The pinball museum opened in 2009. Before then, co-founder Robert Ilvento's daughter, who has autism, really loved playing pinball, so Ilvento, 57 started collecting pinball machines and built a collection. His longtime friend and business partner, restaurant owner Steve Zuckerman, also had a pinball machine collection. They combined their collections, and Silverball Retro Arcade was born.
"Even for all of us, and for young people now, it is a very tactile game," said Patty Barber, the museum's senior vice president. "All of these different arcade games ... you really have to use all your senses."
Barber said pinball makes you focus and be in the moment, which she said is a welcome breath of fresh air in an age of smartphones and tablets "where you just sit there and stare at it."
"It's almost like a record, how actual vinyl comes back, and then you realize you love that crisp sound," Barber said. "It's the same as we kept that alive here with the games, and it's something different or it's something from back in time that you remember doing when you were young."
