A world of mecanical machines
The Musée Mecanique at San Francisco's Pier 45 brings together two of the city’s greatest tourist draws: History and entertainment. It’s an arcade, with some of the oldest and rarest games in the industry.
From the outside, ten strikes looks like a pinball machine. But as you get closer, you see it’s different. It’s made of wood, it’s not branded to some blockbuster movie, it’s about bowling ! And instead of flipping the ball up to hit targets, you simply allow gravity to guide the ball down and help you get a strike.
Down an aisle , another machine isn’t a game at all. It’s a mechanized display of a carnival, complete with roller coasters and sideshows. It’s a work of art that animates with the drop of a coin.
I look up from the amusements and spot something else I don’t see every day. A man on skates, sliding past the machines
DAN ZELINSKY : This is one of my favorite playing pianos here
Dan Zelinsky owns the Musée Mécanique. He took it over after his father, the arcade's founder, passed away.
DAN ZELINSKY : My father started this collection in 73, he was just 11 years old. he bought this small machine. He went back home and his mum and dad put pennies in it, his friends put pennies in it, and then he has another 50 cents to buy another machine, and on and on and on, to make a long story short, we have a 300 operated machine collection now.
It's one of the world's largest, privately owned, coin operated collection where you’re actually allowed to play.
HANNA HAMMEL : I am from Washington DC. I have my quarters out and I’m trying to pick, but I’m having trouble deciding what’s the best use of my quarter. (LAUGHTER)
She might try this one...
DAN ZELINSKY : You hit the plunger and you try to get anyone but the button zero... of course I put two balls in... And we have got 15 points above the bet.
That one's called the Whirlwind. Then there is the Cantina De Rosa.
DAN ZELINSKY : They will be dancing, as soon as I get the Canadian corner out...
There are machines that show scenes, alongside driving games and shooter games, there is pinball, foosball, skee-ball and air hockey.
DAN ZELINSKY : what we are trying to do is to show the evolution of the coin operated industry. the entertainment aspect of that from the earliest machine 1884 thru the modern machine or even modern video games that are 20 or 30 years old already.
That's the Prep Cynescope the oldest machine out here
this is the oldest machine, what does this one do?
That is the first motion picture machine. And I don't know if you can see it from this far but, it's doing it's thing !
When you put your eyes up to the glass, you see a series of photos, like a flip-book. They show a young girl dancing.
Zelinsky can fix all these machines himself In fact, he even built some from scratch. One is called Song Of the Prairie.
DAN ZELINSKY : Its brand new my friend and I just built it ...
Fun... so what do you think guys? thumbs up, thumbs down?
this bunch of cow boys sitting around the camp fire eating dinner...
EVA SONCIN: So how did you get this passion of making machines?
DAN ZELINSKY : What really motivates it it's the frustration of poorly made machines. And you think, since you do the repair all the time, And so If I made my own machines I will do this, this way, I will do that, that way. And eventually, you end it making a machine !
Zelinsky makes his full time living at the Musée Mécanique, and he has been able to hire four part time workers. Fisherman's Wharf, where the museum is located, draws more than 10 millions visitors a year. So, business is good ! Which means, even though the Musée Mécanique is old, Zelinsky plans to keep it growing !
DAN ZELINSKY: Always looking... My dad sold some machines that I am trying to put back into the collection, but if something is cool, Coin operated something fun, I mean, that’s what its all about !