havok69
Active member
So I finally had a chance to go to the Videotopia exhibit at the Strong Museum in Rochester. For more information, check it out here:
http://www.museumofplay.org/things_to_see/videotopia.html
The cost of admission is the standard museum fee of $10, and you get 4 tokens with each admission fee. There is also another option to purchase a gamer's pass for $20, and that gets you unlimited access to the exhibit until they close on November 1st. This is a great option if you are local, or even plan on attending more than twice before the exhibit is up.
All the games run on tokens, which unfortunately are just generic "No Cash Value" .900 ones. I was hoping they would be custom ones so I could keep a couple for collecting sake, or even use them in my machines; but I have all .984 tokens\mechs.
You can go the regular route and go to a change machine to purchase more tokens for playing games, but a nice feature of the exhibit there is that you can go up to kiosks and answer trivia questions to get more tokens. If you answer 7 questions correctly you get three tokens, 6 questions gets you 2 tokens, and 5 questions correct gets you 1 token. Once I ran out of tokens I just kept going up and answering questions which were not just related to arcade trivia, there were also computer related questions and even political trivia on the 70's and 80's.
Now for the more interesting part: the games! Here's a game list:
http://www.museumofplay.org/things_to_see/Videotopia_GamesSheet_062209.pdf
The only game that was out of order was the F-15 Strike Eagle. However, unfortunately the games were in various states of operation. Some games to note:
The Empire Strikes Back cockpit yoke was falling apart, and convergence was off
Asteroids Deluxe was unplayable - the fire button intermittently worked
Gravitar's monitor had horrible flicker
Missile Command's panel was partially unlatched
Galaxy Rescue's joystick was terribly loose
StarBlade's display was terribly blurry
Wrong height joys on Robotron - damn I hate that!
Race Drivin's center monitor was not displaying red
I was most disappointed with Race Drivin - I was really looking forward to playing the panoramic version, and without being able to see what speed I was going (critical for some turns and jumps) I wasn't able to post my best scores. On the flip side, the seat lock, steering and shifter worked beautifully. It was still nice to play it nonetheless, and it was cool to drive the extra track that you only get with the panoramic version. However I was only able to post the 2nd highest score, due to the red issue. I'll be back in October to take the lead; I was only 10,000 points away, just have to bone up on my drive by the seat of my pants skills...
Outside of the arcade area was a nice arcade and game related display, with an actual working Pole Position (truly rare!) and older console games, along with a Computer Space and Pong. On the off chance that the Computer Space would take tokens, I dropped one in, and of course it didn't work. I wonder how many tokens will be in the cash box when they pack up the exhibit?
Now, since we're all pic whores here, without further ado...
Entrance:
Old school corner:
http://www.museumofplay.org/things_to_see/videotopia.html
The cost of admission is the standard museum fee of $10, and you get 4 tokens with each admission fee. There is also another option to purchase a gamer's pass for $20, and that gets you unlimited access to the exhibit until they close on November 1st. This is a great option if you are local, or even plan on attending more than twice before the exhibit is up.
All the games run on tokens, which unfortunately are just generic "No Cash Value" .900 ones. I was hoping they would be custom ones so I could keep a couple for collecting sake, or even use them in my machines; but I have all .984 tokens\mechs.
You can go the regular route and go to a change machine to purchase more tokens for playing games, but a nice feature of the exhibit there is that you can go up to kiosks and answer trivia questions to get more tokens. If you answer 7 questions correctly you get three tokens, 6 questions gets you 2 tokens, and 5 questions correct gets you 1 token. Once I ran out of tokens I just kept going up and answering questions which were not just related to arcade trivia, there were also computer related questions and even political trivia on the 70's and 80's.
Now for the more interesting part: the games! Here's a game list:
http://www.museumofplay.org/things_to_see/Videotopia_GamesSheet_062209.pdf
The only game that was out of order was the F-15 Strike Eagle. However, unfortunately the games were in various states of operation. Some games to note:
The Empire Strikes Back cockpit yoke was falling apart, and convergence was off
Asteroids Deluxe was unplayable - the fire button intermittently worked
Gravitar's monitor had horrible flicker
Missile Command's panel was partially unlatched
Galaxy Rescue's joystick was terribly loose
StarBlade's display was terribly blurry
Wrong height joys on Robotron - damn I hate that!
Race Drivin's center monitor was not displaying red
I was most disappointed with Race Drivin - I was really looking forward to playing the panoramic version, and without being able to see what speed I was going (critical for some turns and jumps) I wasn't able to post my best scores. On the flip side, the seat lock, steering and shifter worked beautifully. It was still nice to play it nonetheless, and it was cool to drive the extra track that you only get with the panoramic version. However I was only able to post the 2nd highest score, due to the red issue. I'll be back in October to take the lead; I was only 10,000 points away, just have to bone up on my drive by the seat of my pants skills...
Outside of the arcade area was a nice arcade and game related display, with an actual working Pole Position (truly rare!) and older console games, along with a Computer Space and Pong. On the off chance that the Computer Space would take tokens, I dropped one in, and of course it didn't work. I wonder how many tokens will be in the cash box when they pack up the exhibit?
Now, since we're all pic whores here, without further ado...
Entrance:
Old school corner:
Last edited:
