This place will forever hold a special place in my heart, because upon my first time excitedly experiencing the place (I've heard many great things over the years), my fiancé proposed to me and captured the moment in one of the vintage photobooth machines! I definitely felt a complete sense of awe and wonderment walking through the labyrinth of vintage games, old photos, and moving dioramas. It reminded me of my late Grandfather, as he collected similar little things like this and I knew he would've loved this place. My fiancé and I will definitely be coming back here to play more games, have our fortunes read (loved those machines), and tell the story of our engagement to our little humans in the future. read more

Musee Mecanique - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

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This is one of those spots where you go to reminisce and bring a butt load of quarters. (It's not very fun if you can't watch the silliness in action.) This museum is basically a bunch of old skool mechanical machines that takes you baaaaackkk in the daaaayyyyy. Some of these remind me of that movie Big with those crazy Fortune Teller machines. Gives you an appreciation for the way life was much simpler before. None of this "oh crap my game just froze" stuff. Just simple pure goofball fun. They even have skeeball and a few old arcade machines here. Out of the goofier machines, one in particular sticks out because it was so utterly useless but ridiculously funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT9HLYXjvys read more

I've been going here since I was a kid- and honestly, it never gets old. Every trip to the wharf ends up getting some food across the musee mecanique, eating it while looking out at alcatraz and having some fun in the old arcade. It's just nice to see how all the antique games and oddities worked. Some are quite morbid, but it's all fun! If you go all the way at the back there's some *newer* arcade games as well as a bball hoot and skeeeeball! It's just a cool place to go to especially when it's crowded cause you can watch other people put their coins in and have a free mini show. love this place, it never ever gets old! read more

Such a fun place to take the kiddies, go on a date, or visit if you are a history buff, or just like old timey games and are not computer addicted. Get a strike at mechanical bowling, so simple and so fun. So addicting. It will perform a magic act with your quarters, making them disappear. Check out the turn-of-the-century dime peep shows. hehehe Maybe the old Opium Den. yeah it basically creaks and moving parts and such. Or any of the older games, they're kinda creepy faces, shiver down spine. Dance to some music in the middle of an isle, that's what we did. Just get ready to laugh and get silly and see how your parents/g-parents did their carnivals back in the day before Atari hit the scene. And there's a photo booth, for those who are looking to take silly pictures with friend or loved one. Bring plenty of quarters and nickels and dimes, I know, right. read more

Oh how I love, love, love, LOVE this place! It's one of the only places in the world that has a WORKING "Bimbo Box," one of my favorite amusements of all time. Put in a quarter and watch the German monkeys play instruments in the style of Herb Alpert. If that's not worth 25 cents then I don't know what is. read more

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This has to be the coolest museum we found while on our vacation. There are so many antique games in this building. We watched an old fashioned execution. Cost a quarter and totally hillarious! We also got a real old fashioned photo booth photo taken, took the entire five minutes and was my very first photo booth photo. We enjoyed wandering around and seeing all the cool old games. Admission is free to browse, but you will need money to play any of the games. read more

It was a long drive west to San Francisco (from Sacramento) one early July day. The drive was extremely long for what unknown reason. By the time we all had the chance to stretch our legs most of the hours of playing tourist had almost slipped through our fingers. We ate lunch and began to meander around the Fisherman's Wharf area. By happenstance we came across Musee Mecanique. A light turned on within me. All of a sudden I remembered seeing a review about this place on Yahoo! Travel. I told everybody that we needed to stop on in because it was supposed to be one of the top places to visit in San Francisco. Sure enough, this place delighted. What an awesome museum. Greeted by Laffing Sal (aka The Fat Lady), you are immediately thrown into a different era. This museum is completely comprised of video and arcade games, everything from the 1800s to current. What a trip back in time. This place has all those fortune telling machines that we all saw in that movie Big. There are the player piano machines, the guess your weight scales, those fun sex-o-meters, etc. One of the funny things I saw, were those peek a picture machines but especially the ones where it had a can can dancer doing the shimmy. Course Musee Mecanique also had a Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine. So you can relive your childhood or your parent's childhood or even your grandparents childhood at this place. The best part about the museum is that it is free. It's in a very visible location on the wharf at the end of the fish markets and near Boudin. Also, if you're into old war subs and such, there are a few on the other side of the museum to tour. read more

