Rediscovering the classic American game of pinball

A pinball sits in a machine at the Lucky JuJu pinball museum and gallery in Alameda, Calif. Ninety-nine percent of the games in the collection are playable.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)

If you haven't played pinball in a while, it's time to find a local arcade that still has a sense of history, fish out some quarters, and get ready for seriously good times. A few days ago, I rediscovered the fun at the Lucky JuJu pinball museum and gallery in Alameda, Calif.

The CNET News.com multimedia team paid a visit for a story and found ourselves in the middle of one of the largest and most diverse collections of machines around. An affable guy named Michael Schiess owns the machines, operates the space, and is a walking encyclopedia of the game, its history, and the mechanics involved in making the lights light up and the buzzers buzz.

To best illustrate the (pre-computer) technology in the game, Schiess painstakingly built a clear machine that he claims is the first of its kind in the world. It was modeled after the classic electromechanical game Surf Champ from 1976 due to the wide variety of features on the playfield. Once the ball is set loose and crosses sensors, rolls through gates, or lands in the right divots, the electromagnets go to work setting off the lights and noises that make playing pinball the fun that it is.

Schiess has more than 300 pinball machines in his possession, but due to space limitations, only a few dozen are actually on display. As a boy, Schiess was first attracted to pinball because of the comic book-like art on the machines. The colorful, creative, and stylized scenes on the backglasses are a true reflection of the eras. For example, a game from the 1930s shows off a futuristic version of a metropolis, while on machines from the 1970s, you're going to find lots of big-busted ladies in tight clothes (keep in mind the machines were designed to attract young boys).

The best part of Schiess' collection is that 99 percent of the games are playable (except some rare ones from the 1930s), and all of them are free.

We scheduled our visit on a quiet, weekday morning, but the gallery space is available to rent for private parties. I can only imagine the fun a dozen 10-year-olds could have there, amped up on sugary birthday cake and rounds of Adams Family, Fireball, and other classic titles. For that matter, the same goes for a dozen thirtysomethings, but switch out the birthday cake for some PBR in the can!

Michael Schiess, who owns the machines at the JuJu Museum, is a walking encyclopedia of the game and the mechanics involved in making the lights light up and the buzzers buzz.

(Credit: CNET News.com/James Martin )

[amandachuck]

Of course there are many shots of the Addams Family machine, the nearly perfect modern machine despite it's age. humor and challenging gameplay. I bought one 9 years ago and it's only gone up in value.

[ptzkiler]

I don't like pin ball games at all.. I most prefer to play games GTA serious New gta 4 released last feb.. did any one play it. Helo released by Microsoft even it not need more computer resources try it .
computer hacks tips tricks

[WalterAnonymous]

Keep playing games, laddie-boy. I don't think you'll have to concern yourself with such mundane issues as going to school or learning to write coherently, so enjoy yourself. By the way, my lawn needs thatching, so why don't you get started on it?

[thonnaral]

It's a shame that most of the pinball manufacturers are out of business.

In a video game, you mostly learn the sequence and then the game is pretty much over. Once you've run through it and you've mastered the pattern there frequently isn't any excitement left to the game.

Tom WIlliams said 'the ball is wild'. That's still the essence of pinball. No matter how often you play the game, you never completely learn it. The ball is allways wild.

I think that kids are trained by video today to think of the world in a particular way. If you just learn the pattern, just master the sequence like you do in a video game all good things will follow. Pinball is more like real life. Learning the pattern isn't enough. Things will go wrong, you have to adapt. Some days it seems that you can't go wrong, and other days the ball drains before you can get a flipper on it. Good days and bad days. A better way of looking at life.

Pinball as philosophy!

[flavum4]

Wow! That is exactly how I feel about pinball! A programmed game is a Cull De Sac. Pinball is "Real steel balls + Gravity = real physics." Every pull of the plunger offers a brand new scenario. The choices are endless and you can Always improve your game on any given machine. The beauty of it is, the more you know about any machine's "characteristics", the better chance you have of defeating it and setting the ultimate high score. I am always in awe of it and very impressed that we, as a species, have developed the pure toy, that pinball is.

[flavum4]

Wow! That is exactly how I feel about pinball! A programmed game is a Cull De Sac. Pinball is "Real steel balls + Gravity = real physics." Every pull of the plunger offers a brand new scenario. The choices are endless and you can Always improve your game on any given machine. The beauty of it is, the more you know about any machine's "characteristics", the better chance you have of defeating it and setting the ultimate high score. I am always in awe of it and very impressed that we, as a species, and Americans, have developed the pure toy that pinball is.

[xtingu]

Lucky Juju is a goldmine; I used to spend every other Friday night there for a while. I hardly recognized it in the video -- I've never seen the place so brightly lit before.

The video's fact about Juju being "the only American pinball museum" is inaccurate; we can't forget about the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, started by Tim Arnold (www.pinballmuseum.org).

Either way, I'm psyched to see pinball getting some press!


/pinball geek

[benjaminstraight]

Pinball is a classic American game.