Museums are fun and interesting, but usually they are strictly hands off experiences. The best part of the American Classic Arcade Museum is that it is all hands on! You can play every arcade game on display. This includes hundreds of coin operated games - from the pre-electricity era, to video games, pinball games, simulators, and more.
This museum explores the early history of pinball games, which were demonized during the Great Depression as gambling machines. You can play these early games, as well as the electronic versions of pinball that were invented in the 1950s. You can see the early video coin operated games such as Pong and Space Invaders, and the video games that evolved from vector graphics to high resolution. It is a trip down memory lane to play or watch other people play these games you might have known in high school or college.
This is a completely FREE museum, open to the public. The money collected from the coin operated games goes right back into restoring and maintaining these vintage machines, and the operating expenses like spare parts, a curator, electricity, and other costs. There are also educational display boards, cut-away models, guest lectures, and a large collection of vintage advertising materials and catalogs.
The American Classic Arcade Museum is located on the top floor of The Fun Spot, the world's largest arcade and entertainment center. This arcade has over 600 games, including the 300 classic arcade and pinball machines in the museum, a 20 lane ten pin and candlepin bowling center, cash bingo, kiddie bumper cars, and indoor mini-golf. Tokens purchased work at all games inside the Fun Spot and the museum.
"COMPUTER
SPACE
Nutting Associates 1971
Computer Space was the first ever coin-operated video game.
It is a basic space-war type game where the player controls a
rocket ship and faces off against flying saucers. Created by
Nolan Bushnell, it cast the mold for all arcade video games
that would follow. This design trend included a logic board to
run that particular game only, as opposed to a multi-purpose
computer, a video display, hand controls, coin acceptor and
separate power supply. The coin-box in this game was made
from a paint-thinner can. The monitor used in this game is a
converted video tube-type television."
The classic Space Invaders
A two person tabletop Ms. Pac Man game console.
This type of game was popular in bars and pizza joints in the 1980s.
A wall full of classic pinball machines.
This console had the classic Pong. the world's first computer video game, invented by New Hampshire's Ralph Baer. You can read more about the inventor Baer at this post:
There were plenty of classic pinball games from the past on display,
including this massive wooden game.
A display of early home computer game controllers.
This tiny little video game machine for toddlers was too cute to not take a photo!
The American Classic Arcade Museum website: https://www.classicarcademuseum.org/
579 Endicott Street North
Laconia, New Hampshire
603-393-7903
Open daily 10am to 10pm, closed Thanksgiving and Christmas. Temporarily closed now.
Click here to read other 20th Century Americana blog posts:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/20th%20Century%20Americana
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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The American Classic Arcade Museum, Laconia, New Hampshire - 20th Century Americana", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 16, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-american-classic-arcade-museum.html: accessed [access date]).
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