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Travel

Florida museum has pinball wizards abuzz

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TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

The Silverball Museum in Delray Beach, Fla., has 88 pinball machines and other games to play.

Forty years ago a person could go into a serious quarter deficit in a place like the Silverball Museum in Delray Beach, Fla. With 88 pinball machines as well as two dozen arcade games, the attraction has been luring the flipper-obsessed since it opened in 2016.

Nowadays, though, you just pay a flat fee and it’s free play. For $25 you could pull back and let her rip all day long, or just play for 30 minutes for $7.50 or one hour for $10. There are $15 afternoon and evening passes as well.

IF YOU GO …
Silverball Museum
>> Where: 19 NE 3rd Ave., Delray Beach, Fla.
>> Call: 561-266-3294
>> Info: silverballmuseum.com/delray-beach

So you don’t have to throw your back out lugging around a pocketful of quarters while you try your hand at Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure. There are also pinball games for “Rocky,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “The Addams Family.”

For music fans, try the Elvis, Guns N’ Roses or Ted Nugent pinball machines. And there’s not one, but two KISS pinball games, one in English and one in German. Also, don’t get star-struck by the Elton John-inspired Captain Fantastic.

For those who like joysticks and pixels, classic video games include Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Asteroids, Frogger, Missile Command, Space Invaders and even Tank.

And yes, there’s Skee-Ball, as well. But the star is the pinball machine, which surprisingly has the ability to suck in not only the crowds that grew up on such entertainment, but also the younger minds of Generation Swipe.

Owner Rob Ilvento has pinball machines dating back decades, with several machines from the 1950s and 1960s, and with a few from this millennium as well.

Also on-site is boardwalk food fare, including pizza, hot dogs, chicken wings and tenders, and funnel cakes. A more refined menu offers things like lobster rolls, shrimp cocktail, hummus platters, crab cakes and even kale salad with poppy seed dressing. There are also beer, wine and $5 bottomless soda.

The daily attraction is open 11 a.m.-midnight Sunday-Thursday and 11-2 a.m. Friday-Saturday.

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