World's Largest Pinball Museum: world record set in Banning, California
BANNING, California, United States--The Museum of Pinball, a non-profit museum dedicated to the preservation and advocacy of pinball machines and other arcade games; with an 18-acre campus, over 40,000 sq ft of museum space, and over 700 total games on display it was the World's Largest Pinball Museum, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.
“A lot of people go ‘I don’t want you to touch my machine,’ but I want to share,” John Weeks, who founded the museum, told the Los Angeles Daily News.
"Once an arcade owner himself, Weeks started collecting pinball machines in the ’90s, The Culture Trip reports.
"Now, the Museum of Pinball contains more than 1,000 vintage and modern arcade games, including over 600 pinball machines. Among the collection are a few games dating back to 1855 and novelty items like Hercules, a jumbo machine that uses cue balls instead of pinballs."
The World's Largest Pinball Museum originally opened on January 16 in 2016 and kicked off the Southern California Arcade Expo – the biggest in the state’s history. At the time, the building featured over 750 pinball and arcade machines.
Why a Museum of Pinball?
- Pinball is experiencing a massive comeback.
- We want young people to experience the excitement of an electronic game that doesn’t just appear on a screen.
- We want people who grew up playing pinball to rediscover their passion for the game…or what we like to call a “sport.”
- We want to help bring competitive pinball tournaments into the spotlight.
- We want to preserve the amazing history of the game.
- Ultimately, we just want more people to fall in love with pinball.
An 18 Acre Pinball Campus
Located a little over an hour from Los Angeles and Orange County and 20 minutes from Palm Springs, California, the Museum of Pinball was a non-profit organization with a campus that included…
- 18 acres just a few miles from the Morongo Casino & Resort and Cabazon Outlets with thousands of visitors and tourists flooding the area each day.
- 40,000 square feet designated for the first phase of the Museum of Pinball and another 87,000 square feet we’ve already leased to a local business (which we hope to expand to in the future with more pinball and arcade games).
- Over 1,100 pinball machines and arcade games (both vintage and modern).
- 5 acres of mature trees where we plan to develop a retro trailer hotel with 20 refurbished, vintage recreational vehicles – each decorated uniquely. (This is part of the 2nd phase of our plan.)
- Due to costs of maintaining the collection, the Museum closed in September 2021 and auctioned off its collection.
"What an interesting afternoon spent here. I’m not personally so keen or knowledgeable on pinball machines, and vintage games of the like — but those whom I was hanging with were ‘feeling it’ and had fun, and I did as well! It’s certainly an ‘off-the-beaten-path’ adventure, says a visitor on Trip Advisor.
"I liked that it was a kinda ‘geeky’ and predominantly all-male bonding type of ‘vibe’ — in addition to it being held in a tripped-out late 1940s warehouse, part of that group of industrial-use complex of buildings, some now abandoned, adjacent to and surrounding that creepy Banning airport (which I’ve ever seen planes fly out of, or into, ever!). So, it was fun."
World's Largest Pinball Museum
Location: 700 S Hathaway St; Banning, California, 92220; United States
Coordinates: 33.9189°N 116.8590°W;
Hours: Due to costs of maintaining the collection, the Museum closed in September 2021 and auctioned off its collection.
Official website: http://www.museumofpinball.org/
The GUINNESS WORLD RECORD for the most people playing pinball simultaneously is 331, achieved by the Museum of Pinball (USA) in Banning, California, USA, on 17 January 2015.
GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS also recognized the world record for the largest pinball machine measures 16.4 m (53 ft 9 in) long, 7.5 m (24 ft 7in) wide and 10.7 m (35 ft 1 in) tall, and was made by Heineken Italia s.p.a (Italy). It was demonstrated and measured in Porta Genova, Milan, Italy, on 12 April 2014.
