I went to it several years ago when it first opened in London. Was quite an interesting exhibition. There are some rarities in the collection, but it's not a huge massive collection of everything
Sounds like you went to the one at the Science museum, which was in fact the second time it was in London as it opened in the Barbican back in 2002 on the 3rd of May. The show has been so successful that we now have two shows running concurrently, one is currently in Mexico and the updated Game On 2.0 will be in OMSI, Portland in July.
Bradd said:
all the really old stuff was not working.
What you mean is that, the really old stuff was on display rather then not working, as that sounds like it should have worked but was broken. We tend to have games like Computer Space and Pong as display items so we can keep them minty fresh, remember this is a show that tends to have games on at least 8 hours a day, 6/7 days a week, for at least 8 months in a year.
there were maybe 15 dedicated classics set to free play, and lots of consoles and hand helds.
We now have a lot more dedicated machines now including more modern games and Pinballs.
Regarding pinballs as they are on free play they do require a ton of maintence, to give you an idea of how much they get played, the Bride of Pinbot we have shows over 50,000 plays over the last two venues.
i would say its worth checking out if it comes through your area, but i wouldnt travel real far to see it.
It depends on how you view it, the show is not aimed at hardcore gamers in any shape or form, these tend to be the most disappointed people to the exhibition. However the vast majority of people do love the show as it is aimed at the general public. Al Alcorn visited the show when it was in Melbourne, Australia and he loved the exhibition and it has been seen by a number of other famous people, who have also said nice things about the exhibition.
I would have loved to get Mad Planets but I could not arrange collection

There are a ton of other things I've attempted to get too but was generally let down by people in a mad rush to clear space or not wanting the hassle of collection.
I am looking forward to coming to Portland and meeting the PAC guys.