Brookfield and the gaming world knows Doc Mack as a successful owner of Galloping Ghost, the largest arcade in U.S.
However, before all this success, at the beginning of his journey Mack was an introverted kid who did not like being around people.
He dropped out of high school in his freshman year, started homeschooling and began working in retail.
“My family knew I didn’t like going to school,” Mack said. “I was always on the honor roll, but I didn’t like being around people. I was very introverted and not very social.”
Despite his introversion, Mack always knew he wanted to work in the gaming industry. This path forced him to become more social and step out of his shell. Mack said he has been playing video games since he was four years old, and his first arcade was Asteroid, a 1979 space-themed multidirectional shooter arcade game.
“We were going out on a family vacation and stopped at a restaurant that happened to have Asteroid, and I was hooked ever since,” Mack said.
The idea to open an arcade came to Mack and his Galloping Ghost Production game developing team when they started to work on their arcade game, Dark Presence. The game is still in development, but they realized that when it does come out, they need to have a place to distribute it. However, arcades are dying.
So, Mack, now a member of the International Video Game Hall of Fame, decided to open up an arcade himself. He bought 114 acres for just $5,000, rented out a space, and hoped for the best.
Galloping Ghost arcade, located on Ogden Avenue, opened in 2010 and is the largest arcade in the U.S. He established a game developing company in 1994.
“Nobody knew what it was gonna really do, but it was incredibly successful from day one,” Mack said. “We had a line a couple of blocks long on opening night, and it was profitable after only about eight months. It was a tremendous thing to see such support for an arcade to be opening up.”
Having anxiety and being around many people was not easy for Mack at first, but he said that owning an arcade helped him to get out of his comfort zone.
“I remember I used to have tremendous anxiety when the arcade opened. Interviewing on TV the night before, I literally was grinding my teeth so hard with anxiety I cracked a tooth in half,” Mack said.
Now, Galloping Ghost arcades host live streams, helped more than 30 arcades to open around the world, and bring the community together.
“Arcades, especially Galloping Ghost arcade, are very social and the atmosphere is so relaxed and friendly that all that [anxiety] is gone away,” Mack said. “We do streams, and I talk in front of audiences, it’s changed my whole life.”
Mack said that the biggest expense of the arcade business is maintenance, and in a year, they spend over $70,000 in repairs and maintenance.
He also added that since many of these machines are old, it is hard to find professionals who can maintain them.
Working in the gaming world turned an introverted teenager who just liked to play games into a game developer who saved arcades from dying. Now, Galloping Ghost arcade brings people together through generations and is home to many game prototypes that can have a longer life.
“It’s made me who I am,” Mack said.
