![]() All legacy exhibits are available on the museums website for perusal. In addition to the playable games, the museum also maintains a permanent exhibit of early bagatelles and pinball machines from 1879 to the late 1930s showing the evolution of the game over time as well as special curated rotating exhibits. Pointy People One of the current exhibits at the Pacific Pinball Museum examining the artwork of Jerry Kelley and Christian Marche The museum's collection has also been displayed at San Francisco International Airport. The machine was seized by police in Oakland during a gambling crackdown. One of the most valued pieces in the collection is a mid 1930s-era Art Deco machine called the Bally Bumper. It is based on the Gottlieb "Surf Champ" game. The museum also has a transparent pinball machine from 1976 that was built by Schiess and Wade Krause. Contemporary machines include The Addams Family and the Twilight Zone. One of the special games housed (and playable) in the museum is Gottlieb's "Humpty Dumpty" from 1947, the first game with flippers. The oldest machine on display, from 1879, is a Montague Redgrave Parlor Bagatelle. Upon paying the admission fee, visitors can play any of the machines on display for the day with unlimited in and out privilege's to take breaks and get food nearby. Those not on display are maintained at the 8,000-square-foot Pacific Pinball Annex nearby. In total, the museums collection comprises over 1,100 unique machines. They are arranged in chronological order in the museums rooms. The museum's exhibitions include approximately ninety playable pinball machines and additional static display pins ranging in age from 1879 until modern day. Lucky JuJu Room at the Pacific Pinball Museum The museum has a gift shop that sells pinball themed merchandise, books and a variety of Pacific Pinball Museum branded shirts, hats and stickers. The museum expanded in 2009 to display forty woodrail and wedge head machines from the collection of Larry Zartarian. In 2004 the facility grew and became a nonprofit, renaming itself the Pacific Pinball Museum. Fourteen of them were installed in a rented buildings rear parking lot facing room, which Schiess called "Lucky Ju Ju", in Alameda and a jar was placed out for donations. One the first major acquisitions was thirty-six machines in one purchase. He decided to open his own museum after being unimpressed with the coverage of pinball history at other museums. Schiess started collecting pinball machines in 2001. The museum was founded in 2004 by Michael Schiess, a former museum exhibition designer. TIP: check the hours and fees when you are going at:, give them a call just to verify.The visible pinball machine, co-created by museum owner Michael Schiess based on the pinball machine Surf Champ by Gottlieb from 1976 They were closed Mondays and Tuesdays in June while we were there but open the rest of the days as well as all weekend. The museum is a converted store and surrounded by coffee shops, ice cream parlors and restaurants so if you do take an all day pass, plenty of other things to do for a break. It may not be appropriate for toddlers but that would be maybe the only exception. In a few of the rooms you will see on the walls and elsewhere the very earliest of pinball machines, including early paper diagrams. You just are never too old to play pinball! You need to really look just in case you miss a room,which we discovered midway that we had. All of us had a great time and I played games that I had not seen since high school. There is no drinking or eating, but in a connecting hallway they have a cold water container with paper cups. We opted for the hour and the cost was about $20.00 We opted for some t shirt merchandise, it was vacation after all, and the boys loved that. You can pay by the hour or for an all day pass. ![]() It is a sizable machine collection and the people working there are more than helpful. This jukebox was also a big hit with songs that included Michael Jackson to Elvis. ![]() They even have a jukebox that is free and loaded with different early era tunes. There are quite a few rooms and each room has machines from different eras, the 80's, the 70's etc. ![]() This place was just wonderful,it is laid out well and very clean and at least 100 machines. Once they got the hang of it, all of maybe five minutes to operate the machines they were off and running. The oldest one had tried pinball one time, it was new to the other. Recently I took my two grandsons, both teens, both game guys, to the Pacific Pinball Museum. ![]()
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