In addition to the pinball exhibit I recently wrote about, the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY has another fun exhibit going on this summer. The exhibit is called Rockets, Robots and Ray Guns and it runs until September 5th. In this exhibit visitors can explore many arcade games relating to space, time travel, the future, aliens, robots, rockets and ray guns. Visitors can also see artifacts such as the oldest toy ray gun ever made, Isaac Asimov’s book I Robot and various other related items. Visitors can also participate in a rocket launch and take part in other hands on activities. Lets take a look at some of the games that are part of this exhibit.
The most interesting game in this exhibit is a 2 Player Version of Nutting’s Computer Space, the game that started it all as the first arcade video game ever. Computer space is already a very rare game, however the 2 player version is even more rare. The cabinet is made of green fiberglass and the monitor is black and white. It was a pleasure to see such a rare game as a playable game.
Here is a short video of the game I took:
The rockets section features Asteroids and Lunar Lander.
The robots section features Xybots, Robotron and Berzerk.
The ray guns section features Terminator 2 Judgement Day, Aliens and Missle Command.
The time travel section, with Sega’s famous holographic game Time Traveler and Back to The Future pinball. Do not let Time Traveler fool you, the cabinet may look small in a picture but its actually a very large cabinet when you see it in person.
Two other unique games in this exhibit are Namco’s Starblade and the Environmental Discs of Tron. There isn’t another arcade cabinet quite like the Environmental Discs of Tron, you have to stand inside the cabinet to play the game instead of sit inside it like most other enclosed cabinets.
Finally, here is a short video tour I did of the exhibit, keep an eye out for the giant Space Invaders game!
