You do wonder sometimes how people come up with their ideas. An interactive pinball museum isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Budapest. But that doesn’t stop it looking like absolute, brilliant fun.

Museum is a bit of a misnomer here, because you can actually play the pinball machines: all 130 of them. Your estimated visit here is 2.5 hours, which gives some indication of the fun you’re about to have.

Spread over 400 square metres, the museum documents the surprisingly long history of pinball. The very first machines appeared as early as the late 19th century. The museum owner, Balázs Pálfi, describes with great nostalgia the “Time Machine”, a product of the 1970s arcade age which shaped our ideas of what a pinball machine is today. The Time Machine shows its influence on much of the museum’s collection.

If you’re too young to remember the 1970s, you might wonder how there can even be 130 different varieties of pinball. It helps -  as you’ll discover in the museum, that just about every major film and TV franchise has its own take: Star Wars, Popeye, Indiana Jones, even Family Guy. Rocky would surely never have become a film icon were it not for his pinball machine here in Hungary.

That said, the Pinball Museum isn’t just a novelty. It’s also a venue for pinball tournaments, including the biggest in Europe: the Hungarian Pinball Open.

Don’t miss the in-house snack bar (Bonus points are available if you can work out how to eat while playing pinball).

Apparently in response to high demand, the Museum has invested in a lot of step stools for young players. So don’t let your children miss out; this is an all-family affair.

Jonny Elling

Flippermúzeum

Budapest, Radnóti Miklós u. 18, 1137