I’m going to the Game On exhibit at the ACMI today. Probably going to spend the majority of the day there (people tell me that’s how awesome it is).
Like all ACMI exhibits, there’s probably no photography allowed, but I’m going to bring my camera in anyway and snap a few pics. What’s the worst that could happen?
Check back later for some photos. See ya!
Well, I told you I would, and here I am, back to show you all of the pictures I took at the Game On exhibit, an exhibit where no photography is allowed.
If somebody can come up with a good reason as to why ANY exhibit should prohibit photography, then I’ll gladly hang up my camera the next time I go to any event like this. Until then, enjoy the photos inside!
So the entire exhibit is just filled with games, game consoles, and game technology and art. They had original and vintage arcade cabinets (shown above) and walls lined with TV screens and games that you can freely play.
EVERY SINGLE GAME WAS FREE. It didn’t matter if you lost. You could play again! There was no message saying “Please insert 2 coins”. It was all “Free Play” messages on every single arcade cabinet.
In addition to game consoles, the exhibit also had every major portable gaming system on display. Shown below is a little bubble of protection surrounding everything from “mini arcade cabinets” to the newest and baddest portable gaming systems ever made. Yes, they even had an original Simon game unit there…AND YOU COULD PLAY IT.
I took this photo of a Sega Game Gear because it brought back memories of when I used to play on the one we used to own.
Here is the Power Glove, a Nintendo accessory made famous by the movie, The Wizard.
One of the games that I ended up playing a lot was this weird game called Go By Train 3 (title roughly translated). It was this train simulator that came complete with a train conductor’s “steering wheel”. It was on the Playstation 2 and it looked like crap, but it was actually quite fun and challenging.
Next to the Pixar exhibit I went to a couple of months back, this Game On exhibition was one of the best exhibits I’ve ever been to. There was every game system you can think of there. There were even a few special edition ones on display too. You could play Doom, multiplayer Halo 3 (THIS WAS AWESOME BY THE WAY), Space Invaders, and original Pac-Man. One of the most fun things to do was to play games on consoles that “never made it”. Basically, they were failures for some reason or another, but somehow, Game On got their hands on these and opened them up for free play.
In conclusion, I have this to say: GO GO GO. If you’re in Melbourne, you need to see this — whether you’re a gamer or not. It’s just fun to be there. I wish they would do one of these video game exhibitions in NYC. I think it’d be a huge success.
PS: Wow, I’ve never actually played the PS3 until I went to Game On, but man, some of the games look REAL. Seriously, some of the racing games looked like I was watching TV rather than playing the driver. Oh, and Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 is friggin rad.
