New arcade museum exhibit to open on May 30th in New York (updated)

Shaggy May 14, 2009 3

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(thanks to Susan Trien for the corrections)

While the idea of a museum exhibit dedicated to arcade history isn’t exactly new, it’s always cool to see one setup. On May 30th, a new exhibit dedicated to arcade history will openvideotopia up at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York called Videotopia, and it will be open until November 1st this year. The exhibit is an international traveling show from The Electronics Conservancy. It will function a lot like a standard arcade – you can purchase tokens for 25¢ to be able to play the games, of which they will have 100+ to choose from. On top of that the museum will have kiosks and interactive displays to teach visitors about the history of video games. To get in there is the admission fee for the museum and they will sell Gamers Admission Passes that will allow for unlimited admission to the exhibit through it’s duration.

One interesting feature they will have is that people can win tokens by answering game history trivia questions at “Power Up” stations located throughout the complex. The exhibit will feature more than just classic games (which arcade museums generally tend to focus on) as it will have games all the way up to modern times. They also separate games by manufacturer, year made and hardware used. They naturally have Computer Space and Pong and they even have some rarities such as Sega’s Time Traveler (which you can see in the lower right area of the picture above).

[Via Gamasutra] [Strong National Museum of Play] [Discuss on the Forums]

3 Comments »

  1. Susan Trien May 15, 2009 at 1:33 pm - Reply

    Hi! Thanks so much for publishing news about our upcoming exhibit! I just wanted to correct a couple facts in your story. First, this exhibit is an international traveling show from The Electronics Conservancy. Also, it’s not free to get in–you have to pay museum admission to play–though we will have a Gamers Admission Pass for $20 with unlimited admission through the run of the exhibit. Every person entering the exhibit receives four free game tokens. After that, they can win additional tokens at Power Up! stations or purchase them for .25 cents. Hope some of your fans will come and play! And thank you again for posting the informaiton!!!!!!! 🙂 Susan

  2. editor May 17, 2009 at 2:05 pm - Reply

    We have followed the Electronic Conservancy projects since their start in the 80’s.

    An interesting traveling museum exhibit (what we would call EduTainment), another similar concept is the GameOn venture.

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