SANTA CLARA, Calif. — There are some crazy rare pinball machines out there, but your chance of ever getting to knock a few balls around inside them is pretty slim.

What's a hunter of rare gaming to do? You could go to the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, or you could wait around for the annual California Extreme show. Once every July, pinball and arcade game collectors from around the country haul their treasures — from common favorites like Pin-Bot all the way to one-of-a-kind rarities that never made it intro production — into a Bay Area hotel ballroom.

Wired.com headed down to this year's show on July 9 and 10. Here are the wild pinball amusements you missed out on if you didn't go — and what you should make a beeline for at next year's show.

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If you've ever played a Varkon machine, count yourself lucky; only 90 of them were ever made. Produced by Williams in 1982, it's a pinball machine the size and shape of a videogame cabinet. But that's not what's so crazy about Varkon. The two playfields are located in the bottom of the cabinet, tilted down and away from the player. They're reflected in a mirror facing you.

What this means is that it looks like the ball is floating eerily upwards every time you hit it. Similarly, LED digits showing your score are reflected from elsewhere to hover in a translucent, ghostly manner over the playfield.