A new museum in Queensbury, New York, aims to draw pinball wizards and machine tinkerers alike.
The echoes of arcade game history fill the otherwise quiet Aviation Mall – they’re coming from Arcade Archaeology.
The pinball and arcade game museum held its soft opening late last month. Decades of pinball history line the walls with dozens of machines with themes ranging from “South Park” to “The Big Lebowski” and Michael Jordan’s “Space Jam.”
For proprietor Lonnie Linen, opening the collection of machines to the public has been a long time coming. His father died when Linen was a teenager, and while his dad was never into pinball, Linen credits his dad for his own passion for tinkering and his desire to found the arcade.
“Dad, he was a plumber, steam fitter, he was an iron worker. He was very much mechanically inclined, and he always wanted me to just be my own individual. That was the one thing you know is, is dad always said he's like, the only way that I could fail him is to not be who I want to be. You know, he just, you know. So, you got to forge your own path. He was very much forge your own path kind of person,” said Linen.
Linen has undoubtedly followed that advice. And it’s allowed him to weather all the difficulties that can accompany life’s pursuits – including coping with poor weather that delayed the museum’s soft opening. Rain can make it challenging to move the expensive, heavy, water-sensitive machines that Linen has spent years collecting.
“I've been doing this for about 10 years. I've run arcades. I restore all my own machines, and I mean the long and the short of it is that I've always wanted to do this. I've always wanted to have a space where we can focus on nothing but classic games without the limitations of, you know, making money is your big problem, right? A lot of time is, that's why a lot of these redemption arcades exist. Is it's all about tickets, all about prizes. I feel like there's no place to play classic games like this,” said Linen.
Linen says in an era of phone-driven dopamine addictions, there’s a market for an analogue fix as arcades pop up across the country.
“I mean, how can you not like pinball? It's awesome. I joke that, like, its entire purpose is to entice you to play it. That's, it's like a like a casino, like a slot machine. They're like, ‘play me,’” said Linen.
He adds it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the pinball community – several of the machines at the museum were brought specifically for the 5th-annual Saratoga Silverball Pinball Show.
Several visitors were on hand during Arcade Archaeology’s soft opening – the museum should be open fully in the coming months with Dance Dance Revolution and other historically significant arcade games to come.
Howard Levine helps run Project Pinball, a nonprofit that has donated and maintained more than 80 pinball machines at children’s hospitals across the country.
Like many pinballers, Levine got in the game early.
“As a very young child, my dad was a league bowler, bowled in different bowling alleys, you know. And back in the day, every bowling alley had a pinball machine. And even though I might have been maybe too young to bowl seriously, I was old enough to play pinball,” said Levine.
Levine says it would be hard to find a more supportive community.
“No matter what walk of life they're coming from, no matter what their financial status, pinball is just something that brings people together. And, you know, we pretty much leave our troubles at the door—leave politics at the door. We're just here to play pinball to help each other. One of the most amazing things I find about the pinball community is that top players, they share like their success or strategies on the different games,” said Levine.
Alice Bruso has only been competitively pinballing – or pinballing at all – since April. Bruso, who identifies as transgender and nonbinary, has been welcomed by the community.
“So, I entered a tournament at a place in Troy called Mean Max. It's on River Street, and they have some pinball machines there. It was a women's tournament and the community was really inviting. So, I had a blast there, and then that kind of snowballed into playing every weekend, essentially. Sometimes after work, and playing as much as possible.” said Bruso.
For those who choose to take the arcade games seriously, Bruso says pinball tournaments are a welcoming space.
“I felt like in competitive sports in general, sometimes there's contention around trans, nonbinary players or competitors, Pinball doesn't have that, said Bruso.
A few machines down from Bruso, a young pinball fanatic is playing one of the museum’s older offerings.
“I’m Gabriel Julio, also known as First Prototype on a few social media pages,” said Julio.
Julio and his family came from New Jersey for the show.
“I think I've played over 900 I'm slowly closing in on 1000 different machines played. Some of them I've played on virtual machines, like on my iPhone or my iPad or even PlayStation, but most of them I've played I've played on a physical machine, like the one you're watching me play right here,” said Julio.
As far as his pinball ambitions?
“I mean I’m kind of a pro. My three letter initials is P-R-O, pro. Short for First Prototype because I’m going to be honest I’m kind of getting to pro. I’m still not quite there in tournaments but I kind of want to win one soon,” said Julio.
For his mom Izzy Julio, the increase in arcade spaces is a win.
"For a very long time you were seeing arcades close down. Now we're seeing a number of arcades open up in our area, not just up here in the northeast, but, you know, within the United States, as well as around the world. There is a resurgence. People want to be in those spaces, want to have those community spaces. And they really do gravitate towards those retro games," said Julio.
