A couple of weekends ago, I finally made my way to the Pinball Hall of Fame, located not too far from my apartment. I had heard that this pinball museum had opened sometime last year, but for one reason or another, I never made it down. Turns out it's one of the coolest finds in Las Vegas.

As soon as you walk in, it's clear how authentically vintage the Hall of Fame is. The first row contains 12 or so machines, laid side-by-side, many of them clearly hailing from the classic pinball days. As I went further into the room, I was surprised again and again by yet another full row of classic machines. All told, there are probably 60-70 pinball machines in there, ranging from the 1940's to present day. And did I mention that they're all playable?

I played a dinosaur-themed machine from the 70's, a Western-themed one from the late 40's, and an odd magnet-based game called "Orbital" where the ball rotates around bumper "planets" -- and then I played the so-called "Holy Grail of pinball machines" -- "The Pinball Circus."

"The Pinball Circus" is the best pinball machine I have ever played. $1.5 million dollars was spent designing it sometime in the early 90's, but for various reasons, only two were ever made. The Pinball Hall of Fame has one of them. It's built vertically, more like an arcade game than the usual inclined plane structure found in pinball machines, and has four tiers, each of which with its own set of flippers.

So you start at the bottom, go up a ramp to a small area with a single flipper, which can hit it up another ramp onto an animatronic elephant, which lifts up your ball to another level with two flippers, which can hit it into a divot where a giraffe lifts the ball up another foot or so to the top of the machine, where it's deposited into a clown's mouth, also with two flippers. At that point, the ball can be hit down its throat if you can knock down the teeth. Of course, you can fall at every level back down to the first, where you can lose your ball.

Here is a detailed picture of the playfield. It looks a little confusing at that angle, but it isn't while you're playing. It costs $1 to play, but you get at least five balls and the gameplay is fast-paced and scored by entertaining circus music.

Yet another Las Vegas gem tucked away in an unassuming strip mall.

Pictures from GameSetWatch, which has some more details about "The Pinball Circus."