news.
I never had Jim do any tech work as he was simply too far away to drop something off and then have to come back and get it later, but I did buy many games from him through the years. It was a pleasure buying games from Jim because you knew they had been "GONE THROUGH" and were going to be solid for some time to come. Ands the prices were always more than fair.
As many have already recounted, it was also just nice to hang out in the garage and talk shop with Jim as he was a true wealth of knowledge (not just about games).
He will be missed, for certain.
Steve
MM
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Overwhelmed with Grief.
What are truly special person.
Kindness and Generous Heart and soul.
I'll miss you, my friend.
Art
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RIP Atari Jim.
He will always be a legend in the hobby.
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RIP
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R.I.P. Jim, watching him work inspired me to get in to repairing games.
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I never got to use his services but it's good to hear from those that did, and knew him as a person too.
This has been a tough year for losing good people.
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Jim was a good dude, he definitely was abrasive and quirky, but he knew it and embraced it. I played poker with him a few dozen times at my brothers house, he always liked playing the games that pissed off the real poker players (4,4,4 stands out :)). T2000 on the board has a great story about one of his fireworks shows he put together, I can't recall the specific details, so not going to explain it, but suffice to say, it did not go as planned ;D
I will drink the shittiest beer I can in his honor based on one of our conversations: Once when we were talking about beer we kept on tap (he had a kegerator at his house like I did) he said: "You're a connoisseur of beer, I'm just a sewer".
RIP Jim.
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Atari Jim was a legend! The guy was a whiz and very fun to be around while he was telling me all about my machines and the repairs he made. I will miss him. Jim, I'm drinking a bud tall boy missing you right now. RIP
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Never met the man or know anything about him but as long as he was a fan of pinballs he's good in my book. God Bless.. He will join my 87yo mother who passed away last Thursday on the 2nd..
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Jim,
May you rest on the eternal cruise, in that cabin you love, at the back of the ship, where you can watch the wake off your balcony, forever.
We lost a friend, a teacher, actually a self taught Color Vector monitor technician and arcade repair wizard.
Jim’s garage was the crossroads of our community, a hub where you could meet fellow hobbyists picking up their Spy Hunter while you were waiting for Jim to replace a component on your Omega Race board. He took pleasure in showing you what he did to your game, and if you showed interest, teaching you how to fix your game without bringing it back to him in the future.
I’ve enjoyed many avocados from Jim’s trees and his tales of homemade fireworks shows using EM pinball motors as timers were priceless.
Thank you Jim for sharing your time and talents with us.
Love you Jim,
Marshall
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Dammit, he was a great tech, good friend, he will be missed by all… I’m sorry I haven’t been over there lately, I’ve been out of town working, and just got back in tonight, and read this posting. Still shocked, can’t believe it. That sucks. From now on anytime I see fireworks, I’ll be thinking of him looking down at the displays. RIP Jim
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Jim was the best solid state tech I have ever met. He was amazing and had fixed almost everything at least once. Many times I would bring a game describe the problem he would pull out the board replace several known problematic component and pop it back it and it would work. He was a wizard at all things electronic. He was brilliant in many things and we have many discussions in his garage about many topics while I waited and watched his magic as he fixed my basket case games. I never left without learning something new from him. Once he knew you were good people he was selfless with his knowledge and enjoyed teaching us pinball neophytes.
I will say Jim lived life to the fullest loved to cruise fish, drink beer, and putter and fix games in his garage. He definitely sucked the marrow out of life. I have been extremely down since hearing the news as I was planning on visiting him in the near future not because I had something that I couldn’t fix just missed chatting with him. Jim was an asset to our community and will be sorely missed. I wish him peace and rest I know he battled with the cancer for some time. Shame all around…every time I pass McIntosh road on I4 I will remember him fondly. Bon voyage Jim!
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RIP Jim. I dropped off every game imaginable and he fixed them all. I always like his expressions when I asked him a technical question. He really was a great guy and will be missed.
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Reading all these honest, heartfelt tributes to this amazing wizard of a man makes me tear up. He was such a great person and really could fix about anything.
He fixed an Asteroids high voltage issue for me no one else could figure out and also a number of monitors including G07's that were basket cases. A wizard.
He'll be so missed by so many.
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Sorry to hear that Jim passed away. God's peace be with his family.
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Never met Atari Jim, but always heard great things about him. He gave me technical advice on a few occasions with problems I had on pinball machines. We have definitely lost a great asset in this community. Prayers to him and his family.🙏🙏
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RIP AJ...
1st game I brought to him was Pharaoh. He worked on my Stingray and Meteor as well.
Was amazed how he clipped out an IC on the board, desoldered, then soldered in a socket, put in new IC while I was there and tested it in the game. I was amazed at how fast and confident he was at knowing/fixing the issue in what was less than 45 minutes while I waited.
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Rest Easy Jim… I did not know him but I can tell that many will miss him. Prayers to his family and friends.
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Very sad. RIP.
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Wow ! what a loss to the community . Atari jim was a great tech and guy >He helped me figure out some weird stuff whenever i would get stuck. What a loss to the hobby . He will be missed.