Pinball Heaven in Asbury Park

Before You Go

By Anthony Bucci, Assistant Editor On Apr 4, 2014

First opened in 2009 in the basement of a retail store in Asbury Park, the Silverball Pinball Museum is much more than what its name implies. It is a place where people “of all ages can come to not only learn about the history of pinball machines, but also actually play them,” according to Dan Toskaner, general manager of the museum.

Silverball is not your typical “look and see” museum with artifacts locked up behind glass enclosures. It is a hands-on shrine of arcade and pinball games from the past 65-plus years.

Owner Rob Ilvento – who is also the founder and owner of the Cluck-U Chicken franchise – began purchasing pinball machines for his home due to the fact that his autistic daughter took a liking to them. Soon, his house was filled with machines, so he decided to turn it into a business.

“When Rob first opened the museum in 2009 at its original location, he had around 30 pinball machines and found that people really liked what he was doing … and it started to become successful,” Toskaner says. “From there, he decided to expand into a larger facility on the Asbury Park boardwalk.”

The museum is now approximately 5,000 square feet and has more than 200 machines that not only include pinball, but Skee-Ball, air hockey, bubble hockey and classic upright arcade games like Pac-Man and Galaga, as well.

Toskaner says that with having so many games, one of the biggest challenges is keeping them looking and running like new, considering how old most of the machines are, and the amount of usage they receive.

“I would say that 75 percent of our machines are from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, so it can be extremely difficult to keep them running,” he says. “And we aren’t like a regular arcade where people are putting in quarters, limiting them to how long they can play. They play as long as they want for a set fee. The machines get a lot more use this way. That is why we have to constantly make sure we are taking care of them and keep them running, so people can experience everything we have to offer.”

According to Toskaner, the uniqueness of Silverball however, is why it has been so successful and will likely have an audience for years to come.

“We’ve been rapidly growing an audience since we’ve been in existence,” he says. “We see a lot of people; from die hard pinball players, to collectors, to casual players who remember pinball – but may not have played or seen a pinball machine they used to love for a long time. It just brings them back to those days. We even get a lot of kids who have no clue what a pinball machine is, but when they come in, they have fun playing and learning about them.”

Toskaner concludes, “Because we are a niche and a specialty, and you cannot find something like this almost anywhere – especially here in New Jersey – people will continue to come here and enjoy themselves.”

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