Pinball museum
A pinball museum is a museum that exhibits historical and contemporary pinball machines and provides information on the functionality and history of the amusement machines . As a rule, the devices can also be recorded. Pinball museums are, in the broadest sense, part of a culture of retrogaming .
Exhibited exhibits
The focus of a pinball museum is on the exhibition of primarily historical, mechanical or electromechanical pinball machines. The historical exhibits often include predecessors of today's pinball game, such as the so-called bagatelle game . The machines on display are usually explained, the functionality and structure of a pinball machine are made clear and information about the history of pinball is conveyed.
In a pinball museum, in addition to pinball machines , other amusement machines without the possibility to win money can be shown, i.e. no slot machines in the usual word meaning. Amusement machines that are related to pinball machines include electromechanical arcade machines such as Whac-A-Mole or Skee ball , which focus on the skill and ability of the player to react . The Japanese pachinko and Finnish Payazzo machines are also related .
Pinball museums in Germany
The German Flipper Museum in Neuwied shows around 150 pinball machines since the 1930s. The exhibits worth mentioning include:
- The wall pinball machine Euromat Super 2 (1964) from German production.
- The video slot machine Super Flipper (1975), which has a tube screen simulating a pinball machine.
- The Hercules pinball machine (1979), which is considered to be the largest pinball machine ever produced.
- The Flipper Haunted House (1982), which has three playing fields on top of each other.
- The Orbitor 1 Flipper (1982), which has a curved playing surface.
- The Rapid Fire machine (1982), which is a mixture of space invaders and pinball machines.
- The pinball machine Banzai Run (1988), which is the only pinball machine to have a second, vertical playing field.
Glance into one of the rooms of the Neuwied pinball museum
Flippermuseum Neuwied: Formerly Flipper Assomat from German production (1950s)
Flipper Museum Neuwied: pinball machine with built-in mechanical horse racing
Flipper Museum Neuwied: Explanations on how to set up a pinball machine
Flipper Museum Neuwied: Flipper Haunted House with a second, apparently mirror-inverted playing area
Flipper Museum Neuwied: Flipper Banzai Run , vertical play area in the head section of the pinball machine
The pinball museum in Schwerin (since 2007) shows around 100 pinball and arcade machines as well as jukeboxes . Also there are Orbitor 1 , Hercules , Haunted House and a Euromat to see. There is also a pinball and arcade museum in the Hessian town of Seligenstadt . All three museums mentioned are supported by associations. There are also other facilities that use the name "Flipper Museum", but are more like an arcade .
