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Slashdot Visits the Seattle Pinball Museum (Video)
People who hear about the Seattle Pinball Museum tend to say things like, "Seems like a must-visit destination in Seattle," and, "Why did no one tell me about this place!??!" Timothy Lord, Slashdot Editor and Video Host, agrees. Watch the video to see a huge grin on Timothy's face. And if you ever get to the Seattle Pinball Museum yourself, you'll probably have a smile on your face, too.
Used to play one old machine in the college commons, racking up free games and could play for over an hour.
Oddly enough, it was the same machine Bill Budge based Raster Blaster on.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I can't believe they showed Gorgar. I still remember playing that for the first time back in the 80's. It was the first game I can remember that "talked". Certain hits played a ghoulish voice.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
We have on in Georgetown in DC in a mall, but it's kind of small and unimpressive.
I've played the silver ball.
From Soho down to Brighton,
I must have played them all.
But I ain't seen nothing like him
In any amusement hall.
That deaf, dumb and blind kid
Sure plays a mean pinball!
I assume you all broke out into song. Or did you forget your Doc Martens?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Do they have The Addams Family?
One trick these pinball museums seem to miss is making them actual museums rather than just freeplay arcades, I'd love for them to have more informative exhibits, maybe a glass fronted workshop with someone restoring and repairing machines, details about have various features work (bumpers, dot matrix displays etc).
I'm curious if anyone knows how it compares to the National Pinball Museum, recently reopened in Baltimore, MD.
I think I just don't have the nostalgia gene.
Austin, TX has "Pinballz Arcade" - 13,000 sq ft of pinball machines old and new. They don't do the $10 entrance & unlimited games model - but a lot of the games are only a quarter. Oh and it's BYOB.
Pinball remains my favorite arcade game. There is just so much satisfaction in dealing with the elegant and complex physics engine that manages the movement of that silver ball, coupled with really excellent, lag-free, glitch-free graphics. Hard to believe that the physics have been in place since the vacuum tube era, when relays and solenoids managed the logic and tracked the score.
http://visualizecommonsense.com/
I really liked pinball games like Gorgar & Pinbot, but my favorite of all time was Black Knight 2000. I haven't really cared for pinball games ever since most of them abandoned the plunger in favor of a trigger system.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Leering at smooth, shiny balls, pulling out a long, stiff knob and practically humping the machine as you tweak its weird side-nipples - wow, what a faget game that is.
I never really played real pinball machines. Once or twice, but I've never been good enough at them (or arcade video games, for that matter) to get my money's worth from a quarter...
But I've long loved pinball games on computers... My favorite has got to be Night Mission.
Nowadays I mostly play one with a sea mission theme on the iPad, along with the Slayer one.
the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park, NJ - http://silverballmuseum.com/ Took my son up there for an overnight trip last year. He thought there would be more video games, but still had a good time.
Despite less-than-pleasant memories of living with my stepfather, my fondest one is of playing the pinball machine he had in the house.
It was called OXO, and had a tic-tac-toe board as its main feature. The "object" of the game, of course, was to win ttt.
There was a button on the board centered between the angled bumpers just above the flippers which would light up the bottom center square, and the angled bumpers themselves, iirc, would switch what that button would put in the square - X or O.
Sometimes the ball would move so fast - going from one bumper, over the button, and hitting the other bumper - that the electronics would get a little confused and put both the X and the O into the square.
I must have played that thing for hours at a time in my Junior High days. I almost cried when he sold it prior to moving to a new home.
Silverball Museum in Ashbury Park, NJ
Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, NV
I went once, not long ago. I'm of the opinion it's stretching the term "museum" to its breaking point. I wish they had more museum-like displays and the owner, when I asked, said they're working on funding. The place is well worth a visit for any pinball fan but don't expect too much "history" other than old machines.
You know the thing about UDP jokes? I don't care if you get it or not.
The Pinball Hall Of Fame in Las Vegas.
250 to 300 machines from 1934 to Today.
All proceeds to charity. Donated over $500,000 Last year.
http://www.pinballmuseum.org/
las vegas pinball hall of fame has a lot of games old and new.
It's always nice to hear about an arcade, and this is the first one I've heard of that actually gets tax payer money rather than having absurd tax stamps on each machine (as well as the operators paying normal income taxes). Too bad they did that by calling it an "art". Might as well call it a sport and get Seattle to build you a stadium. But more than 30 games just isn't all that impressive, I've been in larger arcades, and there are some truly fantastic and much larger collections out there.
I'm also rather disappointed by the $10 bucks to get in, play all you can approach. Doing that takes away from one of the key concepts of pinball, trying to win a free game. It would be like having slot machines on free play but with no payout, would get boring fast. OK, not quite that bad, but I'm certainly not going to go out of my way to see this the next time I'm in Seattle.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Have a look at http://outlane.ch.
If you're in or near Zurich this is open twice a month but well worth a visit if you're around.
I was recently at a great pinball museum in Asbury Park, NJ. It was called the Silver Ball Museum and they had over 200 machines. Some of them went back to the 30s, I believe. The oldest one I tinkered on was from 1950, I think. It's wild to play the really old ones.
Someone above mentioned Gorgar. Amusingly, I ended up playing that one probably the most. It is an older table, but I still think it is a great one. :-) The Addams Family is also a classic... if you want to get a bit more modern. ;-)
btw... here is the link to the site for the place in Asbury Park... it is right near the Stone Pony, btw... http://silverballmuseum.com/
"Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^
If you get the chance, stop by Laser Reflections.
In the Mid Hudson Valley, New York ,in a town called Beacon this would be illegal. Just a few years ago a guy opened a shop very much like this. Three weeks after opening the police paid him a visit telling him that pinball machines and arcade games are against ordnance and illegal in the town of Beacon. He must shut his doors and pay a $1000 dollar fine for every day he was/is open. The owner had no idea of this ordnance and tried to appeal, and get the ordnance off the books with no luck. So he moved his place across the river to Newburg. Talk about stuck in the past..
Maybe Kevin Bacon can make a movie about this where he is a pinball wizard and he shows the town is it OK to play pinball and video games.
"Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^
Eight on the Break is pretty good. They usually have about 10 pins that rotate.
thebreak.net
People who say "money does not buy happiness" are just people without money trying to make themselves feel better.
Don't you mean Lesbian, Ghey, Bisexual, and TRY-sexual?
What a dimwit...
Flap Top Johnny's in Cambridge, close to M.I.T. http://www.flattopjohnnys.com/ Best pinball experience evahr.
http://www.vpforums.org/ VP and pinmame are both open source
I pay a visit to the world's second smallest biscuit museum. And have a cup of tea.
I'll be tweeting, facebooking, videoing and blogging about it next week, be sure not to miss it.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it