San Francisco Opening Computer & Video Game Museum 56
An anonymous reader writes "A team of game scholars, game journalists, and plain old geeks have gotten together to put together San Francisco's first and most comprehensive non-profit museum dedicated to the design, creation, history, and play of computer and video games. The museum is currently raising funds and shopping around for a San Francisco space, but they've already managed to get some obscure relics — including the only copy in existence of 1984's never-released Atari Cabbage Patch Kids game. As a scholarly resource, the museum is also dedicated to making its entire collection playable by visitors."
St. Louis video game museum (Score:4, Interesting)
St. Louis used to have a video game museum, but i think it went out of business years ago. I remember finding it on a trip when I was 10 or 11 and thinking it was the best thing in the world.
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Is that what Arcades have become? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is that what Arcades have become? (Score:4, Insightful)
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well to a point that has been true for a while, in the 90's you went to play datona in the cockpit, you plaid Samuri Showdown or Street Fighter 2 in the arcade for the experiance, and you could not afford the big machines, in the 80's while you diddled with super mario the 16 bit big expensive machines were out, you went to arcades to get that bigger better experience, even in the late 70's yea you could get pong, but it was so much more fun while half drunk with your buddies
what is killing arcades is the s
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There was one place I new of which had an upmarket arcade. They weren't just into arcade games, though, there were into everything racing cars - outdoor mini racing-cars, the networked sit down at the steering wheel time racing games as well as a game room of console systems with all the accessories. Rather than just go for consecutive customers, they arranged children's parties for a whole afternoon.
Even if there weren't any dealers, a standalone arcade would still have the problem with the hard-core gamer
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Some decent to great arcades I've been to recently that are filled with classic games, in order of decreasing awesomeness:
They're still out there.
Re:Is that what Arcades have become? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you wanna see a real arcade museum, go to Musee Mecanique [museemechanique.org] in San Francisco. it's got a lot of great old mechanical arcade games from the early 20th century. They're all still playable and mostly functional, and they've modded the operation mechanisms with modern quarter slots like you'd see in a modern arcade game. They also have a few of the more classic digitial arcade games scattered throughout. Truly a magnificent place!
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Pfft, amateur. You think that's old school? You should check out the Depression Games museum in Montgomery, Alabama. They have ORIGINAL hoop and stick, kick the can (including both the original can AND the original sense of shame!), and a stickball stick that was once used by Joe Dimaggio (as a broom)!
I hate (Score:5, Funny)
going to a museum full of stuff that is younger then I am.
they should get some pinball games as well (Score:2)
they should get some (real) pinball games as well and there is a lot of art to them.
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But as mechanical devices they aren't really video games. So, if this is strictly a computer and video games museum, they wouldn't belong there.
Nevertheless, pinball machines were great works of design and engineering, so it would be awesome to see them exhibited in a museum somewhere.
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If you love pinball you should check out the Pinball Museum if you ever go to Vegas. It a pretty awesome way to spend several hours without losing tons of cash (unless you suck at pinball). :)
http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ [pinballmuseum.org]
the cash goes to salvation army there (Score:2)
the cash goes to salvation army there
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I just went to the Pinball Museum in Alameda, CA., last weekend, for the first time. It's an amazing experience....WALLS lined densely with cabinets broken up by era's. Original artwork on display with anecdotes of their creation. It was fascinating finally understanding the whole For Amusement Only history of Pinball. The curators are very approachable (relating to pinball) and certainly founts of knowledge. I asked about a video game museum of similar integrity, but sadly they were pinball minded onl
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It used to be SGI's headquarters back in the 1990's - right next to the cineplex.
Berlin already has an incredible one. (Score:3, Informative)
The computerspielemuseum [computerspielemuseum.de].
It was loads of fun and a total walk down memory lane. It's got a great selection of historical hardware -- Magnavox Odyssey, Intellivsion, early Gameboys, an Apple ][e, Football, etc. (Just seeing new people come in and look to find their earliest game system and smile was worth it by itself.)
Also, they've got some great experimental games, especially the PainStation (how much phyiscal pain will you take to defeat your opponent). The discussion of how they designed Pong was interesting, the wall of old Computer Games (Zork, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.) was fun.
On the Karl-Marx-Allee in the old East Berlin. I spent a couple hours just looking, playing and reminiscing. And almost all of it is in both German and English.
Why not at the real computer museum? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, they could open the "first" museum for video games in SF, but most of the money raised would go towards rent in the insanely expensive city. They should swallow their pride and work with the computer museum to make this a reality.
Computer Games Gallery at CHM (Score:3, Informative)
So why not host this as an exhibition at the computer museum that's a whole whopping 30 miles from SF?
They can probably make some space if they come up with enough to look at.
Like this?
http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16
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Right. Especially since the Computer Museum in Sunnyvale already has a videogame section. They have the original PDP-1 Spacewar, the original Pong game, most of the early game consoles, etc. They even have some of the early games playable in emulators.
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Flynn Lives! (Score:1)
The museum should be at Flynn's Arcade, just for instant nerd cred, Oh wait, thats in San DIEGO
Not just a novelty (Score:2)
There was something like this in Helsinki a few ears ago. You got to play the games for only the entrance fee, and naturally it was very popular with kids of all ages. (5 ~ 50)
Set up a safe place for teens to hang out and compete for the high-score and you'll have an arcade that actually contributes to society. Maybe a club with annual fees for the real enthusiasts.
I think it could do more than break even.
Donate now: Funds needed in the next 3 weeks! (Score:1)
Take a look at their kickstarter page here, and donate, if you can: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themade/the-museum-of-art-and-digital-entertainment [kickstarter.com]
Good luck... (Score:2)
Should not be in an earthquake zone (Score:2)
Hello? Why are they placing a museum of one of a kind items in an earthquake zone? It's pretty much
insured destruction of whatever they have when the big one rolls around.
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Nice collection in Rochester, NY (Score:2)
This used to exist in SF (Score:2)
Sometime around 1993 or 1994, I took a day trip to San Francisco with some of my college room mates. I remember going to Seacliff, overlooking the old Bath House and there being an arcade museum in one of the buildings up on the hill. There were some games that at the time were classics - like Battle Zone and such - and you could actually play them, which was incredibly cool.
Am I the only one that remembers this?
This is a dream of mine (Score:2)
USA: Bars, department stores, and the beach if you're
Great Idea, wrong city (Score:1)
I think that it would be much more useful to put it in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. That's in the Silicon Valley at least, and it would make a lot of sense to pair the two topics together.
I can imagine that any large space in SF is going to be horribly expensive, too far out of the way of the main traffic areas, and will end up with financial problems and disappear.
Sony Metreon (Score:1)
My understanding is that the owners still haven't figured out what to do with it. Keep the movie theatre and the Game Walk of Fame, put in the museum, followed by a better arcade, and revitalize the Metreon.
It's still one of my favorite places to go when in SF.
Video Games vs. Pinball (Score:2)