Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE 'Pinball was off in a darkened corner' “What keeps us coming back? What keeps us engaged with something that has been declared dead and returns? There's something there that is captivating, and that you can't necessarily replace.”Īt least 90 games beckon from every corner, while 1,200 more comprise the bulk of Schiess’ collection, which is stowed away in a warehouse at the historic naval air base on the island city’s west end, where these seemingly harmless machines were banned until 2014.Ĭhris Rummell is the program manager at the Pacific Pinball Museum. “There's something that really attracts us to it as people,” said Chris Rummell, who has worked as the program manager of the museum since 2016.

Once they start playing, a frantic focus overtakes them, only to be interrupted by the harsh reality of gravity as the steel ball finally, inevitably, falls into the machine’s drain, taunting them to try again.īut most noticeable are the sounds, which are not unlike the buoyant chimes of an old cash register or the repetitive clanks of several slot machines played at once. Courtesy of the Pacific Pinball MuseumĬolorful murals adorn the museum’s walls with phrases familiar to any diehard player: “Double Bonus When Lit” and “A Game of Skill for Amusement Only.” The 1978 hit “Le Freak” by Chic and Sister Sledge echoes from room to room as patrons fill the museum’s foyer, an unseen force guiding them to the game of their choice. People of all ages play at the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda. Its mission is to educate as much as entertain, as there are signs above each machine detailing its history and the role it played in the evolution of pinball. It’s easy to get lost in this 7,000-square-foot shrine to retro coin-operated amusements on Webster Street that opened in 2002. That, and maybe the Metallica-themed pinball game in the next room, which boasts a pixelated red snake on the display screen that appears to vomit on the player if they lose. “This is the only machine I know of to portray a part of our local history in this way.” “It’s amazing, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Michael Schiess, the museum’s founder and executive director.

Pinball museum in alameda