We’re in Rochester for an early Christmas and today visited The Strong museum. We’ve been here before but they’ve had a major expansion so it was time to see the new attractions.
This included a massive room housing the Video Game Hall of Fame, as well as a fantastic interactive exhibit on gaming in general. We played lots of games and had a lot of fun but it was the many, many displays of toys and games and associated paraphernalia that I particular enjoyed. Here’s a selection of only a few of the interesting things we saw:
That’s a prototype table for the official Lord Of The Rings pinball, as well as the actual (playable) table on the right.
Here’s the Vectrex 3D accessory, which is famously rare. I’ve never seen one, much less a boxed one!
The above are two examples of overproduced Atari cartridges once buried in New Mexico. Long considered an urban legend, this was proven to be true after they were dug up a few years ago and the city donated a few to the museum.
An actual World of Warcraft server ‘blade’ that housed one of the realms for several years! This is physically about as big as a skateboard.
An actual Atari store display from the early 1980s, stocked as how it would have been in those days. I wanted to grab one of the catalogues!
The above is a fascinating item. Those of us that have been around for a certain vintage recall these home-packaged games but to think this one has survived for so many years!
An original piece of hand-painted art that was scanned and used as a backdrop for an early Leisure Suit Larry game! They also had other prototypes and original art examples, including of consoles and arcade games.
Speaking of original art, that’s a hand-drawn sketch of Sonic The Hedgehog done by the original designer!
A lcd game based on those Japanese ‘nammeyano‘ delinquent cat art photos from the 1980s. This is an example of how varied the museum collection is. (Needless to say I’m not showing any of the vast display of more common game or toy items.)
Esoterica like the above I love seeing: an ancient McDonald’s happy meal box (from the late 1980s) and a series or Japanese World of Warcraft scratch-off cards that came with meals over a decade ago!
Or this unopened box of Pac-Man candy. This (which is about the size of a playing card) is 40-odd years old.
And some Donkey Kong ‘action figures’. I imagine the one on the right wasn’t a big seller!
A variety of game-related books. I’d love to read the two on the left, and last year I actually bought and sent the calculator one to Bernard!
Bridging video games and other pastimes, look at these two sets! Kristin recalls she even had the one on the right and put them on her bedroom door.
Here’s some rpg miniatures from decades ago. The grenadier ones even came painted! They also had lots of early D&D products and even an original photocopy of one of the earliest design documents co-written by Gygax and Arneson!
Look at this absolutely beautiful (not to mention unusual) board game based on the BBC Narnia series! I’d love to play this one.
A Wonder Woman trio: artwork for an unmade Atari pinball, a box of colorforms and a funky looking record with ‘songs and stories’ on it.
This is a talking doll invented by Edison and produced in the late 1800s! It’s a little retro-futuristic isn’t it? It’s also in extraordinary condition for something that is over 130 years old. I wonder if it still talks?
Speaking of dolls, the above is apparently the world’s most glamorous ‘teenage doll’. This is another fantastic condition and sealed-in-box item that is decades old and full of nostalgia.
Can you guess who the above doll is? It’s a pretty good likeness for when it was released (the 1970s)…
The above toy set of ‘missiles’ was released in 1958 and appears to be cardboard cutouts. I googled this and it was popular and rereleased (and updated to plastic) several times into the 1970s! What boy wouldn’t want to play with world-destroying nuclear missiles?
The museum was incredible, and there’s so much to see. It’s bigger and better than ever and I’m glad we visited it again. I hope you liked seeing some of the many wonders we saw.
