Jack Guarnieri, known throughout the business as Jersey Jack, is celebrating 50 years in coin-op today. (You may already know that if you’ve read his recent RePlay column, which he’s been writing since October 2004.) Jack’s journey began as a pinball mechanic, repairing electromechanical machines in college game rooms in the New York City area.
“I was fortunate to become an operator, securing some locations and buying games, and after moving to New Jersey, I opened my first arcade, followed by a larger amusement center,” Guarnieri explained. He later worked as a consultant and then general manager for Mondial Distributing.
He launched pinballsales.com in 1999 and began selling commercial pinball machines and arcade games to the consumer market. He’d go on to partner with the likes of Betson and Elaut (becoming the latter company’s CEO and minority owner for a period).
In January 2011, he founded Jersey Jack Pinball to create full-featured, mechanical-action pinball machines with cutting-edge technology. From The Wizard of Oz and Elton John to Avatar and the most recent Harry Potter, the pinball company is known for its exceptional games backed by some of the industry’s hottest licenses. (They’ve also built a well-liked original game called Dialed In.)
“The last 50 years have flown by, but I can honestly say I still have the same passion for the industry and its games that I always have,” Guarnieri said. “This is especially true when I see people enjoying games I contributed to. As I continue my coin-op journey, I look forward to seeing you around and consider every day in this industry a blessing.”
