If any pinball fan lives in or is traveling thru either Eastern PA, New Jersey, or eastern New York you must go to the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park.

My friend and I spent 4 hours there today playing some of the best machines ever made.

More than 100 machines (at least 75 of them were classic EMs) were set up for free play. And I tried every one of them.

They were all in great condition and give you an idea of what the next game you'd like to buy is.

There was even some great SS machines there for the folks who don't like EMs.

We spent a lot of time talking with the folks working there and they were very knowledgeable and were even willing to talk to us about issues and show us some of their favorites.

I plan to go back very soon.

Wish I knew you were there. Would've been nice to meet a fellow pinballer. I liked Revenge from Mars too. I especially liked Jumping Jack and C37 which I guess is no surprise.

I was surprised how much I liked Captain Card. And I think that is a machine I might be able to find and afford.

I played Space Mission (which I just bought and is still in pieces) and found that I really like the game. Put up 181,000 on my first try at it. Couldn't duplicate it again, but it got me hooked.

Have fun.

The wife would strangle me if I went back again today.

Takes about 75 min from my place.

My list of favorites went on and on. It's really hard to say what machine I liked best. So I'll have to go back and try it again.

Will head up on a sunny warm day and she can go to the beach while I go play.

Made a list of the machines I really liked. Some more then others.

Not in any particular order.

Jumping Jack
Neptune
Hit the Deck
Centigrade 37
Flipper Pool
Pro Pool
Lucky Hand
Diamond Jack
Big Brave
Close Encounters
Captain Card
Surf Champ
Joker Poker
Atlantis
Solar City
Hokusai Pokus

And I can't forget 2 of my machines

Flip A Card
Space Mission

And a Nathan's hotdog with Chil and kraut was $2.50

Why leave?

That's because I think allot of their traffic in the summer are kids and parents isiting the beach.

I have been their twice.

Once over a weekend in the early spring when you had birthday parties and pinball types there. The SS pinball types were crowded around teh Theatre of Magic and other good SS games and the EM pinball types were hitting Cent 37 and other classics. The party kids were running around playing just about everythin, but only once.

I then hit it on a weekday in the summer when the weather was so so and you onlt had the vacationers there. No oure pinballers. The parents are looking at the old machines and telling their kids all the stories about playing them in the past. They had no idea about the newer SS games. So TOM was free most of the time. I got to play it a bunch.

Since I am really an EM guy I had my pick of so many nice EM titles I was a kid in a candy store both times and it was great.

Trying to get my out of town buddy down for another trip this fall.