Musee Mecanique - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Such an awesome attraction. Totally free entrance to this museum. But you do have to pay to play. Most games are 25 cents. It is super fun. Great way to kick off your exploration of the pier. We had a great time checking out all these old games. Very interesting and a great time! read more

Musee Mecanique - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

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This is just the greatest nostalgia trip ever-and a place you could happily lull away an entire day. I well remember when most of the mechanical games here, were in the old Sutro Bath House , at Land's End by the Cliff House. It makes me feel like I'm a thousand years old to go out there these days and look at the bare foundations that are all that are left of Sutro's. They look like beautiful ancient Roman ruins, and can't believe that I was actually there as a kid in the 1950's. Thank God The Musee is providing a wonderful home for all these great toys and games ! Same thing for Laughing Sal, who used to scare me to pieces every time my family would go to the equally wonderful, and sorely missed Playland-at-the-Beach. The Musee is a place that will charm adults and kids equally- adults because of the nostalgia factor, and kids because it gives them a glimpse into a departed world blessedly free of video games. If you don't do anything else on Fisherman's Wharf- please be sure to visit the Musee, and the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O'Brien, and Submarine USS Pompanito as well. read more

This place is just amazing. A crazy fascinating collection of antique coin-operated machines -- most from the early 1900's. Player pianos. Fortune telling machines. Low-tech flipbook-style movies of early SF. Dancing puppets. And the coolest part is that they all work, and you can walk around this place for hours, dropping in your quarters and pretending it's a hundred years ago. I've got to say that this place had more funky ambiance back when it was housed under the Cliff House for so many years -- but I'm just grateful that it's still around at all, and have visitied it several times at its new location. I can't say enough about how special I think the Musee Mechanique is. It should be an official historic landmark for the city. Here are some pix I took of the machines a few years ago when they were still at the Cliff House: http://www.sanfranciscomemories.com/musee/mechanique.html read more

Musee Mecanique - Detail of one of the many great games... - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

OMG. There needs to be more places like this in the world. I am now totally obsessed with Musee Mecanique. I went alone and still had a blast spending about $5 in quarters on the antique automatons and music-players. They have a "gift shop" that is really just a vending machine with CDs of recordings of music from the machines on site, really cool patches of Laughing Sal, playing cards, and flattened penny souvenir holders. I wish they had shirts or something - totally would have bought that s***. Did get cd, volume 1 and love it - worth every penny. Definitely bring lots of cash for the machines and for the gift shop. read more

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Not much has changed over the years at Musee Mechanique. It still retains its quirky charm as a place where vintage/antique arcade games are housed, many of them still usable. It's the kind of place you'd expect to see the Zoltar Speaks fortune telling machine from the movie Big. read more

Ready for the time warp? Lets do the time warp again...... I swear as soon as you walk into here and you are greeted by laughing Sal, right away you'll get a smile on your face because she is so creepy. Some of the displays are over 100 years old and still operating. Most pieces cost .25c to watch, it is so worth it. The most shocking shows are the ones like, "execution" or "town hanging." Some crazy ass stuff you'll see what our past relatives watched for fun. read more

Ummm...let's see sorta creepy vintage arcade games & displays. = pretty dang interesting. Came here for a field trip for my typography class. Ohhh then that creepy hillbilly woman doll at the front entrance = pretty dang disturbing. Gives me nightmares for sure. Heh. Cool place to visit. :) read more

If you've got a sock filled with change and some time to blow, come by this place. It's a one stop weird shop with lots of creepy, hilarious and old arcade entertainment machines. I like the photo booth, the large carnival display and the peep shows best. Great for people interested in steampunk, or just old tech in general. It's essentially an interactive museum of arcade machines. If you're not lucky enough to have a sock, just scrounge around under a car seat or between the cushions of a sofa. You'll find enough change to see quite a bit here. Where else can you see a snake charmer, a (now certainly dead) ladies knickers and small plastic man getting drunk for under a dollar? For you rich folk with bills to blow, there's a buzzer you can push toward the back of the place. A nice man will emerge and make change for you. I wouldn't make this the sole reason for taking a trip to the city, but if you're there and have some time, check it out. read more

