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Childhood trips to a local Kmart always meant two things: my mother searching for “blue light specials” and the chance to slip away to see and play new video games in an environment awash in electronic sights and sounds. What I didn’t realize then was that all those video game packages, aisles of shelves, elaborate displays, and flashy kiosks had been carefully designed and displayed to encourage me to purchase new games. Although I almost never bought anything, I engaged […]

Continue Reading about Video Games and the Wonders of Window Shopping Published on:
September 5, 2013

ICHEG’s collection of nearly 200 arcade cabinets documents the rich history of arcade gaming. The collection features popular titles like Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong. It also includes many less well-known games like Breakout and Death Race. Many of these more obscure titles mark key technological or cultural moments in the history of video games.
 Gun Fight is one such game. Taito, a company based in Japan, first developed the shoot-out game under the title Western Gun, and it became the first […]

Continue Reading about Hidden Gems of the ICHEG Arcade Collection Published on:
August 30, 2013

I met some naughty kids when I worked as a babysitter and camp counselor. But after five years with the National Museum of Play at The Strong, I’ve observed enough children to know the good ones far outnumber the brats and that misbehavior, when it occurs, isn’t limited to one gender. So why do little boys get a bad rap? Look at the way cartoonists have portrayed them over the years. If I may paraphrase a line from Jessica Rabbit: […]

Continue Reading about The Kids Are Alright Published on:
August 27, 2013

In 1976, game designer Ron Halliburton of Arcade Engineering created a jumbo-sized pinball machine concept for the Bally Manufacturing Corporation. Bally created two prototypes for the electro-mechanical game they called Bigfoot and determined not to move it to production. Allan Reizman, Engineering Lab Supervisor at Bally, reported that the intense vibrations and stress the oversized components placed on the frame caused the game to shake itself apart. Yet, Halliburton’s former employee, Gene Lipkin, believed the game had potential. Bally sold […]

Continue Reading about Hercules: The Pinball Legend Published on:
August 21, 2013

It doesn’t take much detective work to discover that many people enjoy mysteries. For example, I can vividly remember being enthralled when I first read Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None. I know I’m joined by millions who eagerly follow the crime-solving exploits of Christie’s hero, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Certainly Poirot could easily deduce the lure of the board game Clue, with its mysterious mansion where someone has committed murder and the players must sleuth out clues […]

Continue Reading about Colonel Mustard in the National Toy Hall of Fame with the Candlestick? Published on:
August 16, 2013

I’ve reached the age where pangs of nostalgia hit me when anyone mentions pop culture references from the 1980s. (DuckTales. Rainbow Brite. Trips to the mall with a pit stop at Orange Julius.) I’m not alone in this; compilation stories reminiscing about my generation’s “good old days” proliferate on the internet.
I recently conducted an informal poll with some of my friends, and one childhood toy we all remembered fondly was Teddy Ruxpin. This talking bear first appeared in 1985 and […]

Continue Reading about Toys That Talk: Blathering Bears of the 1980s Published on:
August 6, 2013

Summer weather has again brought an influx of motorcycles onto roads and highways. Seeing men and women enjoying a ride on everything from a small scooter to a big Harley V-Twin inspired me to think about when I graduated from my old Columbia to something with more oomph. Growing up in the 1960s, when motorcycle films enjoyed a peak in popularity, it seemed a very natural thing for some of us to move on to motorcycles after we outgrew our […]

Continue Reading about Transitional Objects of Play: A Man and his Motorcycle Published on:
July 30, 2013

A local movie theater recently hosted an “Indoor Drive-in” series to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the original drive-in theaters. First opened by Richard Hollingshead in 1933, drive-ins became family destinations. People paid a minimal fee to enter a gated parking lot with a huge movie screen located at one end of the grounds. Hollingshead intended for guests to watch the movie from the comfort of their own automobiles. When technology permitted, guests rolled the window part-way down and attached […]

Continue Reading about B-movies: From the Silver Screen to the Video Game Screen Published on:
July 25, 2013

Nobody puts Bubbie in a corner. (Oy.)

I think of the movie Dirty Dancing (1987) whenever I see this poolside photo of my grandparents at Grossinger’s resort in the Catskill Mountains in 1964. They look sophisticated, fun loving, and reminiscent of Baby’s parents, Dr. and Mrs. Houseman, New Yorkers who visited the fictional Kellerman’s Mountain House with their daughters to relax and socialize in the summer of 1963. For their own vacation, my grandparents left their young girls (my mother and […]

Continue Reading about Dirty Dancing in the Borscht Belt Published on:
July 23, 2013