Arcade Museum Budapest Is Now Open – With Over 100 Playable Machines
Budapest's new arcade and pinball museum, Arcade Museum Budapest, has opened its doors. At Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út 37, across 600 square meters, more than 100 original arcade machines and pinball tables await visitors — and what makes the museum truly special is that every exhibited machine actually works and can be played.
It's worth clarifying, though, that Arcade Museum Budapest is not an arcade hall. It's an interactive museum that shows the history, technical evolution, and culture of arcade machines and pinball tables by letting them run.
Over 100 machines, decades of history
The Arcade Museum Budapest collection spans several eras. Classic arcade video games, unique cabinets, mechanical and electromechanical machines, and pinball tables from different generations sit side by side.
Across the collection of more than 100 machines, you can trace exactly how arcade machines changed over the decades: how the technology, graphics, sound, controls, and of course the games themselves evolved.
Alongside well-known classics, the museum also holds rarities of which only a few working examples still exist today.
Here, you can actually try out arcade history
You can, of course, look at an old machine through glass — but the real experience begins the moment it switches on.
That's why every machine on display at Arcade Museum Budapest can be played.
You can stand in front of a real arcade cabinet, hold the joystick, hear the machines' distinctive sound, play on classic CRT monitors, or find out what a real pinball table feels like when its lights, mechanics, and sounds all kick in at once.
Exactly the way these machines were originally meant to be experienced.
A trip back in time for those who were there – a discovery for those who weren't
Many visitors will instantly recognize a machine, a sound, or a graphic from their childhood or youth. Others will meet these machines in person for the first time, having previously only seen them in films, videos, or emulators.
That's what makes Arcade Museum Budapest so interesting: it means something different to every generation.
For some, it's nostalgia. For others, it's the history of technology. For others still, it's simply a world they're discovering for the very first time.
Arcade and pinball rarities in the heart of Budapest
Alongside the classic machines, the collection also includes special and rare pieces.
One example is an early prototype of a pinball machine built around the world of The Big Lebowski. And just like every other machine in the museum, it wasn't brought to Budapest just to be admired from a distance.
Arcade Museum Budapest's goal is to keep these machines in working order so future generations can also experience what arcade culture was like in its original form.
We're open – Arcade Museum Budapest is waiting for you!
If you still remember the glow of CRT monitors, the feel of joysticks, the clatter of pinball machines, and the unmistakable sound of arcade cabinets, you'll definitely find a familiar moment here.
And if you've only ever seen all this on a screen, now's your chance to try the real thing.
More than 100 arcade machines and pinball tables. 600 square meters. And every single machine can be played.
Arcade Museum Budapest
📍 1065 Budapest, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út 37.
Arcade history isn't behind glass here. Switch it on, and play!