Pinball Machines: Reflections Of A Different Time & Era

About a month ago, I was searching for some activities to do in the East Bay.  While researching via Yelp, I stumbled upon the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, CA. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to visit at the time. However, I was in the area today and stopped by for a visit.  I didn't regret it one bit as I spent a solid two hours at the museum.  

While the initial entry cost of $15 may seem steep for a museum, it is actually quite a bargain.  The $15 entitles you to unlimited play of all the various pinball machines that in the museum.   There's quite a selection of older and more modern pinball machines that you can play.   In addition, you get "in and out" privileges.  So if you need to step out to get a bite to eat and come back later, it is perfectly ok.   As I noted, I spent a lot of time at the museum today and had a blast.  Strangely enough, I gravitated to playing some of the older pinball machines than some of the newer ones (though I enjoyed a couple of them).

After leaving the museum, I started to think about why I enjoyed my time there today.  After all, I was child of the 1980's.  I grew up in the era of Pac-Man, Donkey King and other well known arcade games as well as the era of the Atari, Coleco, and Commodore (among others) video game and computer systems.

The answer I came up with is that the pinball machines harken back to a simpler era.  The purpose of playing pinball is to stay alive as long as possible and get as many points along the way.   It didn't matter if you were playing a pinball machine from the 1950's or the 1980's, the purpose remained the same.   The same purpose of getting as many points as possible is basically the same purpose as the majority of 1980's arcade games.

It didn't matter if you played Pac Man (eating dots and ghosts), Donkey Kong (jumping over barrels), Pole Position (driving), or Galaga (shooting aliens), the major purpose was to stay alive as long as possible, advance to higher levels and accumulate points.   Obviously there were exceptions like Dragon's Lair.

Given this, it was no surprise that I found a love of pinball machines.  With the ability to have unlimited play at the museum, I kept trying multiple times at several machines and did pretty well toward the end of my stay.

Unfortunately, pinball machines are reflections of a different time before video games and computers existed.  From doing some research online, there does not appear to any companies who are mass producing pinball machines today due to a lack of demand from the mainstream public.  With all fancy graphics and sound available on home systems today, pinball machines are looked at as relics.    All the young people today go for Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft and other games.

However, as the Pacific Pinball Museum shows, pinball is still alive in the underground.  There were a good number of people of all ages at the museum today.  There was a party there were kids and their parents present.  There were quite a few other families who showed up after I arrived.  The folks that run the museum also host an annual expo as well.

Pinball might not be as fancy as today's video games, but I think it's definitely worth a visit from gamers of all ages.  You don't always need to play the latest and greatest to have a good time.