So this is where all the machines from the cliffhouse went!my parents took me to the cliffhouse when i was a wee kid to play with these machines. by the beach! now it's moved here. and i am so thankful to the person who handles this place and is kind enough to share all of these fascinating pieces of history. 25cent machines! arcade games in the back read more

Great stop when doing the tourist thing. Very inexpensive place to waste an hour or so. I really liked the old timey music machines, pop in a few quarters to watch all the instruments play. Even if you have no money on you and a legit bum you can enjoy this place. Just wait around eventually tourist will pop in quarters and you can share the experience, you have to be shameless to pull this off. =p As you walk through the museum it's like traveling through time as you move from very, very old machines turn of the century (how are they still working out in the public?!) to modern racing games and ski-ball towards the back. O_O! I stayed away from the bizarre creepy puppets, but would say this is great fun for the whole family. read more

A longtime favorite of mine with free admission; of course, the first location I ever experienced this great place was at the Cliff House, so it was much smaller. In fact, I don't remember all of these antique machines (must've pulled them out from storage), so this is new and improved- since moving to its current single floor location. It's in close proximity to Fisherman's Wharf, so you could actually see a few things while in the same general area. The antique machines that I remember the most are the fortune ones, like the palm reader (I still have those fortune cards in a scrapbook) and the rare Black and White photo booth (I still have those pics in my scrapbooks too). I always liked black and white photos. Supposedly, there is only one other machine in existence in the Bay Area (according to an old article I read in the 1990s), but now there are two photo booths here (go figure). The really freaky one of all is "Sally" up front, who laughs with such gusto, she scares children (like our younger nephew). If you're outside, and you wonder, what that annoying laugh is all about, then you'll know what I mean. Seriously, it is loud. My sister wanted a picture of her second son on the horse (a few years back, she snapped a picture of her first son on it). This is located towards the back. In the very back (this place is huge), are similar games you'd find in a Scandia Fun Center, like Skee-Ball (along the wall), and my favorite (love it), the Basketball Hoop game. There is a dollar changer machine- most games take quarters. There are a few seats, near the classic video game tables (pac-man). There is another door on the side that leads to the marina, and submarine museum. No bathroom here- but there is a sign showing the bathroom around the corner at the backside of a seafood restaurant. I've never noticed anyone working here. Fun for children and adults- lots of history. There is a lot to see here, so take your time. read more

It's a unique place! I'm intrigued with Playland At The Beach. Antique arcades with some current ones mixed in. I love black/white photo booth. For $3, it's worth it. They also have one of the "old school" sticky photos that only take one pose. Oh memories. They have air hockey for $0.50! Also, some cool horoscopes machines. My favorite is the one towards the back. There's a dial for your horoscope and for $0.50 you can watch your fortune "written" by a type writer. It's awesome! read more

Musee mecanique is just about the only thing I'd want to do at Fisherman's Wharf. At either .25 or .50 cents a go, you have access to all sorts of video games, arcade machines, and old-timey puppet and mechanical shows. Some of my favorites are the skee ball machines (only .25 cents a game!), air hockey, and near impossible to beat arm-wrestler. Seems like there are always a few machines that aren't working quite right, though fortunately there is an attendant who roller skates around and fixes them as necessary. Only thing that kind of bugs me, all the machines only break bills into quarters (and not smaller bills.) So make sure you don't come with just a $20 bill, that is, unless you plan to spend a lot of time and money on whack a mole, pinball, and execution shows. read more

I love this place the old games and the fun. I do wish some of the older games that need maintenance would get it. I feel kinda ripped when i put a quarter in any game and can't play. The place it self is fun and a great escape from the ward if you need to get away from the birds for a few. read more

Musee Mecanique - I love this place! - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

I love that this place is like a museum filled with such treasured antique machines from the 70's and even before that I can imagine. But even better is that you can play all the games and touch everything. 5+ stars for this place! Can't believe this place would be at a tourist place like Fisherman's Wharf. But the prices to play all of these old school relic vintage games are only $0.25- $0.50 each. You can literally spend hours here just walking through the aisles admiring the games and talking about it with an old friend (of course you could also spend hours playing the games too). Highly recommend this place to everyone and can't wait to come back! read more

