Musée Méchanique

Free to visit, you just a couple of quarters to try out the machines.

I have seen a lot of museums while travelling around the world, but my favourite museum has to be the Musée Méchanique in San Francisco.  Made up of a personal collection of 160 penny arcade machines (video game machines before there were video games and electricity), this museum is as hands on as it gets. 

Two of the classic machines that you can use and be entertained by.  The white machine
is a movie machine that you have to crank by hand.

You can actually still use all the machines (some are over 100 years old), from strength testers to dancing puppets, it is amazing to see how each machine is different.  The machines aren’t being stored behind a thick layer of glass, quite the opposite they are all out and waiting to be explored.  Pop a quarter into the fortune telling machine and wait for your fortune to pop out on a card. 

For only 25 cents this fortune teller will give you some very wise advice.

Feeling tired of today’s flashy, fast-paced video games?  You can revisit some classic video games like Pong and Pac-man here at the museum.  I think the real reason I enjoyed this museum so much is that each machine made me feel like a kid again, especially the strength tester, it told me I am as strong as a little boy!  Now that isn’t very nice.

The Santa Claus Work Shop comes to life and all the little elves start hammering
away when you insert a quarter into the machine.