ROANOKE, Va. – The Roanoke pinball museum at Center in the Square is just a bit better after a visit from a man who travels the country playing and fixing the old machines.
Nic Schell started learning how to fix the machines about four years ago.
“I took one apart. Didn't electrocute myself somehow and then continued to experiment with it and get tips online, and then over time developed day-to-day a way work on them,” he said.
Then he was laid off from his job and began looking for what to do next.
“And I thought maybe, I'll just ask the internet if they need any help with some of these classic games. And a map of America lit up and I just connected the dots all the way around. I thought, "I'll turn this into a tour,” Schell said.
Schell, who refers to himself as a “traveling pinball vagabond,” has been on the road ever since.
He says he likes the museum at Center in the Square and said he thought Roanoke -- among the many cities he's visited, is still up and coming -- the "not quite discovered place yet."