Right next to the horse-racing machine was one of those baseball arcade games where the ball is "pitched" from the mound and then you whack it with a bat. Check out this video clip of the horse-racing game, for example: Back here in the real universe, shooting a good game of pinball will never help you score with the ladies.Īlthough many of the older games look primitive compared to the more modern digital machines, a few of the older ones at the museum have some surprising bonus features. Pinball exists in an odd alternate universe that features exactly zero small-breasted women (or bras, apparently).ĥ.
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(Happily, this isn't an issue at the museum, since all the machines are set on free play.)Ĥ. Never ever touch someone else's quarters on the top glass. The same slight bump against the machine that's fine during a crappy game will always trip the tilt mechanism during a good game.ģ. Your best, longest game will inevitably happen when you need to be somewhere else (like when you suddenly realize you need to go to the bathroom, or when you are about to meet your girlfriend for a lunch date and thought you'd play just one more quick game).Ģ. Soon I was remembering the five inescapable rules that govern the pinball scene:ġ. It took only a few minutes before the flippers felt like organic extensions of my hands and I was rediscovering all my favorite body-English maneuvers, just like when I was a kid. I grew up playing pinball - at the mall, at the pizza shop, at the corner deli, wherever - but it had been a long time since I'd been in a serious arcade setting, so I walked around a bit, checking out the classic old machines, getting reacclimated, feeling that old adrenaline rush. Kirsten Hively for Our writer couldn't resist trying out a few of the machines. This pattern of basing pinball games on other games reaches its existential peak in Super Score - a pinball-themed pinball game.
Silverball turned out to be very ESPN-friendly, with sports-themed games based on baseball, football, college football, auto racing, horse racing, boxing, soccer, tennis, the Olympics, bowling, pool, fishing, and even dominoes (what, no curling?). "And if it's this busy in February, just wait until we get the summer crowd," Ilvento said. It looked plenty alive a few Saturdays ago, as dozens of pinheads braved the snowy weather and filled the museum with the familiar sounds of ringing bumpers and chunk-chunk-chunking score counters. "It's an important era in American history, and we're going to keep it alive here."
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"We want to archive this bit of Americana," said Ilvento, who in his non-pinball life is the guy behind the Cluck-U Chicken empire. That's a bargain for longtime pinheads (yes, that's what pinball devotees are called) and a great crash course for Generation Xbox types. You can play for an hour for $10, or all day for $20. The museum - which opened last summer and was such an instant hit that it just moved to a larger location on the boardwalk a few weeks ago - has over 180 machines, all set on free play, with historical background on each one. The reason for the commotion was that Ilvento is the guy behind the super-cool Silverball Pinball Museum in Asbury Park, N.J. "We were having a Super Bowl party, and when that happened everyone said, 'Hey, Rob, look at that!' People got kind of excited." "That was pretty funny, right?" Rob Ilvento said. Instead, Pete Townshend took the stage strumming the chords to "Pinball Wizard."
Kirsten Hively for You could easily spend several hours at the Silverball Pinball Museum.
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