The Strong National Museum of Play, which is located in Rochester, New York, has announced that it is planning to create a new exhibit called Videotopia, set to be opened on May 30 and which will remain at Strong until November 1 before going on tour. The main aim of Videotopia is to offer visitors a chance to witness the way arcade games evolved and the way they provided entertainment to players.
Videotopia should have more than 100 arcade cabinets and it’s impressive to hear that all of them are ready to offer entertainment to the visitors. There are also information kiosks and other interactive elements set to tell the story of videogames and especially of arcade cabinets, which were very popular in the fourth quarter of the 20th and are now facing a steady decline (although sales of the Street Fighter IV arcade game were one reason for the good results posted by Capcom recently).
All those who visit the Strong National Museum of Play have free admission to Videotopia. But all the arcade cabinets that can be found in the exhibition require tokens to be played. These can be acquired either by paying for them or by answering trivia questions related to videogames at the various Power Up stations that can be found at the exhibition. It’s a good way of balancing the financial needs of the exhibition while also offering visitors a chance to test their knowledge related to the history of videogames and arcade games.
Some of the arcades that will be found in Videotopia are hits like Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Blasteroids, Marble Madness and RoadBlasters but also some more exotic experiences like the holographic interactive movie Time Traveler created by SEGA. There are many more other cabinets presented and Videotopia is just one of the exhibitions that can be checked out while at the Strong National Museum of Play, which is dedicated to charting the way Homo Ludens expresses himself through play.
Strong’s National Center for the History of Electronic Games™ (NCHEG) has acquired The Videotopia Collection, 114 vintage arcade video game machines from the Electronics Conservancy. This further broadens the scope of NCHEG’s already unparalleled permanent collections of more than 20,000 electronic-game platforms, games, and related artifacts—the most comprehensive, public collection of its kind anywhere. Below is a list of the arcade video games in the collection.
| Arabian | Exterminator | Paperboy | Super Sprint | ||
| Assault | F-15 Strike Eagle | Pole Position | Tac/Scan | ||
| Asteroids | Fire Truck | Pong | Tank II | ||
| Asteroids Deluxe | Food Fight | Popeye | Tekken | ||
| Atari Football | Frogger | Prop Cycle | Tempest | ||
| Avalanche | Galaga | Q*bert | Terminator 2 | ||
| Battlezone | Galaxian | Quantum | Tetris | ||
| Berzerk | Galaxy Rescue | Quick & Crash | Time Traveler | ||
| Black Widow | Gauntlet | Race Drivin’ | Track & Field | ||
| Blaster | Gauntlet Legends | Radar Scope | Tranquilizer Gun | ||
| Blasteroids | G-LOC | Rampart | Tron | ||
| Breakout | Gorf | Red Baron | Virtua Racing | ||
| Bubbles | Gravitar | Road Blasters | Vs.Super Mario Bros. | ||
| Centipede | Gumball Rally | Road Runner | Warlords | ||
| Computer Space | Gun Fight | Robotron: 2084 | Warrior | ||
| Cosmic Chasm | Hot Rod | Root Beer Tapper | Witch Hunt | ||
| Crater Raider | I, Robot | Satan’s Hollow | Xevious | ||
| Crystal Castles | Indiana Jones | S.T.U.N Runner | Xybots | ||
| Cyber Sled | Joust | Sega Super GT | Zaxxon | ||
| Defender | KLAX | Shark Jaws | Zektor | ||
| Defender Stargate | LeMans | Sinistar | Zoo Keeper | ||
| Dig Dug | Liberator | Skydiver | |||
| Discs of Tron | Lunar Lander | Space Attack | |||
| Dominos | Major Havoc | Space Duel | |||
| Donkey Kong | Marble Madness | Space Encounters | |||
| Donkey Kong 3 | Missile Command | Space Harrier | |||
| Donkey Kong Jr. | Mortal Combat | Space Invaders | |||
| Dragon Spirit | Ms. Pac-Man | Space War | |||
| Dragon’s Lair | NBA Showtime | Star Blade | |||
| Eliminator | Night Driver | Star Trek | |||
| Empire Strikes Back | Pac-Man | Star Wars | |||
ROCHESTER, New York–It will never be Game Over! at Strong National Museum of Play.
Strong’s National Center for the History of Electronic Games™ (NCHEG) today announced the acquisition of The Videotopia Collection, 114 vintage arcade video machines from the Electronics Conservancy. This further broadens the scope of the Center’s already unparalleled permanent collections of more than 20,000 electronic-game platforms, games, and related artifacts—the most comprehensive, public collection of its kind anywhere.
Strong has acquired all one hundred of the arcade video games in the Electronic Conservancy’s international touring exhibit, Videotopia, which opened at Strong in May and has since attracted tens of thousands of joy-stick happy fans. (Over the last several years, the show has played to enthusiastic audiences in major cities throughout the U.S. and abroad.) Fourteen additional games deemed essential for a comprehensive historic representation of the electronic-games industry have also been acquired from the Electronics Conservancy.
According to Jon-Paul C. Dyson, director of NCHEG, ―This arcade video-game collection perfectly complements the museum’s mission, which is to explore play as it illuminates American cultural history. You can’t tell the history of play in America without talking about the impact of video games. From Pac-Man and Donkey Kong to Space Invaders and Tetris, these games have captured our imaginations, given us iconic characters, and launched a revolution that has affected the way we play,
—more—
2—Videotopia
learn, and relate to each other. The Videotopia Collection will help us to preserve this important part of play history for scholars and the general public for many years to come.‖
―I am very excited that The Videotopia Collection has found a permanent home at the National Center for the History of Electronic Games,‖ says Keith Feinstein, president of the Electronics Conservancy. ―Just as filmmakers watch prints of classic films rather than colorized versions on television and painters travel great distances to be able to see the brush strokes of the great masters rather than merely looking at copies in books, the game artists of the future will find this collection an invaluable resource. I am pleased and relieved that the collection has found such a caring, appreciative, and nurturing home.‖
Originally slated to close November 1, 2009, the popular Videotopia exhibit will now be extended through January 3, 2010. The completely hands-on exhibit invites museum guests to relive the thrill of playing the very first arcade video games while exploring their art, science, and history. After the exhibit closes, Strong plans to create a smaller video game display on the museum’s second floor. Many more of the machines will be made available to the public in a major permanent exhibit tentatively titled The Revolutionary World of Electronic Play. Projected to cover 15,000 square feet and to open in 2012, the exhibit will be informed in part by ―Concentric Circles: A Lens for Exploring the History of Electronic Games,‖ an interpretive framework developed by NCHEG scholars. A traveling version of the exhibit is also envisioned.
Situated at Strong National Museum of Play, the National Center for the History of Electronic Games collects, studies, and interprets electronic games and related material and the ways in which electronic games are changing how people play, learn, and connect with each other. (For more information, visit www.NCHEG.org) The Electronics Conservancy, founded by Keith Feinstein, is an organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of artifacts and information detailing the history of the electronic medium, as well as the use of these artifacts to inform and educate.
