Game On 2.0 exhibit at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

My wife, Linda and boys, Jeremiah and Judah, went to OMSI this past Thursday to see the Game On exhibit and we had a blast. I only wish it would be around the area longer.
I didn't really know what to expect...maybe a bunch of old and new systems in glass cases. Maybe some game packages and old cartridges behind protective covers. And there was plenty to look at like that.

What I did not expect was a huge room with 300 (?) games that you could play without having to plunk quarters in. There were a few pinball machines, arcade style machines, hand helds and some games in exhibit style cases with the controls either hanging out on a cord or mounted on the outside.
The first game I played was an old pinball machine called The Egghead. It was pretty simple and a little slow, but it was fun. Then my wife invited me to play Pong, which was projected onto the wall. That was a blast from the Atari past.
I saw a lot of modern and more progressive games that were really too intimidating for me to play. I'm sort of a video game pansy. I don't like to "die". So, for me, the next thing to do was to play the original Asteroids, Centipede, Super Breakout, Pitfall and a few other of the tamer classics.
We probably spent a couple of hours at Game On. It was neat to see my old Atari system as well as some systems that I had never heard of. There were other systems familiar to Americans and some Japanese systems and games, too. Even some original pen and ink artwork of early game designs were on display. It was interesting to see how characters started out.
It was a fun and interesting exhibit to go to, but the best part was being able to play some of the old games again with my wife and sons. Linda had some experience with the classic games while growing up, but I wouldn't have had the chance to play my old Atari games with my kids if we hadn't gone to Game On 2.0.
And there's nothing better than spending fun and quality time with your family!

Here are a couple of links about Game On 2.0:
http://www.omsi.edu/game-on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_On_%28exhibition%29