Jump to content
Due to a large amount of spamers, accounts will now have to be approved by the Admins so please be patient. ×
IGNORED

Pacific Pinball Museum


Michi

Recommended Posts

I went to the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda (near San Francisco) last week. They have a really nice collection of machines there, from early Bagatelle games to the latest releases. There are around 80-100 machines all up. Except for five recent-model machines right at the entrance, for which you have to pay very reasonable prices (the Hobbit LE was $1 per game), and three or four of the museum pieces that are not playable, everything else is on free play. Entry fee is $15 for two hours, or $20 all day.

 

This is the current line-up of pay-to-play machines:

 

Recent.thumb.jpg.372f13adc90b064f64b035c82ff3701a.jpg

 

They have a superb collection of woodrails. I got to play Humpty Dumpty (the first machine with flippers) :) By today's standards, not the most exciting game and, due to the way the flippers are positioned, there is no way to gain control. You are reduced to just flapping away at the ball when it comes near one of the six flippers. But it was still fun to play!

 

Humpty.thumb.jpg.0eb8f972d1ea38b3358c57a007e63c6b.jpg

 

Some more woodrails:

 

Woodrails.thumb.jpg.c0f8649e2184ce2e4e70352be8b9fe0b.jpg

 

There are also loads of EMs from the sixties and seventies:

 

old1.thumb.jpg.9f075e82dfb9fc46e5b641a9dcb2b0f0.jpg old2.thumb.jpg.259244fcd35be4298e9c53e9667ff55b.jpg

 

old3.thumb.jpg.d37559d1230468d6f959598cc8378a81.jpg old4.thumb.jpg.26cd268beb7296f466f742ead5e5308c.jpg

 

old5.thumb.jpg.9ce1ea9d4da618bd638c925b5341270f.jpg old6.thumb.jpg.a446702e11b94116091bc59b955eb924.jpg

 

old7.thumb.jpg.2bbbb9d24e71d24c372236b7b7584d42.jpg

 

There are real rarities too, such as Punchy the Clown (only 103 of which were made):

 

rare.thumb.jpg.d94eea788d61128aa47e838faa319821.jpg

 

If you want to play solid state or DMD games, you are spoilt for choice:

 

SS1.thumb.jpg.d3d053503282bde6b9290c3161eab297.jpg

 

DMD1.thumb.jpg.35a1862385aabc05f7ee833f8cb2f122.jpg DMD2.thumb.jpg.bfbbd2e430c4262b5c0cc812acdab1fb.jpg

 

I didn't take photos of everything, there was just too much. But here is something that I thought was unusual enough to include. They have two Freedom machines, one is the SS version, the other is the EM version. Both are transparent:

 

Freedom1.thumb.jpg.2d362260fd51e2982aac543855463e30.jpg

 

Here are the playfield and backbox of the EM one:

 

Freedom2.thumb.jpg.3d692e161484c068c11ab8fa5095dfb4.jpg Freedom3.thumb.jpg.e7650d9af7813cd1d7b210a2f4f76923.jpg

 

And my son playing the SS version :)

 

Freedom4.thumb.jpg.acef4caf714afb80a15faf546ff0719f.jpg

 

The staff are really nice and are happy to chat at length about all sorts of pinball trivia and history. You'll find other collectibles there, such as playfields, a nice selection of backglasses, and original oil painting artwork that served as the basis of the backglass of many machines:

 

IMG_1030.thumb.jpg.5494fc88eb313570bde51cfbf4f19c43.jpg IMG_1031.thumb.jpg.0be77673ae20ac4c7532f904370dade3.jpg IMG_1032.thumb.jpg.643f9283721c8bc90f309ef9626ce988.jpg

 

If you happen to get near San Francisco, make it a point to see this place, it really is worth it!

 

Michi.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love it, thank you. How long is the drive from San Francisco?

 

Drive is well less than an hour from SF. Go over the Bay Bridge and towards Oakland, then take the Alameda exit. But don't do it during rush hour. (It'll be well over an hour then.)

 

Michi.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Truly awesome place it looks like. Would love to go there. I could spend all day there, but......................

 

Mrs - "What a waste of time"

 

Kids - "Come on dad, I wanna go to the playground."

 

Me - "See you all tonight for dinner."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...