About us

In Memoriam: Jim (James) D. Palson - January 22, 1969 - October 21, 2023

Welcome to JT Amusements! 

We are a small business located in the greater Harrisburg, PA area which specializes in the sales of pinball machines and parts from all eras.  What drove us was simple – the love of the game.  That love continues enabling us to provide the best quality parts and games at reasonable prices.

We’ve always enjoyed playing pinball since the mid-1970’s.  Even in the 90’s, we would take the time to drop a couple of quarters in pinball over a lunch break.  Fast forward to the 21st century.  Pinball machines became more like an endangered species, once most of the large arcades in our area downsized or closed.  So, what better way to enjoy pinball, if you can no longer find one, than to purchase a machine to play anytime in your own home.  That’s exactly what we did!  At the time, we never imagined that we would acquire a second, third, or fourth pinball machine, but it did happen.  And, it happened a lot!  After having to fix nearly every machine we acquired, we became very proficient at repairing them.  The great thing was that we enjoyed doing it, too!

Since then, repairing pinball machines had become a full time job, and JT Amusements was always here to serve those in need of pinball repair.   

We used to provide service, however, with the untimely passing of co-founder Jim Palson, we had to indefinitely suspend our service work.

In honor of Jim and his work, we’re aiming to preserve his legacy here, while continuing to offer pinball and coin operated machine parts.

Jim’s take on service was simple – whether a pinball machine was 5 or 50 years old, he could fix it.  And, Jim would come to fix it in your home.  There was no need to disassemble and drag a 250 lb. machine out of your house!  

Due to Jim’s extensive experience on all major pinball manufacturers and platforms, he has successfully made repairs where others have attempted and failed.  Likewise, Jim’s service territory extended into outreaching areas where others typically would not travel.  

The areas Jim would service included, but were not limited to: Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, Carlisle, and State College.  

The “service” tab includes an archive of our rate schedule and other applicable details of the service work we used to provide. 

Any pinball machine we sold was meticulously cleaned, polished, repaired, and tweaked.  Others would make the same claim, but we actually did it!  We would typically spend numerous hours in making our pinball machines an extremely enjoyable playing experience for our customers. 

Please click on the “our refurbishing process” tab for the details of what every one of our machines used to undergo.

We will continue to leave our online parts store available.  Check it out for all of those hard to find items.

Whether fixing or selling games as well as offering many parts for sale, we always made certain the customer was treated as we wanted to be treated.  This is what truly made JT Amusements everyone’s one stop for pinball machine repairs and sales in Central PA!

We will continue to offer NOS, new, used and hard to find pinball and coin operated parts, manuals and schmatics for sale.

Call us today at 717-564-1032.

 


 

Jim was also elsewhere on the web and a contributor to:

PinWiki – JimPal
RGP – Gott_Lieb (rec.games.pinball)
Pinside User: Gott_Lieb
Pinside Business: JT Amusements

Pinside In Memoriam Thread

IN MEMORIAM:  From Jimmy Rosen of Old Sled Works – November 9, 2015
 
“One of the many unique features of the Old Sled Works is our vintage penny arcade. We have over 50 arcade games from the 1920’s-1970’s that are meant to be played by our customers.
Periodically these machines need maintenance beyond what we can do in-house. 
 
We are fortunate to have the services of JT Amusements, a local pinball repair company. We try to use them on days we are closed so as not to interfere with our customers. Jim is here today taking care of a few issues.
 
JT Amusements specializes in the repair of new and old pinball machines and makes house calls throughout central PA. They like to remind owners of electronic pinball machines (1977 and newer) to check the batteries inside their machines, at least annually, as they can leak from age. The battery acid damages the various CPU boards inside leading to costly repairs.”
Jim Palson of JT Amusements fixing a pinball machine at Old Sled Works in Duncannon, PA - November 9, 2015
jim-palson-at-old-sled-works-fixing-a-vintage-claw-machine

IN MEMORIAM:  From Jimmy Rosen of Old Sled Works – May 4, 2012

Jim Palson from JT Amusements analyzing one of our vintage claw machines

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