One of my fav places in SF! Who wouldn't love to play with vintage games or take a pic in an old school photo booth? Great thing about this place is that you can be a kid again no matter what age. This place is worth a visit but be warned, this place closes early! So if you're in the mood for skeeball, getting your fortune read, or playing with vintage mechanical machines stop by and drop $10 bucks. The machines use quarters. It's a fun and cheap place. read more

Musee Mecanique - Cantina De Rosa puppet show. - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

Looking for a place to take the kids? You may want to consider taking them here. Antique arcade machines that still only cost $0.25 to play or operate. And if you don't have kids, you'll still have fun here. Change machines are scattered about. Many of the games were from Playland at the Beach located at the Great Highway as was Laughing Sal. She was the icon. She's not quite as big as I recall from my childhood days but she embodies the old amusement park. Modern day arcade games are intermixed throughout, but walk around and check out the mechanical games. It's free admission to go in. But donations are welcome. read more

Fun little tourist stop at Fisherman's Wharf, with something for everyone! The free admission is a bit of an oversell, since the whole point of the musee is to make you spend money-- you can't make the machines work without inserting quarters. It's really amazing, though, how old some of the machines are-- some from the 19th century! You'll find a few busts, but on the whole it's money well spent because it's all just so silly. The baseball game is easily the best-- it's super elaborate AND a historical artifact! read more

I would give a 4.5, just because some of the machines stole our money, but because it was probably a total of $1, 5 stars it is. It's so neat seeing some of the machines from way before my time, my 10 year old had the best time. Her favorite was the bowling game in the back. I wish we could have spent more time there, we had such a great time. read more

Musee Mecanique - A crane game where you move the beans into the thing that weighs them. Harder than it looks! - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

Take a walk back in time with this cool little museum tucked away in Shed A of Pier 45. Admission to the museum is free and though these machines used to run on pennies at the turn of the 20th Century, they now work by quarters and there are machines inside to make change. Even without paying-to-play, the machines are interesting to see. Overall this is a nice place to duck into along Fisherman's Wharf. read more

Musee Mecanique - Find out your future from the Fortune Teller. - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

This was fun. I was expecting an old school arcade game like maybe with how it was like when I was growing up, but nahhh this is some real real antique stuff! There are games from 1920s when all you do is put a quarter in and the Ferris wheel inside the box just turns. Lol. The photo booths were fun too! Can get a little creepy bc everything was so old, but I don't think you'll come across an antique arcade shop often. Check out if you're along the sf pier! read more

Musee Mecanique - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

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For some reason I had always thought this place was a museum about automobiles. Stepping in it reminded me a lot of Sam's Town in Placerville back in the early 90s with a huge array of games everywhere! The games were mostly very old, I assume around the turn of the century sprinkled with more modern video games (modern yet still about 30 years old) like Pole Position and Spy Hunter. Some of the games were kind of weird and disturbing maybe for the faint of heart like the execution ones or the opium den. Those were my favorite because I don't know where else you can find anything like that. It's a definite must to check out if you are in the area. read more

Musee Mecanique - Opium Den, the old school crack house. - Museums Near Me - San Francisco, California

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This place is awesome!! I had wanted to visit this museum for years after seeing it on an episode of Modern Marvels and I finally got to visit back in February. This is the ultimate old-school arcade with some games that are over 100 years old. Everything is coin-operated and some of the old games are just so, so much fun. There are also a lot of short mechanical shows that you can watch for a quarter. It's amazing that these machines are still working and it's so very cool that you can still watch and play them. It's also really cheap and most things cost a quarter, so it's definitely an affordable activity. This is a must-see if you're near Fisherman's Wharf and it's a lot of fun!! read more

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What a fun place to wander for an hour with some friends! Let Laughing Sal greet you and take a step back in time here. Enjoy the more simple pleasures and put your cell phone on silent to minimize distraction. Beautiful and functional interactive arcade museum. If you are up there in age this place will bring back memories, if your a young kid, dont hesitate to take Dad or Grandma. Watch them light up as they walk down memory lane. If youve got young kids take them here so they better appreciate current technology and games. read more

