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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.
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
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).
Er, apparently it's been moved to Baltimore as noted below.
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.
I haven't been (yet), but their site is here: http://www.nationalpinballmuseum.org/
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.
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/
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.
I'm curious if anyone knows how it compares to the National Pinball Museum, recently reopened in Baltimore, MD.
There seem to be a few places like this now. There is the one in las vegas: pinball hall of fame
The one in Baltimore you mentioned: national pinball museum
One I just found in California
The one the article mentions in Seattle
another I found in NJ
An article about several of these opening up around the country.
And if you are interested in playing I found a place in St. Louis CP Pinball.
Any other places people have found that are worth noting here?
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 ^_^
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..