Video game visionary

By TOM BAYLES
tom.bayles@heraldtribune.com

BRADENTON -- It would be easy to surmise that all John Russo does is play video games for a living.

But that wouldn't convey the amount of work that Russo has to do every year to acquire, restore and resell more than 900 or so 1980s-era video games and pinball machines from the dawn of the digital era.

Starting with two machines acquired in a trade for some water beds 20 years ago, Russo has built a company like few others in Florida.

Apollo Amusements has tapped into a wave of nostalgic consumerism created by baby boomers who now have money to spend on toys -- and will spend big to recapture a piece of their youth.

"It's like I sell dope. Once people get one, they want more and more and more," said the 41-year-old. "They come in here, and they are 15 years old again."

"Breakout," "Asteroids" and "Space Invaders" machines -- the ones actually in the first video game arcades in the 1980s -- line the walls of his three Apollo Amusement stores along with rows of pinball machines like "Centaur," "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and that one with the guys from Kiss on the back glass.

Business has grown every year. Russo's gross annual sales just passed the $2 million mark.

"It was not my plan about how I was going to make my way in the world," he said. "But I dig it."

Pole Position memories

Memories drive Russo's business.

Pretty much anybody over the age of 35 has them, those memories of hours and hours of time spent in the bowling alley or pizza joint divesting an allowance 25 cents at a time to save the world from evil, drive faster than humanly possibly or go into space and repel ghastly minions from afar.

Video arcades still exist, but the rise of the Nintendos and PlayStations has largely kept newer generations home to play the latest video offerings.

So Russo provides the real deal: the "Pole Position" game you sit in; the "Star Wars" game with a cockpit-like yolk; the "Centaur" pinball machine with that ominous voice that says "bad move, human" when the ball goes out of play.

The at-home game consoles are "just not the same," Russo said. "My customers are the people who want it to be just like it was when they were a kid. " 'Close, but ...' will not do."

Russo began Apollo by chance.

While delivering a water bed in the mid-1980s, he noticed his customer had a Defender game and a Royal Flush pinball machine. A water beds-for-video-games trade later, Russo became a collector.

He, too, caught the bug, and soon video games and pinball machines were everywhere in his house. First they filled up a den, then a garage, then the living room and the dining room. When games forced his son out of his bedroom, Russo knew it was time to start selling off pieces of his newfound passion.

In 1987 he placed an ad in a local paper for Ms. Pac-Man and got offers from throughout Florida. Over the next few years he sold more and more games on nights and weekends.

"We went through hell at the house because neighbors would complain that cars were coming to and from the house. My friends would come to my house for free instead of going to Chuck E. Cheese's and paying to play," Russo said. "And you have to deal with every kid in the neighborhood being at your house."

Russo quit the water bed place in 1993.

Apollo has grown to have retail outlets in Bradenton, Brandon and Fort Lauderdale. These days a growing amount of sales -- 15 percent -- are done online.

He stocks 1,500 games at any given time, either in the stores or warehouses throughout South Florida. He also sells neon beer and motorcycle signs, classic wooden bars, foosball tables and even one of those shuffleboard-court-looking things with sand on it where you slide a metal puck down to the other end.

If he doesn't have it, he can find it given enough time.

If you don't want to buy it, you can rent it: three machines from his stable of rentals for three days, delivered and picked up for $499.

The video games average $800 to $1,200, but every month Russo offers a $299 special. Pool tables run about $1,200. Card tables range from $200 to $3,000. Vegas-style slots start at $199 and go up to $2,500. A sturdy foosball table is less than $1,000. The neon signs cost $50 to $500.

His best seller is a new arcade console that features 90 vintage titles ranging from "Battlezone" to "Tempest" to "Missile Command." It's $2,999.

Apollo isn't the only place consumers can buy vintage video games, but the businesses are few and far between: Russo knows of five stores like his in the state, three of which he owns.

Others, however, sell their arcade wares online.

Playing on nostalgic notions is becoming more pervasive, especially with such things as concert acts and purchases made with disposable income, said Anand Kumar, associate professor of marketing at the University of South Florida's College of Business Administration,

"One of the reasons people buy nostalgic products is the emotional connections people have with those products," Kumar said.

"It's emotional bonding for consumers."

They come to him

Through the years, Russo's inventory has been acquired from bars closing, bowling alleys upgrading and video arcades refurbishing.

Now he's built such a network of contacts that wholesale sellers often come to him.

In the very beginning, however, he took the big risks that entrepreneurs are often forced to take.

More than a few times, he gave a friend $100 to borrow the friend's gun collection for a month. Russo would then pawn the guns for cash.

He had four weeks to find the video games and pinball machines he thought he could quickly turn, fix up and sell.

At the end of the month, he paid his pawn fees and gave the guns back to his friend. He never failed to return the collection on time.

Now he has a staff of 17, including the techs who tidy up the machines before resale.

The video games are the easiest to fix. There are three components -- the TV monitor, computer board and power supply -- and replacing one or the other is rather simple.

Pinball machines are a different story. They have countless moving parts that constantly wear out.

"It's so violent in there," Russo said. "Everything has a breaking point. It's just a matter of time until you find that breaking point."

In retooling a pinball machine workers first remove all of the bumpers, targets and components from the wooden playing surface and strip off the dirt and waxes that have accumulated over the years.

They then test and repair or replace all the bells and whistles, install new rubber on the bumpers, slide in new lightbulbs and replace the pinball, which costs a whopping $7 for a top-of-the-line, 4-ounce stainless steel orb.

Several companies make the parts, but other times Russo's techs have to cannibalize another machine of the same type to get what is needed.

On a video game the joystick is most likely to fail; on a pinball machine it's the flipper.

"The first question I get isn't, 'How much is it?,' it's 'What happens when it breaks?', or 'What happens when I get tired of it?'"

If it breaks Russo will send a technician out to fix it for $59.

If the customers gets bored with it Russo will take the machine back and issue a partial credit for a different game.

"I always plan on seeing my machines again."

'I want old school'

Some of Russo's best friends began as his customers. Those who buy vintage arcade games tend to have the same interests as the guy who sells them, it seems.

One of those happy customer/friends is Sandie LoBoe, who with her husband, Sam, has bought enough of Russo's stuff to fill a 4,000-square-foot game room at their Miami home.

"Whatever you need he gets you," she said. "He's unbelievable in the way he does business."

The couple have spent more than $100,000 on their game room, which features Frogger, Ms. Pac-Man, RoboTron, NASCAR pinball, linked race-car consoles, a video golf game and video poker machines.

"I don't even know how to play half the new games out there now," the 39-year-old mother said. "I want old school. I know how to play old-school games."

Russo also provided the couple a life-size replica of the Blues Brothers, neon Budweiser signs and a Coca-Cola machine featuring a life-size photo of legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt.

"It's so much fun," Sandie LoBoe said. "We just went a little overboard, but we love it."