Really enjoy stopping by every time I visit Fisherman's Wharf. It's FREE and quite entertaining. I love a good arcade and this is the best throwback arcade ever. As in wayyyyyy back. Almost every single game is functioning. Bring your quarters! My daughter mentioned that they filmed Princess Diaries here and it really made it even more fun to check out the games they played in the movie. Even though I had no idea what she was talking about. It's just fun to see what people thought was entertainment back in the "old days." Definitely not anywhere near what we call entertainment now. All my kids have enjoyed visiting Musee Mecanique and we will always visit every trip to San Fran. Great tourist attraction. read more

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Lots of fun, bring cash to get quarters for the machines. Free to get in, but not free to play. There are some super old machines from the 1800's and newer video arcade games from the 90's. It's an amazing assortment of stuff in one place. You could spend a good couple of hours in here being entertained. Always one of my favorite spots to come with kids when I'm back in the Bay Area. read more

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A true hidden gem in SF, and one I hope locals who tend to avoid the wharf are aware of. This is the quirkiest little place, an arcade full of vintage games. Old time hand cranked movies, creepy marionettes behind glass, automated fortune tellers, all sorts of wares if you have coin... read more

You can definitely waste some time here if you're at the wharf waiting for friends or for that ferry ride to Alcatraz. You can drop so many quarters here and be easily entertained for hours. I'm not sure if it's because of the flashing lights, arcade games, and colorful buttons you can push. Or maybe it's because of the unintentional comedy behind a lot of the mechanical attractions. You can put in a quarter to see old school XXX films. Another quarter could afford you a peek into the "Opium Den". One more quarter will give you an instant access to a French Execution. This place is definitely fun for groups and families. If you have a twisted sense of humor, this will really float your boat. What's even better? If you look outside the main doors you'll see the Boudin Sourdough Bakery & Cafe waiting to serve you some hot chowder. read more

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This is a good touristy place to kill time if you're entertaining visitors to SF. It's free, so I can't fault them too much - but I felt really gross/unclean after touching the machines, like I wanted to take a bath in hand sanitizer. There are a lot of cool machines though. It's like a blast from the past. Heads up: some of the machines reflect time periods that were extremely racist, so just be prepared for that if you choose to come to this place. read more

Have you ever been somewhere that you liked so much and where you had so much fun, that you think about it everyday and it makes it worse when you live on the other side of the world and you're not not sure when you'll return? This is how I feel about Musee Mecanique. Actually, I feel this way about this whole neck of the woods actually - Fisherman's Wharf etc and I miss it so much... Musee Mecanique is cool, really cool and heaps of fun. It's a place that brings the kid out of every adult and, if you're a kid; well get heaps of cash from mom and dad because you're gonna need them! There's over 200 coin-operated machines at Musee Mecanique, from old arcade games to the classic pinball machine, to the ever popular Have a Shot Basketball hoop or the laughing coin up lady (Honestly I can't understand why they call it the laughing coin up lady - it freaks the hell out of me and so does Jolly Jack!). My personal favourite is the Sniper Shooter arcade game. I played it everyday I was in San Fran. Yep, I returned everyday mainly because of that game and I set records on it! This place is awesome so make sure you check it out if you're in San Francisco and bring lots of quarters or notes at least so you can swap them for quarters there. read more

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This was quite a nice little find in the Fisherman's Wharf area. Kinda of cool to spend an hour or so just looking at all the very old arcades. Most of them I never seen before and was quite a nice little history lesson. Definitely worth it a visit and maybe play some games as well. If it wasn't for yelp I would have never found this place and I can see why it has such a good review. Perfect for after meal stroll while you're in the wharf area :) Entrance was a little hard to find if you weren't coming from the Fishman Wharf's sign like me but once you're in the area just head to the edge of the pier and will see the entrance. read more

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Very interesting collection of antique and retro mechanical exhibits! Stopped and checked it out as part of a segway tour and they have some curious offerings, including 3-D viewers, and a mechanical horse, carnival, and puppet shows, as well a few arcade games. read more

This is probably my new favorite place in San Francisco. A lot of old carnival type stuff. I was most fascinated with all the mechanical pianos. There's also pinball machines and old arcade games. When you walk in, it feels like you've gone back in time. read more