Hey Everyone!
This will be a bit long, but there's just so much to describe & I'm so excited about it, that I can't help it! 
This past weekend, my wife & I visited a very special & truly amazing place, the Electro-Magnetic Pinball Museum in Pawtucket RI. And in a word...WOW!!!
Now, I didn't even know this place existed till I did a Google search Saturday morning for places to play pinball. Low & behold, the EMPM popped up along with some excellent reviews and pics. So we went & we're so glad we did.
When we got there, we walked in & BOOM! All these pins just hit you right in the face, & before we could even really take in all the jaw dropping awesomeness of this mile long room full of pins, a gentleman (turned out to be Mike) welcomes us with a kind hello & says to us that he's just about to start a tour of the museum & asks if we'd like to join in with the group. Well, few people know this (because that's how we wanted it), but my wife & I are the co-founders of Pintastic New England along with the great Gabe D (Dannunz here on Pinside). My wife noticed that Mike was wearing a Pintastic t-shirt & points it out to me. That was so cool! Lol So, Mike asks us if we know anything about pinball & if we'd like to join his tour, to which I replied, "We're the co-founders of the event on the t-shirt your wearing." He was like... 
Lol And he said, "Well please come in & make yourself at home, cause there's nothing I can tell you about pinball." We all laughed & Mike was just the kindest, nicest guy. I mean... a truly awesome person.
We said, "Thank you.", went in, walked all around the place & were just blown away by how many machines were in there! Games from every era too. The 40s to present. They have some beautiful machines & really do an outstanding job of having their pins & vids running as nice as possible given the age of some of them.
There were some machines awaiting parts for repair, which everyone knows is par for the course, but I'd say there were about 90 - 100 pins in there with only about 10 to 12 waiting for repairs & those were mainly electromechanical pins needing hard to find parts which is typical. But past that, they have such a great collection of beautifully maintained & running machines.
We had so much fun playing some great game titles we've never heard of or even seen before, let alone actually played. They have such a great mix of games & from all eras too. There's something for everyone.
For pins they had a Captain Fantastic in very nice condition with the very rare & original mirrored backglass that was in perfect/gorgeous condition.
They have a nice Blackwater 100. That's rare to see out in the wild & a super fun pin to play.
There was a beautiful Williams Big Guns, a really nice Hurricane, a beautiful TAF, a great playing RollerGames, a nice Volcano, a sweet BlackHole with it's inverse lower playfield that totally messes up your mind for a few minutes (Lol), a perfect playing Shaq Attack, a nice Corvette, beautiful Game Show, an absolutely bright & beautiful chromed out Demo Man, a really nice T2, a nice TSPP, a beautiful BSD, tons of super nice 50s & 60s pins all flanked by a few newer games in Guns & Roses standard & an Avengers IQ premium! They even had a nice Baby Pac-Man in there!
On top of all their pins, they have a bunch of classic video games, a couple 60 in 1s, a bunch of linked up driving games, couple shooters, an NBA Jam & multiple home video game systems (xbox etc) all to play. They even have an air hookey table, a basketball shot machine, skee ball machines & a shuffle bowler amongst other many other games to play. It's simply overwhelming in there with all the stuff to do and play.
On top of all this, they have a big party room for birthdays & corporate events too. In fact, Brown University had an event going on when we were there & they all had a blast playing games. You could hear them all laughing, saying how cool this is & that is. Racing eachother in the 4 bank driver games. Playing a ton of different pins. Playing skee ball. It was a great day for them all & they told me they had a great time.
They even have multiple leagues that play in there (N.E.P.L) & the RI. pinball club hangs out & plays there as well.
I also saw, talked with & hung out with the great Calvin Watts of the Rhode Island SciFi Journal T.V. Show. We both remembered eachother from Pintastic & had a great convo. Just another great person in our awesome hobby & he loves it there & goes whenever he can too.
The EMPM also has a ton of stuff for sale, like classic toys, cards & things. I mean, they had so much stuff for sale I was overwhelmed & couldn't even take it all in. I'm just glad I took pics. I will link them in for everyone to see too, because my mind is like a blur with everything that there was to see, play & do.
Want to know what the craziest part of all was? The entrance fee. Get this! The entrance fee to stay & play for the entire day is only... $10! Yeaup...10 bucks! Idk how they do it! I think they could go up to $12 - $15 for adults easy & $12 for kids 17 & under. If you don't think so, take $20 to Dave & Busters or Chuck E Cheese & see how long that lasts you. Here you get to play till you either pass out or they close the doors. I'm still stunned!
Above & beyond all this are the people there. In order to make something of this magnitude work, you need to have great people both in front as well as behind the scenes. Pintastic would never exist without the help of so many incredibly awesome people. The same holds true at the EMPM. Even though I had to tearfully step away from Pintastic years ago due to physical ailments, I know what running a place like this entails & takes & it's not easy. It's a ton of work.
We had the total pleasure of meeting some of the awesome people who make the EMPM run so smoothly & well. We met the 2 main curators in Mike (who first welcomed us when we arrived) & his wonderful partner Emily. What a dynamic duo these 2 make! As I said about Mike above, the same holds true for Emily. Just an absolutely FANTASTIC person! Together they're such kind, caring, passionate, hard working, great & giving people.
While there, you'll see Mike walking around, cleaning & waxing machines, checking on people, making sure everything's okay, giving tours & answering questions.
Emily, well... she's a force to be reckoned with as she does most of the game repairs as well as checking in on patrons & making sure everyone is having a great time. She gets right in there too & was even working on a few machines to get them ready for league play later that night. Just awesome! In fact, of the 4 hours that we spent there, we talked to them & a few others for over 2 hours. So even though we were surrounded by all this pinball greatness, we had even more fun & spent more time talking with them than we did playing. That's how nice they are.
Also super nice, wonderful & a pleasure to talk to was the lovely Grace. I don't think there was a time when she wasn't smiling. She's so knowledgeable on all the games too & was even helping Emily do some repairs as well. What a great team!
The 3rd curator of the EMPM was not there when we were. His name's Joe & we look forward to meeting & talking with him the next time we're there.
All that said, if you are anywhere near the Pawtucket, RI, area (I'm just about an hour away), you owe it to yourself to check out the Electro-Magnetic Pinball Museum. Not only will you have an absolute blast with your family & friends, but you'll be helping to support this amazing place that does so much for the community as a 501c not for profit corporation. That's right, they're not in this for money, they're in it to bless others & educate future generations on the awesomeness of the hobby that we all love so much. How great is that?
They're even running a summer day camp for kids to get them off the streets for a 3 hours a day & give them something educational, but fun to do. Kids will get to play & learn about all things pinball. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?
So please, go check them out, support them, have a fun time & then tell your families, friends & coworkers all about them.
Also, go to Google & write an honest review for them to spread the word on how great this special place is. We need great places like this to draw people together to have some good, clean, family friendly fun. Hopefully lots of people keep going & they stay up, running, growing & thriving for decades to come!
Thanks for reading & here are some pics I took.
