Over the weekend, I visited the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park, NJ.

Todd recently posted a video of the museum. Actually having a better idea of what was there, it prompted me to actually made the trip out to the shore the next time that I was in the general vicinity.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/silverball-museum-tour-on-the-boardwalk-at-asbury-park-nj-tnt-amusements

For the most part, it is an EM museum, with a bank of DMD machines, two pin2000 machines, and a few early solid state machines. there are also a handful of other arcade game curiosities, which were also fun to try out.

In general, the EM machines played very well, and most were in good or very good condition. However, on the DMD machines, about half of them had weak flippers, which made them difficult to play. Additionally, many of the plungers were stiff and not springy enough to launch the ball too far. On these machines, they were set to 5-ball play (to compensate for the problem, maybe?). The ones that were working fairly well were set to 3-ball play.

If you end up going, parking is a bit of a nightmare--it's very difficult to find a spot. You will also either need a credit card or lots of change to load up the stand-alone parking machines. Of the 3 machines I tried, the bill readers were broken. On the other hand, if you hate parallel parking in cities as much as I do, it wasn't too bad here, since each spot was marked with a generous amount of space for each vehicle. Food was pricey on the boardwalk--$5 for 1 slice of pizza, or a small ice cream. I didn't bother with getting food there.

I spent about 4 hours in the museum, and it was a real treat to be able to see and play some of these machines that I had not seen in years or decades, and be able to play non-routed examples. I was there on a Sunday, so it wasn't too crowded. Although, the two-tone electronic door entrance/exit noise got annoying after a while, since I could be heard throughout the entire facility. Overall, I'd say it was a worthwhile experience.

Photos and comments to follow shortly...

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_{Post edited by ForceFlow: Fixed "ashbury" typo}

Some shots of the rooms--mainly near the DMD area.
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I was probably the most excited about playing the IJ machine. I had not played one since it was new in 1993. It was set to 5-ball play, but played pretty well.

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This MM was hidden away amongst some of the EM machines. It played *very* well.

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A Medusa and a Centaur. They seemed to play reasonably well, but were showing a little bit of age. The one thing about all the pins at the museum was that they were not in mint condition, so don't go there expecting to see them in that condition. Many of the machines have had quite a few plays on them, but are holding up fairly well overall.

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Some EM machines.

A Close Encounters with electronic sounds (rather than chimes).
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Big Brave
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Eye of the Tiger. Since I'm restoring a Sinbad (the SS version of this EM), I took a number of additional reference photos.
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A few more EMs
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And an interesting woodrail
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Flash and Gorgar. The Flash wasn't leveled, so all the balls would roll to one side of the playfield. But overall, a nice example.

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KISS
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Xenon
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Pinbot
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Eight Ball Deluxe. An unusual looking machine.
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The DMD area. Like I mentioned earlier, many of these machines seemed to suffer from weak flippers. Additionally, many of the plungers were stiff and not springy enough, making it difficult to reach skill shots (or beyond skill shots, depending on the style of the pin).

Demolition Man. The flippers seemed to be a bit weak on this one.

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Funhouse. Sadly, Rudy's eyes were stuck staring off into space.
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Safecracker. I never played one before, so it was an interesting experience.

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Addams family, with basically no playfield wear. The main flippers were strong, but the upper flippers were a bit weak.

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Attack From Mars. It had seen better days. Broken plastics, missing bumper cap, scotch tape on the playfield for a quick repair, mangled cliffy protector, and a mothership that didn't bounce when hit. However, this machine was still a good player machine despite its largely cosmetic-only flaws.

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Theatre of Magic. Again, some weak flippers and a stiff plunger.

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Scared Stiff. This machine played fairly well overall, though it had an overactive VUK that spit the ball all over the place. It had the boogie men mod on the slingshots, which was a nice touch. The LEDs were a bit bright, and overpowered everything a little.

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Cyclone, Sopranos, TSPP, Elvis. TSPP had an interesting note written on the apron.

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Revenge from Mars. This machine played perfectly and looked nearly perfect. I thought I took a few more (and better) photos, but I guess not.
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CV. This machine played very well. It was a real treat to finally get a chance to play this one in person. The last two I saw elsewhere were basically "do not touch" display models.

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STTNG. Another machine that played well.
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The Shadow (and a Roadshow to the right). Sorry, the overall photo didn't turn out well on this one. Between the lighting and all the reflections on everything, and the highly reflective playfield glass, it turned out to be a little challenge to photograph machines. Also, the flippers were a bit weak on this one.

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WOZ. I was hoping to get some good, quality time on this machine since there wasn't a line a mile long like you would typically encounter at pinball shows. However, sadly, this machine has gotten quite a lot of use, and the flippers were weak and the plunger was a bit stiff. Quite a stark contrast between the brand new machines I played a few weekends ago, and the one found here. Additionally, there was a strange vertical line going through the LCD display.

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That's about it for the pin-related stuff that I took photos of. Keep in mind, the photos I took and posted here only show about a quarter of what is actually available to play. There are a handful of additional DMD and early SS machines available, a boatload of EM machines, a bank of stand-up classic video arcade games (millipede, pac-man, etc), a couple pitch-and-bat games, air hockey, and a 4-player EM shuffle bowler.

Bonus round: some non-pin stuff and games.

The repair area.
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A bank of Skee-Ball machines. 230 was my best score (seen on the EM version).
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There were three shooting games available to play. Two didn't work too well. However, this one was great. The rifle sight was perfect and I was able to hit what I aimed at. The animals in the diorama popped up, and some were even moving targets. It was a rather fun game. My best score was 139.

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After exiting the museum onto the boardwalk, you are greeted by the ocean.

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Nearby, it looks like there was a casino that didn't make it. I'm sure it's frequented by urban explorers these days.

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Overall, I had a good time, and would recommend this to anyone itching to play a few machines that they normally wouldn't have access to.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Yeah, I noticed this becoming a problem later in the day as more people started to filter into the museum. Kind of annoying, but oh well. Happens everywhere.

Thanks for revealing what that place actually was. Sounds like it was a pretty interesting venue. A shame that it closed down.

Thanks

I was there on a Sunday, and around noon, it was pretty empty. As it got later in the afternoon there wasn't more than a dozen people at a time in there, so there were plenty of free machines. I can't speak for what happens on a Saturday, though.

Good tip--I'll have to try that next time.