AIKEN, S.C. (WJBF) – Radioactive Pinball Arcade is one of the newest places to have a good time in Downtown Aiken.
The business features vintage pinball arcade machines as well as arcade games.
For “Your Hometown Road Trip” we talked with the owner, Eric Edwards about what it’s like working his dream job.
What is Radioactive Pinball Arcade?
Radioactive Pinball is our collection, our personal collection of video games from every era, and pinball machines from 2023 all the way back to 1949.
The collection just kind of outgrew our home. So, here we are, We’re sharing our collection with the community.
What was it like collecting so many machines?
It started with the house. The house eventually filled up. Then we decided to make the garage into an arcade.
It eventually filled up, and then the shop out back became an arcade, and then we got so many
the shop just stored the ones that were broken down and packed up, and yeah, that’s the way it’s gone.
Where you always a gamer?
No, I was not always a gamer. As a matter of fact, I had a Nintendo, but my brother was much better than I was at it, so I didn’t really like playing.
It wasn’t really enjoyable to get beat up so much. But, anyway, some friends of ours out in Florida took us to a pinball museum, and it was like this.
You just go in and you pay once and you just have a ball. So it doesn’t matter if you lose
because you can just play again, and we just had a great time.
So, we got one of our own, and one, just like the gremlins getting wet, they just seem to turn
into more and more and more, and eventually here we are.
Why do you think people love these games?
Of course, the adults remember pinball, and it’s nice for them to come in and see the evolution of it up to these new Internet-connected machines, plus, of course, having the machines they remember.
Radioactive Pinball Arcade is located in Aiken, South Carolina.
