Wundery Plus subscribers can listen to business movers early and ad free right now.

Join Wundry Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple Podcasts. One It's early 1981 at a dive bar in New York City.

34-year-old Minnauru Arakawa picks his way past tables and the outstretched legs of patrons to an

arcade machine wedged in the corner of the room.

Menoru runs Nintendo of America and recently established company selling Japanese arcade machines in the United States.

The cabinet on the back wall here, though, is just on loan to the bar as a triad,

and Menoru has come to see how it's performing.

Pulling a set of keys from his pocket,

Minoru unlocks a cabinet

and then eases the door open carefully.

When he was last here,

the machine contains so many quarters

that the coin spilled out onto the floor as soon as he

opened it up. But today the cashbox is almost empty. Confused, he scrapes out a handful of quarters

and counts them. There's barely more than five dollars.

Menauru locks up the cabinet and walks to the bar. Excuse me. The manager stops

cleaning glasses and gives Menauru a cheerful green.

Hey, Manauru, nice to see you.

Have you emptied radar scope since I was last in?

I just opened the cashbox and there's almost nothing in there.

No, I haven't touched it.

Oh, well I was hoping you had to maybe clean the quarters so the coins didn't jam.

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