Budapest’s Flipper Museum

It may be called a ‘museum’ though what you’ll find inside is a lot less educational than what the term typically advertises. The Flipper Museum [Budapest, 1137, Radnóti Miklós u. 18, 1137 Hungary] is quite possibly the best arcade I’ve ever been to. This joint is chock full of 130 unique pinball machines ranging from some of the very first made,

to classic 60s and 70s, and modern marvels. To get in you pay a fee of $8 for a regular admission, or $4 for a student/senior rate and have access to unlimited games. You can stay as long as you want, on certain nights they’re open until midnight so this can be a great alternative spot to hang out after the sun goes down. There are multiple rooms to explore as you hop form machine to machine getting the feel for each of them, all with their own personalities. I couldn’t stop singing pinball wizard to myself, and gleefully discovered the Who’s Tommy machine and played a few rounds!

My favorite machine however was an Atari called Space Riders from the late 70s.

There was something so sleek and groovy about the interface, it played so clean. When I was speaking with one of the employees he told me that it was the widest machine in the collection, I knew it was special! The guys that work there are very friendly and happy to talk history with you.

I asked one what his favorite machine was as we were walking around he brought me over to the Apollo 13. He told me to hang on as he expertly got it started then all of the sudden told me to jump in and WHAM-O! 13 balls came with the jackpot and it was mayhem. He grabbed my camera and took a video of me immersed in the game.

If you’re not into pinball, but still love arcade games you can certainly still find fun here. Other games shoot-um-up games and classic arcade games are present.

This is such a funky place to spend a few hours having a ball!