This magical place is 1/3 museum, 1/3 arcade and 1/3 trip down memory lane. We visited over the 4th pf July weekend and let me tell you, we couldn't wait. Both of us spent seemingly endless quarters on these machines in our younger days. I never quite reached the level of "wizard" but I was pretty good. We never thought the place would be as packed with people as it was. Who knew pinball would still be so popular? Since I had a "boat load" of quarters in my car already, we didn't need to visit the change machines.
When we entered the museum, the sites and sounds of my childhood came racing back to me. We did a lap around the place, mapping out what machines they had and which ones we wanted to play. Sadly, one of my favorite machines was not operational and every time we played one machine and tried to move to another, it was occupied so we didn't really get to play the machines we had our sights on.
I did get the chance to play my very first machine that I enjoyed as a kid - "Spanish Eyes." It was nostalgic albeit a bit simplistic compared to some of the other machines with all the sights and sounds and ramps, oh my! Speaking of, one of the things you can't hear are any of the machines' sounds due to all the people and other machines. Having had a pinball machine in my home at one point, you really do get to hear all of the sounds and that makes it a bit more engaging and fun. We also played some doubles on a few machines and had a blast.
The place has a huge variety of really old carnival games, early pinball machines and arcade games up through to some of the more advanced machines that were popular just before the arcades (sort of) died off.
Another nice thing is that the place is air conditioned! Which I mention only because it was 114 degrees outside and a bit humid on top of that. So it made our visit more pleasant. Best places to park are either under the one shade tree or directly next to the building's East side. In that triple digit weather, coming out to a warm car is MUCH better than a otherwise mobile oven.
What a great idea... have a huge collection of machines that still generate income but don't call it an arcade - call it a museum. So glad that old school pinball and arcade games are still popular. Brings a happy tear to many eyes. (sniffle)