Vince Scalabrino
Founder, Chief Curator
Vince Scalabrino is a lifelong champion of interactive entertainment whose career bridges coin-op nostalgia and console innovation. He was the founder and proprietor of Tokens & Tankards, Chicagoland’s beloved “gastrocade” that paired craft ales with rows of restored arcade classics and a cabinet filled with vintage and modern tabletop games. Vince carefully curated a game room of more than 40 machines, from a pristine Dragon’s Lair upright to a fully restored Swords of Fury pinball, transforming the over 100-year-old venue into a living museum that drew both high-score hunters and casual pint-sippers.
Before opening Tokens & Tankards, Vince spent time in the console video game industry, serving as Producer on Activision’s Tony Hawk: Ride and its follow-up Tony Hawk: Shred.
Today, Vince fuses his dual perspective: arcade caretaker and AAA studio producer, into Atlas Arcadia – a digital archive dedicated to preserving the stories, spaces, and sounds of coin-op culture. He also leads product strategy as a Group Product Manager at TCGplayer, eBay’s collectibles subsidiary, where he’s spent over five years bringing deep category expertise to the collectibles space. When he isn’t doing that, you’ll find him cataloging tokens, interviewing industry legends, chronicling arcade history, or chasing his kids’ high scores in his basement arcade. Wherever playable history lives, Vince is there—coin ready.
David Bishop
Co-Founder, Chief Evangelist Emeritus
David Bishop has spent four decades turning joystick joy into large-scale experiences that connect millions of players. He cut his teeth in the booming arcades of the early ’80s as a gameroom tech, then rocketed up the ranks to lead operations for industry titans ATARI GAMES and NAMCO USA. By the late ’90s, David was steering a galaxy of more than 3,000 game rooms and family-fun hot spots—names every coin-op kid remembers: Aladdin’s Castle, CyberStation, Time-Out, Space Port, Fun & Games, Diamond Jim’s, and Barrel of Fun.
Never content to press “Start” on yesterday’s formula, David pioneered destination-driven concepts that blended dining, flight simulators, PC LAN arenas, VR, AR, and full-scale indoor theme parks long before “immersive entertainment” became a buzzword. His forward-thinking approach earned multiple U.S. patents covering the business of play spaces.
As NAMCO’s resident “Chief Evangelist,” David became the partner of PAC-MAN himself. Together, they championed the cultural impact of games at trade shows, museums, and conferences around the world. Today he channels that same spirit through Think Social Play, an advisory service helping venues fuse technology and face-to-face fun to keep guests—literally—coming back for more.
Based in Chicagoland, David shares life with his endlessly supportive wife and daughter—and yes, he still logs controller time every single day! Wherever new frontiers of play appear, you’ll find David first in line, coin ready.
Preston Burt
Co-Founder, Chief Connector
Preston Burt is a communications professional who has spent decades of his life building community around a shared passion. A lifelong arcade enthusiast, he purchased his first stand-up game as a college student and later supercharged his collection by learning to repair broken and neglected classics. Preston co-hosted Gameroom Junkies, one of the first arcade/pinball podcasts before bringing together other area collectors and enthusiasts to co-found the Atlanta Pinball League.
Preston’s writing about arcade games and gaming culture has been featured in Paste Magazine, GeekDad, RETRO Video Game Magazine, SyFy and more. He has been interviewed in print by the Wall Street Journal and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and on camera for FOX and ABC television. You may have also seen Preston and his Ms. Pac-Man machine on an episode of Discovery Channel’s Auction Kings. In 2014, with a small group of close friends, Preston co-founded the Southern-Fried Gaming Expo (SFGE) which now attracts nearly 10,000 attendees from across the globe.
Living outside Atlanta with his high school sweetheart wife and two daughters, when he’s not planning for SFGE or building Atlas Arcadia Preston can often be found in his basement arcade marveling in wonder that his childhood dreams came true.
