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Some clouds. Low 61F. Winds light and variable.

Co-owners of the Electromagnetic Pinball Museum in Pawtucket, Emily Rose, Michael Pare, and Joe Paquin in front of some of the games in their collection of wood-railed, electromagnetic pinball machines.

Electromagnetic Pinball Museum co-owners Michael Pare, Joe Paquin, and Emily Rose are pictured with the dozens of playable machines in the main hall of the museum at 881 Main St., Pawtucket.

Co-owners of the Electromagnetic Pinball Museum in Pawtucket, Emily Rose, Michael Pare, and Joe Paquin in front of some of the games in their collection of wood-railed, electromagnetic pinball machines.

Electromagnetic Pinball Museum co-owners Michael Pare, Joe Paquin, and Emily Rose are pictured with the dozens of playable machines in the main hall of the museum at 881 Main St., Pawtucket.

PAWTUCKET – Since opening a year ago, the Electromagnetic Pinball Museum in Pawtucket has more than quadrupled its collection of pinball machines and is beginning to make a national name for itself among enthusiasts of the classic game.

Located in the Creative Commerce Center at 881 Main St. in Pawtucket, the non-profit museum and arcade is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Patrons pay $10 for one day of unlimited play, and the admission ticket allows them to leave and return during the same day of purchase. Free parking is available in a lot on Thurston Street.

The non-profit is co-owned and run by the trio of Michael Pare, Emily Rose and Joe Paquin, and each is filled with encyclopedic knowledge of the game’s history. The main hall of the interactive museum is aglow from the displays of the pinball machines squeezed in from wall to wall, and organized by manufacturers and age.

“We kind of hit people with the history right off the bat. We go from 1952 all the way up to 2022,” Rose said, gesturing down the rows of machines.

The collection, which now totals roughly 130 pinball machines, is a combination of the co-owners’ own games and machines accumulated through donations. Pare said his collection began eight years ago with one machine in his private collection. They continued collecting machines at home as the idea for the museum began to manifest.

By the time they opened, Pare, Rose and Paquin as curators had amassed 30 or so machines of their own. Since moving into their space and making a name for themselves among pinball aficionados, Pare said donations have continued to roll in. Another portion of the collection was acquired with the help of a local high school student who undertook his senior project with the pinball museum.

“Because of everyone’s generosity we have grown much quicker than we anticipated, even through the pandemic,” Pare said.

To name a few, classics in the collection include the 1989 machine “Earthshaker,” with the first shaking motor in pinball and shakes the whole game, the 1979 machine “Gorgar,” the first talking pinball game, and the 1981 machine “Blackhole,” an infamously difficult game with multiple balls moving simultaneously on two levels.

The trio recently attended the annual Pintastic New England pinball convention in Sturbridge, Mass. last month. They have attended Rhode Island Comic-Con and other conventions, where they met celebrities like William Shatner and George Takei, who each signed their Star Trek games.

Not all the games have been found or donated in great shape. Some games were found abandoned in locations as far away as Martha’s Vineyard or Westport, Mass. Even the Star Trek machine was found “on the side of the road in Connecticut.”

“So where do we get our machines from? Absolutely everywhere,” Paquin said.

Most of the time, Pare said, even donated machines show signs of use from their previous life. The trio spends many hours cleaning and repairing the machines to restore them to playable quality. The back hall of the museum stores a handful of non-functional machines, with some used as a “chop-shop” of sorts, Paquin said, as they search for specific parts or find duplicates to create one functioning machine.

Rose said they have one of the largest collections of electromagnetic machines for public play. Electromechanical pinball machines are among the first electrical ball amusement games ever produced. Unlike pinball machines of today, which use complex computing systems and microchips, electromechanical pinball machines rely on countless numbers of switches, relays and miles of wire to operate.

The large collection of machines is exciting for enthusiasts, Rose said, as each one is a new playing field to compete on. High scores on machines show the repeating names of a handful of regular patrons. While some folks are competing on the leaderboard, Rose said she loves the feeling of playing “versus the machine.” Paquin said he finds a sense of zen when he gets sucked into a game.

“I become part of the machine,” Paquin said.

Each of the co-owners said they fell in love with the game growing up at different ages, and some of their favorites games are from these informative years. Pare said the game that “started it all” for him was the 1992 Adams Family machine, which is still one of the most popular pinball games of all time.

While the game has survived for generations, its popularity has ebbed and flowed over time, and the museum hopes to keep the game alive. Rose shared the story of Roger Sharpe, ‘the man who saved pinball’ in the late 1970s. Sharpe gained notoriety following a 1976 New York hearing where he provided a demonstration to members of the Manhattan City Council, that pinball was a game of skill rather than one of chance and therefore was not subject to legal prohibitions on gambling, thus convincing the council to overturn New York City’s 35-year ban on pinball machines.

With the low cost, Paquin encouraged local and visiting families to stop in during a hot summer day.

“For a family of four coming in, it’s $40 and you can play all day,” Paquin said. “We’re cheaper than a movie, and we don’t kick you out after two hours.”

Beyond the main pinball hall is the arcade with a dozen other games including Skeeball, driving games, basketball, hit the hammer, Tempest, a Ferrari simulator, and a signed 1979 Star Trek game. The museum and arcade also boasts a venue space that can be rented for birthday parties, company retreats, and other events.

The Electromagnetic Pinball Museum is holding two, week-long summer camp programs for children ages 10 to 15 this month. The first week is ending this week, but the second week will be held July 18-22. Sign-ups for the July 18 week are still open. To learn more, visit facebook.com/ElectroMagneticPinball/ or electromagneticpinballmuseum.com.

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