On a muggy September day in 2013 at around lunchtime, there was a sharp sound of an explosion in downtown Orlando. It was the warehouse on the east Jefferson street, which burnt into ashes. The police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances were already on their way to the location. Tom Roth, a native person, look everywhere around to look for the injured people. He couldn’t find any injured person but found electronic amusements -destroyed beyond repair.
How and who invented Whac-A-Mole?
Aaron Fetcher invented the electronic amusement called the Whac-A-Hole. Aaron is the one whose warehouse caught in the year 2013 in Orlando. Aaron visited a convention to sell his characters, but there, after an interaction, he made his mind to invent something once again. He probably borrowed the concept and developed a system of his own, which is popularly known as Whac-A-Mole.
He stated that every for the game, Whac-A-Mole goes to other people like his customers and carnival operator. According to him, Denny, the operator, approached Aaron and pointed out in the booth 13 where few Japanese were playing. They were involved in a new game where the animals are popping out of the holes, and they were whacking at them with a hammer. And, Denny wanted Aaron to build a new version of the same game.
Aaron created a similar game but just by using moles instead of just any other animal. He made the instrument using the system of air cylinders to push the moles up. Also, he made an audio-tape-driven pattern to dictate timings to the moles and gave the name to the instrument as “Whac-a-Mole.”
What happened after Aaron gave the prototype to Denny?
After the completion of the work, Aaron handed over the game to Denny, who turned to him and sold the prototype to Bob’s Space Racers in Daytona Beach. It was clear that Aaron was hustled out of his invention. However, the owner of Bob’s Space Racers, Bob Cassata, called Aaron to explain the working of the game. But Aaron refused to do the same, on which Bob told him that he and his would eventually figure it out. Despite everything that happened to him, Aaron showed no resentment to Denny or Bob; instead, he considered himself as a “rip-off guy.”
Aaron’s Creative Engineering Company
Aaron established his own company – Creative Engineering Company, to build stylish, unique, and animatronic characters for Disney to earn his living. He also developed a fortune teller- Lazlo, a Dracula, a guitar-playing bear (a full-sized animated character), and many more.
CEI was also producing, designing, and building fully animated shows, including Santa Claus Revue, “the Wolf Pack 5”, and “Confederate Critter Show.” All these shows became the basis for Aaron to become both wealthy and famous.
Summing up
Despite facing the multiple failures and an explosion in his warehouse, he never got disappointed and remained positive. He invented many items after losing everything to the fire in the warehouse. Still, he continued to develop just anything, but nothing ever panned out.