Image: "Game On" at Pacific Science Center (5559659293)

Description: Pacific Science Center is an outstanding science museum in Seattle, located just north of downtown at Seattle Center next to the Space Needle. For July 2006, I could witness a special temporary exhibition, titled "Game On," chronicling the development of video games, starting with the Atari Pong to the latest hi-def consoles. Sponsor was none other than Nintendo, whose US headquarters is in Redmond. These are video game machines that saw commercial use in video game arcades, bowling centers, and elsewhere. A common scene around 1980 was to sink every spare quarter into one of these games, trying to get the highest possible score (and leave my name as a 3-letter initial as a reward). For this exhibition, I don't need to feed quarters to play - they are all free. I easily blew past 200,000 points, and probably Stage 21, on Galaga on the far right on this day. Back in its heyday, I was lucky if I could get to Stage 4. Growing up helps. And I prefer these primitive video games, which made strategy (and on the part of the programmer, actual attention to gameplay and replayability as well as efficient use of limited memory and processing power) more important compared to modern games and their emphasis on pretty visuals.
Title: "Game On" at Pacific Science Center (5559659293)
Credit: "Game On" at Pacific Science Center
Author: InSapphoWeTrust from Los Angeles, California, USA
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
License: CC BY-SA 2.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes