https://museemecanique.com is an absolute must-visit if you’re in San Francisco. It’s full of vintage games, amusements, curiosities and penny arcade games. They have a mind-boggling selection – Wurlitzers, pianos, a Violana Virtuosa, shooting games, love meters, viewing machines of the 1906 earthquake, intricate model farms, cowboy towns, ferris wheels made from toothpicks by San Quentin prisoners – and some classic arcade games too, like Star Wars. Go in, get $10 or $20 converted into quarters (most of them are only 25c or 50c), and drop coins into whatever takes your fancy – including their famous “Laughin’ Sal” – it’s wild!

A number of the vintage games certainly wouldn’t get made today, including the ones that featured small costumed model figures in castles and prisons – and showed an execution!

Also, one of the viewing machines was especially interesting: it showed photographs from the trial of William Edward Hickman – known as “The Fox” – who kidnapped Marion Parker in Los Angeles in 1927. The case was a sensation at the time, and still one of the most notorious in SoCal history – read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Marion_Parker