I am a generation of the video game era. I grew up with Pong, Atari 2600, and Colecovision.I was at the dawn of Nintendo, Sega, Playstation, and Xbox. Through all those years the arcades would be the test beds for the games that would then be converted to the home console. In part of that time, beginning around the 1980's or so, I delved into the pinball machines and enjoyed playing with them. To this day, I may not start up an arcade machine but I will definitely drop some money on a pinball. There are a number of pinball joints across the US. This is the first I have been to and I dont know why I hadnt gone before. On the main throughfare in the island community of Alameda is the Pacific Pinball Museum, https://www.pacificpinball.org/
Sure this place has a historical collection of entertainment machines that span the decades. They also provide information on not only the devices themselves but the backstories of the whos, whys, whats, and hows. All in all, its just a fun place to visit and play some pinball
Theres an array of vintage games and I dabbled in a few of them and I dabbled in a few of the odd machines. But the ones that draw me are the ones I played in my youth and the newer offerings.
I am no pinball wizard by any means. I dont pour over the gamefield nor do I scrutinized all the different modes of play. I shoot the ball at the flashing targets and hope to get enough points to get a free game. I will figure out the rest as I go. For the uninitiated, theres a replay score you try to achieve. When you reach that goal, the pinball will let you know you've won a game. A mechanical knock on the wooden cabinet indicates you have "popped" the machine. Nowadays, its an electronic sound or buzzer
I did invest a little bit of time in some of the older games chosen at random. Fire Queen was made in 1977. There were very few tie ins with anything else in those days so they had to be creative with the themes. The backglass graphics sometimes makes the worth of the game increase
The playfield is still fairly simple
The next unit is from a decade earlier called Shangrila
Even though they are 10 years apart, I would not have noticed that aspect just by looking at the playfield. Not a whole lot has changed in the machines during this time
The 1980's brought the digital revolution to the games. This was about the time during high school and college that I delved into pinball equally with video games. Licensing agreements also brought about name recognition. One of the early pinballs at the museum with licensing and electronic additions was Flash Gordon.
The association with the movie that came out the same year was made by Bally. Some of the more advanced features were not ready for prime time but there was extensive use of LEDs and included ramps
Pinbot 1986, this is where I went down the rabbit hole. This was the year that I entered college. In the student union was a small arcade with 1 pinball game and this was it. This was the most consistant access that I had to any machine
I spent many hours enabling Pinbot to be able to "see". This has a feature called a skill shot. However, skill shots can vary from game to game. When releasing the ball using the plunger, yu can vary the strength of the shot. Do it right and you can get bonus points. In this case, the ball is shot up a sprialing cone. Just before the apex there is a hole that will give you more points than if the ball had gone all the way up. This also had the center post between the flippers but I never really learned to play that correctly with any pinball
There is a grid of squares and corresponding targets along the vertical and horizontal. Light them all and the horizontal targets descend to reveal 2 locks. Initially the column lights will go from left to right then bottom to top. Hit the associated target and you can open up the locks quicker. After locking the eyes, Pinbot can see and begins multi ball. The flippers on this unit felt a bit weak so my aim was off and I had a hard time getting up the ramp
Cyclone 1988. Though I dont remember where I first encountered this, I do recall playing it
On the backboard there is a spinning "Mystery Wheel" where you could win bonus points or an extra ball. It is activated by sentering the Spook House
The field did include a skill shot similar to Pinbot, a spinning ferris wheel at top left and included some ramps. The ferris wheel provides bonus points during a timed opportunity
Interestingly enough, I found out that Cyclone does not have a staple feature, the multi ball.
Back to the Future 1990. Michael J Fox did not license his likeness and thats why Marty McFly looks so odd in the graphics
The original movie came out in 1985 with sequels in 1989 and 1990
Terminator 2 1991. A beloved movie of mine and one of the top 3 favorite machines I have played I especially loved the way you load the gun and shoot for the multi ball and jackpots
The metal skull in the top left of the play field is what you shoot for in order to load the gun for the lit feature. There are mini games to play on the score panel
The ball is launched from the gun using a trigger on handle instead of the usual plunger. The speed of the skill shot usually speeds up with each successive ball
The Getaway: Highspeed II 1992. Saw this in arcades a few times but did not play it as much as others
Like other games using the LED display on the back box, it not only displays scores but is used to allow you to make choices and play mini games with the flippers or any other input control. Also a third flipper is utilized
Creature from the Black Lagoon 1992. Yet another film franchise. There are alot of these at the museum but Im not sure if, in general, that is a similar trend. Based on the classic black and white horror film of 1954
To the right, The Addams Family from the movies with Raul Julia and Angelica Houston. I wonder if there will be a Wednesday pinball because of the populer recent series
At the base it looks like a sub playfield. There was another property at the museum that also had a similar feature. I was able to access that on the second machine not on this one
The next set of featured titles are also movie related until you hit a tv show. Then it goes back to a movie and another vintage tv show for 2 more titles. A few hard rock bands before finishing off with yet another film homage
Indiana Jones 1993 covers the first 3 movies of the series. Thankfully this was before the dreadful 4th installment of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Fun House, to the left, was out of service during my visit. Again a multi function led display becomes more of a standard by now
Twilight Zone 1993
Based on the TV show of the same name hosted by Rod Serling. The unmistakable notes of the theme song and spoken intro of the show reminds those who watched the series of how great it was
Star Wars Episode 1 1999. Popular movies tend to have games named in their honor. Movies like Dark Star may have had home brewed digital versions but there is no cabinet version that I know of
There have been several iterations of this movie so there have been a number of games associated with the franchise. This one incorporates a light saber that I was not able to activate. It also uses the reflection of a monitor for scores, mini games, etc.
There was a second Star Wars pinball, pro edition from Stern, dedicated to the original trilogy of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. That is shown in the video
Pirates of the Caribbean 2006
CSI 2008. The series that launched several spin offs dealing with crime scene investigators
Transformers 2011. The original Transformers movie starring Shia Lebouf and Megan Fox
Tron Legacy 2011. The sequel to the 1982 movie came out in 2010. As with most movies, this did not live up to the hype or anticipation
ACDC 2012 The boys from down under get memorialized with many of their hit songs
Theres a sub level with dual flippers that is easily accessed
Metallica 2013 The bay area's metal band get a game named after them. The caricatures of the members contrast the representation of the ACDC mentioned previously
Ghostbusters 2016 Last up is another movie series from the late 2010's.
Finally, at the entrance were 4 machines that are not freeplay
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory 2019 for some reason requires a photo of you. Didnt get to try this out so I dont know what it would have used the photo for. Fortunately, you can disable the option
I did try my hand at Ultraman but was not very successful at the two attempts. Sometimes the newer machines require an amount of effort to research some of what it offers. Typically, I will just shoot at whats flashing and let the game tell me what to do
And now, something completely different. First up is Freedom 1975. What makes this stand out is not the gameplay nor theme but the fact that it is in a see through cabinet, backboard, and backglass
Orbitor 1 1982 has a contoured playfield as well as a game timer. The timer wasnt a factor but the contours made the unit unplayable to me.
Plus the really wide out lanes around the flippers made losing the ball a sure thing if it was headed in that direction
Alot of these will have additional details when you watch the videos. Most show gameplay and I was trying to show multi ball in as many as I could. For the last 2 machines above, you will see why they are different, not necessarily in a good way.
