In case you haven’t heard, I Jeffrey Matucha, a mere Bay Area Native, am going to try and break the World Record for the longest time playing pinball in the middle of April at the San Francisco pinball arcade Free Gold Watch. I am doing this in conjunction with raising funds for Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, a charity that raises funds to help end Duchenne.

The current record is 32 hours and 2 minutes, I plan to play for 33 hours!

Details about this upcoming event can be found at my blog post here:

33 Hours of Pinball – Yes, Really!

To prepare for this epic World Record attempt, and to get a better idea of what I’m in for, I decided to take a training day at thee grand pinball arcade Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, California. If you’re not familiar with this place, it is a must visit!

Basically my training day consisted of spending all day hanging out at Pacific Pinball Museum, from opening until closing. A total of 11 hours, a little more than one-third of what I would have to endure in order to break the record!

According to Guinness Book of World Records, during my record breaking attempt,I am allowed a five minute break for every hour of pinball playing, and I can bank break minutes. During my training day at PPM I played pretty much straight through except for a half hour lunch break. For the world record attempt I have to play on one game, which I didn’t do at PPM. Partly because it’s against the rules: You aren’t allowed to camp out on a game. And also because this was just a training day, a day to see what I’m in for and to find out if I wanted to change anything up for the day in question.

I keep referring to this as a training day, but it didn’t feel like a training day. I spent the better part of Junior High playing pinball at Berkeley’s infamous Silverball Gardens, a now long-gone video game and pinball arcade of yesteryear. I will say this: Time flies when you’re playing pinball! The first few hours didn’t feel like training at all. I’m a long distance runner, and I can tell you that the first few miles of just about any training run are a chore. Until you get warmed up you’re just plodding along. After those first few miles you get into a rhythm and it’s a lot more fun.

During the first three to four hours at PPM I only stopped playing pinball to move to another machine. I stopped halfway through my training day for a quick lunch break at a diner just down the block. I was initially worried about how my hands and wrists were going to take the constant playing, but I think my feet got the worst of it. I believe standing all the time is going to be the hardest part.

I discovered from an article about the current world record holder, who broke this record last year, that he was advised not to lean on the machine, as it would make his wrists and hands hurt worse during extended pinball playing if he did so. That’s something that takes concentration, because one’s natural inclination is to lean on the machine as one is playing. I also found during my training day that it was easier on my hands and wrists if I didn’t grip the sides of the machine, as I tend to do when I really get into a game. Keep the hands and arms loose!

Pacific Pinball Museum also has all kinds of
pinball memorabilia such as posters and artwork!

During the day the crowds waned in and out: A few people at first, then a rush, and then it calmed down around midday. Then a pack of people in the late afternoon and evening. Most people seemed to only stay for a few hours. There were also not one, but two parties in the back room: One in the afternoon and another one in the evening.

The employees didn’t seem to take much note of me. I was wondering if they would start to wonder why I was there so long, but I have to imagine that they’ve had plenty of all-day hangabouts before. I did get sideswiped a few times by some of the more roving employees, especially one fellow who was obsessed with checking the machines and constantly resetting ones that had unfinished games. That was in the morning though. The evening guy was content to hang out in the front.

I mostly played the more modern and “modern” machines, but I also took a crack at some of the more classic games from the early 80’s, 70’s, and a couple of games from the 60’s. My world record attempt will be on a more recent game, one that’s in decent shape and can take a 30+ hour beating. While I have not definitively decided on a single game, I will most likely be playing the Batman 66 game for my world record attempt. (Free Gold Watch has one! PPM does not at this moment.)

I did feel a bit tired after nearly eleven hours of standing around and playing pinball, but all in all I believe I have a better idea of how well I will do during my 33 hours of pinball attempt. I can say that a five minute break every hour is pretty generous, so I’m confident that I have what it takes to tackle this world record challenge, especially after that training day.

Pinball is fun, but 11 straight hours
is also a lot of work!