Saratoga Pinball WizardHopes to Open Playable Museum

SARATOGA SPRINGS — When Lonnie Linen was only a teenager, his father died in a car accident. Linen felt lost, unsure of what to do in life. But his father left something behind that would awaken a lifelong passion.

“[My] dad had some slot machines in his house,” Linen said, “and so I took them and I renovated the basement and I made a game room. I was like, I’ll put dad’s slot machines there so I always see them and think of him.”

The touching homage to his late father sparked an idea in Linen: what if he got a pinball machine to add to his collection?

“I found a machine,” Linen said, “it was like a $150. It was falling apart. It was all rotten. The cabinet was all water damaged. It was held together by three-inch lag screws. It was beat.”

At the time, Linen worked at the now-closed RadioShack on Ballston Avenue in Saratoga Springs. He hauled his new prize to work and his boss allowed him to keep the machine in the store for a while.

“My buddy at the time, Ed, was like ‘I hope you have space. It’s never just one. They will multiply.’ I was like, dude I am a broke college kid. I have nothing. And he was like, ‘you’ll find a way.’ Sure enough, he was right. Now I have 60 of them.”

Linen’s sizable collection includes the 1980s medieval fantasy-themed “Sorcerer,” the rare “Deadly Weapon,” the classic “Fish Tales,” “Spectra IV” (a square-shaped cocktail game that spins around), “Caveman” (a pinball machine with a video game inside it), and the ultra-rare “Safety Zone.”

One machine that Linen hopes to add to his lineup is a 1948 “Saratoga,” manufactured by Williams. The game’s backglass features artwork of dressed-up ladies during Saratoga’s Gilded Age, sauntering through a garden outside a grand hotel. “Saratoga” was the first machine to feature thumper bumpers or pop bumpers, which used a metal ring to repel the ball. In other words, Saratoga already has its own unique place in pinball history. 

Now, Linen hopes to make Saratoga a pinball capital by opening an interactive museum that would host his collection and allow visitors to play the silver ball. Considering the Saratoga area is already home to one-of-a-kind museums such as the X-Files Preservation Collection (which features an X-Files pinball machine) and the National Bottle Museum, perhaps a pinball museum would fit right in.

Because Linen has been collecting and repairing machines for nearly a decade, the proposed museum’s maintenance would be handled by him and a few other local techs. As the organizer of the annual Saratoga Silverball Show, as well as the Saratoga Pinball League (hosted on Sunday afternoons at the Wow! Arcade in the Wilton Mall), Linen also has the requisite experience running pinball events. 

Linen said he hopes the museum would capture a “joyful essence” that he finds lacking at many entertainment centers and arcades around the country. 

“Trying to run a business and make money gets in the way of our mission: to bring the retro nostalgic joy back to older generations, and give future generations a chance to experience it firsthand,” Linen said. “My focus, and the mission of Saratoga Silverball/Saratoga Pinball Museum is to get people into pinball and build a scene in upstate New York.”

Linen is currently trying to raise $7,500 to cover the museum’s initial legal and startup fees. 

To learn more about the museum or to make a donation, visit www.gofundme.com/f/help-launch-the-saratoga-pinball-museum