The Hunt for the Elusive Game Tech
Stop Looking for Experience and Start Hiring for Aptitude
Owner of Planet Novak & The Novak Network
As I travel the country for the Novak Roadshow and talk to family entertainment center owners, there is one question that comes up more than any other: “How do I find a great game technician?”
You can put an ad out for a general manager, attractions supervisor or an event coordinator, and get dozens of resumes from people with transferable skills. But where do you go to find a great game tech? There is no “Arcade Tech 101” degree at the local university. There is no national certification program. If you are waiting around for a resume to land on your desk that says, “5 years of experience repairing coin-op amusement machinery,” you are going to be waiting a very long time.
If you want to solve your tech problem for good, you have to stop looking for experience and start hiring for aptitude.
Turning Hobbies Into Hires
Look for the tinkerers. Look for the people whose resumes list hobbies like building custom gaming PCs, repairing old pinball machines, or fixing small electronics. Some of the best arcade technicians in the country started out as automotive mechanics, HVAC apprentices or those cell phone repair kids.
They already understand the basics of electricity, logic and troubleshooting. They know how to use a multimeter and they aren’t afraid of a soldering iron. If they have the mechanical and electrical aptitude — and more importantly, the right attitude — you can teach them the arcade side of the business.
The Fast-Track Accelerator
Of course, you might worry that you don’t have the time to teach them those arcade-specific basics from scratch. This is where you leverage industry-specific training.
If you find a candidate with the right baseline aptitude, look into sending them to Betson Technical University (BTU). They run an incredible two-day, hands-on training and certification program around the country that covers everything from digital multimeter usage and basic soldering to electric circuit theory and advanced troubleshooting. It is the perfect training accelerator to take a passionate hobbyist and rapidly give them the structured, practical arcade foundation they need to protect your game room.
Another gold-standard industry resource is the AMOA Regional Tech School. Their next hands-on session is coming up right around the corner on July 21-22, 2026, in Chicago. This program is specifically designed to boost technical skills and cut downtime. Over two intensive days, instructors walk students through highly practical, real-world sessions on crane tech, pinball machines, jukeboxes, payment systems, ATMs, and even Valley pool table recovering. Sending your new recruit to a focused program like this is the ultimate shortcut to turning raw mechanical curiosity into route-ready competence.
The Stopgap Solution
But what if you are completely buried in down games right now and don’t have the luxury of time to recruit and train a new tinkerer? If your floor is in crisis mode, look for a local stopgap.
Reach out to a local route operator in your area. These businesses live and die by game maintenance and almost always have experienced, road-ready technicians on their payroll. Often, you can work out a deal to pay them a fee to send one of their techs over for a day or two. This is a highly effective, fast-acting lifeline that can help you clear your repair backlog and get your top earners back online immediately while you work on building your own long-term staffing solution.
Build the Framework, Don’t Rely on “Magic”
The biggest mistake operators make once they find a decent tech is letting that tech build an informational silo. If your technician is the only person who knows how to calibrate a crane claw, fill a pusher or reboot a card reader, you are running a vulnerable business. If they walk out the door or call out sick during the busy summer rush, your arcade floor paralyzes.
As a consultant, I tell operators that they must build a framework around their tech department. This means creating a standardized technical handbook. You need daily, weekly, and monthly preventative maintenance checklists that are so clear a 16-year-old floor attendant can follow them.
When your tech fixes a recurring issue, have them document it. Turn the fix into an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). By structuring your tech room with clear checklists and write-up forms for machine errors, you turn “tribal knowledge” into a repeatable system. Suddenly, training a junior tech or a floor helper becomes manageable because the system guides them.
Systemizing Your Success
At the end of the day, solving your tech problem is about building a repeatable system, not finding a magician. If you are struggling with downtime and don’t have the internal structure to recruit, train or organize a technical team, focus on creating those standardized templates first. A simple binder with daily checklists and a basic “how-to” guide for common errors will change your operations overnight.
Taking the mystery out of game repair is the single best way to reduce machine downtime, protect your bottom line, and ensure your arcade is scaled for growth. Once the system is in place, the fear of the next breakdown disappears.
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Clint Novak is the co-owner of Planet Novak and the founder of Novak Amusement Solutions and the Novak Network. He provides a bridge between high-level strategy and boots-on-the-ground reality for FEC operators. Visit him online at www.novakamusementsolutions.com or email [email protected].