Nearly 600,000 guests come to The Strong annually, and many consider a visit to the arcade in eGameRevolution the highlight of their trip. Some visitors favor new games—slashing fruit on the giant touch-screen version of Fruit Ninja, munching opponents in the four-person Pac-Man Battle Royale, or playing the only Sega Giant Tetris game in North America. Old-school players make a bee-line for classics like Lunar Lander, Asteroids, or Gauntlet. The dozens of games featured in the exhibit give guests plenty of options.
Because eGameRevolution chronicles a wide range of video game history, the cabinets must share exhibit space with other aspects of gaming such as consoles and computers. Consequently there’s room to display publicly only part of ICHEG’s growing collection of nearly 150 arcade games. Also, some games in our collection, such as the laser-disc classic Dragon’s Lair, are too fragile or rare for everyday use. So to help museum guests better plan their trip, we’ve recently added a web page that provides an updated list of the cabinets currently available for play in eGameRevolution.
Recently we’ve featured more of our vector-graphics games such as Eliminator, Star Wars, Lunar Lander, and Asteroids Deluxe. Racing fans will like the addition of Road Blasters, one of the first games to combine racing and shooting. Track and Field gives players a button-mashing workout.
We’ll continue to rotate new titles into the arcade. What games would you like to play during your next visit?
By Jon-Paul Dyson, Director, International Center for the History of Electronic Games and Vice President for Exhibits