📅 Open Thursdays – Mondays
🕐 12 – 6 pm
📍 Seattle Pinball Museum: 508 Maynard Ave S, Seattle (Chinatown-International District)
💰 $20–$23 admission, includes unlimited play
🍺 Beer and soft drinks available
🚗 Street parking available; light rail to International District station
The most hands-on museum in town, the Seattle Pinball Museum originally opened as a temporary venue in the Chinatown-International District (CID) in the summer of 2010 thanks to the Seattle Storefront initiative. It became so popular it became a permanent fixture of the district. Dedicated not just to the preservation and history of the ol’ flippers-and-balls (that’s what I call pinball machines, at least), it’s also dedicated to me having a fun time before I catch a show at Theatre Off Jackson.
The best news? Once you pay the entrance fee ($20+), everything is on Free Play, so no need to lug around oh-so-heavy-and-cumbersome-and-noisy quarters from machine to machine. Free Play encourages roaming, and the cabinets are presented in chronological order. There’s nothing like getting destroyed on a newfangled rock band tie-in game (hey look, it’s the Foo Fighters!), then heading to the other side of the museum and having a much chiller time on 1960s boards called things like “Bobo” and “Buckaroo.” There’s also beer and arcade games. So have a (pin)ball!
A First-Timer’s Guide to Arcades in Seattle 🕹️
Seattle is a hub for professional pinball players, so if you dig the game enough, maybe you’ve found your calling to join the ranks of local pinball masters! There are tons of places to play arcade games around here, but here’s a list of places to start.
🎮 Georgetown Pizza and Arcade (Georgetown)
🎮 Time Warp (Capitol Hill)
🎮 Unicorn (Capitol Hill)
🎮 Add-a-Ball (Fremont)
🎮 The Icebox Arcade (Fremont)
🎮 Coindexter’s (Greenwood)
🎮 Shorty’s (Belltown)
🎮 Jupiter Bar (Belltown)
🎮 Gameworks (Downtown)
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