I wasn’t planning on hitting Musée Mécanique on this leg of my trip, but it’s five minutes from my hotel so I had to do it. It’s not the normal type of arcade that I go to, it’s more of a museum of the history of Coin-Op.
Located right in the middle of a bustling section of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, Musée Mécanique is free to enter. As such, even in the middle of a weekday afternoon it’s pretty crowded. It’s filled with the oldest and most unique coin operated machines that I’ve ever seen...fortune tellers, player pianos, strange dancing people, feats of strength, Flip movies and last but most importantly games.
The venue has a small selection of pinball machines that I used to add several EMs that I have never played before to my Pindigo list. Here’s the pins that are there courtesy of Pinball Map:
The Addams Family (Bally, 1992)
Fun Land (Gottlieb, 1968)
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (Williams, 1993)
Olympics (Gottlieb, 1962)
Pirates of the Caribbean (Stern, 2006)
Sing Along (Gottlieb, 1967)
Upper Deck (Williams, 1973)
Road Race (Gottlieb)
I’ve played all of the DMD games before, so I spent my quarters on Gottlieb Sing Along, Gottlieb Fun Land, Gottlieb Road Race and Gottlieb Olympics. Sing Along was my favorite of the group.
The arcade had way more video games than pins. There was several drivers and shooters, a bunch of the classics like Asteroids, Millipede, Star Wars, a 4 Slot Neo Geo, etc. there was less common games like Sunset Riders and Death Race too.
Visiting Musée Mécanique was an interesting experience. It wouldn’t be my go to spot for gaming but it’s neat to see things that you probably will never see anywhere else (You don’t see games called “Opium Den” any more lol) and as an added bonus, it’s located in a cool section of San Fran with lots of other fun things to do so it’s not a big commitment. It’s worth a trip if you’re in the area.
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