05/24/2026
A week ago, one of the coolest machines in our arcade went down. Our Incredible Technologies Virtual Pool machine — which, as far as we can tell, is a prototype and possibly 1 of only 6 ever made — suffered a hard drive failure. The game would start to boot, but it wouldn’t fully load into attract mode before crashing back out.
Unfortunately… we were boneheads and never cloned the hard drive when we had the chance.
What followed was a full week of frustration. We tried recovery software, imaging attempts, cloning tools, Linux recovery programs, and just about every trick we could think of trying to save the original drive. Some attempts froze, some partially worked, and some failed completely. It was one of those projects that starts eating all your free time and slowly drives you insane.
Finally, we decided to text Doc Mack from Galloping Ghost Arcade.
Three minutes later, he responded.
Not only did he point us in the right direction, but he also told us where to find the files we needed and how to correctly set up a replacement hard drive for the machine. From start to finish, it took about an hour after that — and we officially brought the machine back from the dead.
Seriously, huge shoutout from The Gamer’s Garage Arcade to Galloping Ghost Arcade for helping save a piece of arcade history. That kind of knowledge-sharing and willingness to help is a big part of what makes the arcade community awesome.
Now our entire IT row is finally back in action again. 🔥
📍 The Gamer’s Garage Arcade
225 Lincoln St. Marseilles, IL
🕒 Open Saturdays & Sundays
3PM – 9PM
🎮 $15 admission • All games set to FREE PLAY
