Tag Archives: history

Literary Pinball

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Recently, Katie traveled to Asbury Park, New Jersey and found herself at the Silver Ball Retro Arcade & Museum, right on the boardwalk. I’ve been to Silver Ball too, and I can tell you – the place is an amazing bit of fun, especially for all of us who remember actual arcades in the 80s and enjoy old school nachos.

From Silver Ball Museum, photography by Joseph Murphy

In between rolling skee-balls and attempting Donkey Kong, Katie spotted a Hobbit pinball machine. Later, that got us wondering. Exactly how many pinball machines HAVE derived from literature? As it turns out, quite a few!

If there’s a Hobbit pinball game, there has to be a Lord of the Rings game as well. In fact, there are many book-to-screen pinball machines. Harry Potter, Dracula, Jurassic Park, Frankenstein, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Jaws, Starship Troopers, Game of Thrones, an abundance of 007, and even graphic novel The Walking Dead. The Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory pinball game features graphics from the 1971 film (you were the greatest Gene Wilder), an Oompa-Loompa figurine, and an interactive Wonkavator!

From Lermods

Digging a little deeper, Katie and I turned up some more unexpected literary-themed machines. Like The Three Musketeers from 1949…

And this super saucy Peter Pan from 1955…

From Finside

Though technically not a book, this 1987 Dungeons & Dragons pinball game included graphics gleaned directly from the cover of the 1983 Player’s Manual. Which is awesome.

From Reddit

The Close Encounters of the Third Kind pinball game was based on the 1977 film. But there was a Close Encounters book! It was a novelization of the film published in tandem with the theatrical release. We believe this makes it eligible for the pinball literacy list. Plus, spaceships are cool.

While this next machine might not represent a specific book or literary character, it gets 100+ bonus points for being an amalgamation of several novels. May we present Verne’s World pinball from 1996 (with a depiction of the author, quill in hand!):

We found only one picture book turned pinball (unless you count this or this):

But the grand finale, voted hands-down winner of “Least Expected Literary Pinball” is this 2023 Godfather 50-year anniversary collectors edition, complete with a sculpted bust of Don Vito Corleone in his signature tux:

From Reddit

Which pinball game would YOU like to play?

Brick and Brickability

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Happy birthday Jane Austen! We’re celebrating this literary titan with a brick-tastic review of LEGO’s “Tribute to Jane Austen’s Books” set, constructed and reviewed by our legendary intern, Melanie Zhang. Take it away, Melanie!

The queen of witty quips herself, Jane Austen, has finally been given the recognition she deserves! The timing was perfect—Katie, Dr. Dana, and I had just been bemoaning the lack of female literary icons amongst our LEGO sets, when we happened upon LEGO’s Tribute to Jane Austen’s Books.

The set is composed of 361 pieces. While apparently meant only for builders 18 and above, I think this is definitely doable for kids as well, with maybe a little bit of help for the trickier parts. The most difficult portion for me personally was the stickers. Fortunately, I only encountered four. Three of them also show scenes from film adaptations of Jane’s books, so I can’t complain.

Jane’s little room came together pretty quickly. It took me around an hour to complete on fast-mode. However, this is definitely a set where you want to take your time and admire all the little bits and pieces as they come together. Once again, LEGO was incredibly creative with how pieces are used. You’ll never guess what are secretly masquerading as piano pedals!

One issue I encountered was that some pieces do not match the color of their instruction booklet counterparts. In particular, some pieces that are depicted as quite reddish in the instructions are more of a brown color in person. The different blue books on Jane’s shelf also gave me a bit of trouble. Fortunately, that was an easy fix, and I was able to carry on building.

The finished product is beautiful to look at, and makes for a pretty good mini-dollhouse as well. In her default position, Jane is facing away from her bookshelf, but she can very easily be standing before it and browsing for her next read.

Another quick readjustment, and she’s contemplating some time looking out the window or playing the piano. The possibilities are endless! Turn the set around, and now Jane is cozied up inside an open book. Back inside on a cold day, Jane could be warming her hands in front of the fire instead. As a side note, the fireplace does wobble a little.

This is a set that I’m sure Lizzie Bennett herself would be proud of. For the burgeoning Jane Austen fan in your life, whether they are fifteen (and being kept away from Bath) or twenty-seven (and feeling like a parental burden), this set will be sure to please.

The Great (Museum) Escape

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Katie, our resident queen of escape rooms, stumbled upon this little gem on a road trip, and decided to give it a go in the spirit of fun! Take it away, Katie!

Tucked away on a lower shelf in the toys/games aisle at the Walgreen’s Pharmacy outside of Sevierville, Tennessee was where I found the next at-home escape room to test for Pop Goes the Page. Created by Professor Puzzle, the mini game is titled “Escape from the Museum” and includes everything you need for the solve in a handy and travel friendly 3.5-inch by 5-inch box. Recommended for ages 12+, the list price on Amazon is $20.98, though I got my game on clearance for $3.99.

After reading the explanation story and glancing through the instructions, I carefully laid out the 11 puzzle cards and accompanying materials, which included a museum map, a calendar of events, a selection of rare postage stamps, and a foldout titled the “Cabinet of Curiosities.” Never fear: there are solutions provided for all of the puzzles if you get stuck.

I worked my way through the cards, starting with what I could solve the fastest to what I found was the most difficult. My personal favorite puzzles were mazes that cleverly hid a clue within the walls of the maze; it was a puzzle style I had never encountered before, but now hope to recreate myself.

It took me just over 3.5 hours to finish. I only needed to consult the solutions list once when I could NOT figure out the connection between two words. It was obscure enough that even after I had the answer, it still didn’t make sense. And when I say the way to escape was in plain sight, it was right there and I totally glanced over it until I solved all of the puzzles!

My only complaint is the game can only be played once. I have found other at-home escape rooms are able to be solved by taking notes on scratch paper, but that’s not the case here. It would be impossible to finish without writing directly on almost all of the provided cards.

“Escape from the Museum” is ideal to bring on vacation, pull out on a rainy weekend afternoon, or play anytime you need a fun challenge. It can absolutely be solved by just one person, but the individual cards easily allow for more players to participate. I agree with the suggested age range for kids who want to tackle the game on their own, but younger children can definitely play with help from their grown-ups. Since the box is not much bigger than a deck of cards, it can easily be tossed into a backpack or suitcase for play while on the go. It gets my enthusiastic recommendation!