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sounds like tempest to me

http://www.videotopia.com/games.htm

it's about half way down the page. there is a pic on the page

Tempest, Atari Inc., 1981. The first Atari game to utilize a color vector display, Tempest featured surrealistic 3-D wireframe graphics. The game was inspired by a dream of the designer's and was an instant hit. Interest in Tempest has remained strong as evidenced by the recently acclaimed Tempest 2000 for the Atari's defunct 64-bit Jaguar multimedia system, the popular Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, and personal computers.

Bzzt! Try again. The first Arcade game was Atari's version of Space War known as Computer Space.

...Frogger, Donkey Kong, and 007 all originated with Atari.

Frogger was by Konami/Sega (1981). Donkey Kong was by Nintendo (also 1981). See Videotopia's arcade games page for more.

There are some efforts, though most of them seem to be "virtual" and/or consist mainly of private collections. The one exception that I could find is Videotopia, a sort of traveling arcade museum.

There used to be a National coin-op and video game museum but it's closed now.

There's quite a few virtual museums that I'm not too familiar with; google directory has a comprehensive list.

I think this would be a really cool idea, personally. If you set up a decent amount of older systems (that were still in good condition) and allowed people to play for free (after admission) you could probably pull in quite a decent number of people. I know I'd go to an arcade with a flat-rate admission price and cool old games even without the museum part. And if you could trick people into learning something while they're there, all the better.

This sounds like the traveling Videotopia exhibit.

It's quite a hoot to play games you used to rock at. I think they had Pac Man (not a fave of mine), although it's been a year or two since they came to my town.

Atari tried to put this technology into arcades, with Race Drivin' Panorama. There were 3 and 5 screen versions, but only prototypes existed. Check some nice photos and specs here and here

Well, not exactly. The driver has to start the power slide, the gunner has to push the right direction to get it going. So they kind of split a behavior in half, which we might as well call a new behavior.

Apparently, you've never seen Fire Truck (Atari, 1978)

However, before you get your hopes up too high, read the introduction to the Videotopia project: "VIDEOTOPIA explores humanity's first giant leap into interactive electronic media - - the videogame. As the industry grew, its influence on developing technologies grew as well. The goal of this exhibition is to communicate the dramatic impact these games have had on our lives and our culture."

There are nonetheless some VERY remarkable games in the exhibit, including one of my personal favorites, the 1983 "3-D" Star Wars game!

The Baltimore Inner Harbor area is a pretty awesome place to visit regardless of whether you're a geek or not.

Visit the Maryland Science Center for the real geeky stuff (more info at their website, check the fishes at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

When I visited they had the excellent Videotopia video game history exhibit there, but sadly that's no longer there :(

The Videotopia was on tour there, and it was really great. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that my wife and I had to pay for IMAX movie tickets just to go upstairs and play (& pay to play) old video games. But it was great nonetheless. It had all the old classics, and some really cool stuff too. When we got there, it looked like they were putting together an old original SPRINT game (a crazy game that had a "well" shape where there were 8 steering wheels for 8 players surrounding a screen facing up. This relec must have been from the late 70's early 80's. It was neat, but it wasn't working at the time)

Anyway there's a book that has an interview with the videotopia guy called Arcade Feaver. There's an amusing antidote where he talks about the lowest point in his life, a time where a mint condition "Discs of Tron" game had just been found, but was demolished while being shipped. The book has a lot of color pictures from video games from the golden age and features a bunch of interviews (the Videotopia guy, Ken Lobb the Defender/Robobron guy, and Nolan Bushnell the Computer Space/Atari/Pizza Time Arcade guy). A good read, that belongs on any nerd's coffee table.

Videotopia is a similar US based exhibit that mostly focuses on arcade games. I got to see it twice back in '98 and '99 (it was in Washington DC and Baltimore, MD almost back to back). The schedule at the bottom of the page shows the Baltimore showing as the last one, which was 2 1/2 years ago. I hope it's still touring... I think it actually did a good job of showing the development process (or at least, how it used to be during the classic era in the early '80s) They had original design sketches for several games, a couple cabinets that had see-thru plexiglass sides so you could see the internals of the cabinets (ever wonder how the optical rotary steering wheel on an original Pole Position worked?) and more.

I think one of the most interesting parts of the exhibit (besides the fact that there are so many games in one place to play) is the inclusion of informational stands telling you about what was going on in the world at that time, which often had some effect on the theme or elements of the game. You then can go to a kiosk and answer questions about the "history" behind the games and win free tokens! The ultimate learning tool! :)

If it comes to your area, don't pass it up. Also check out the site and read about some of the games that the exhibit showcases.

I was lucky enough to experience a similar exhibit in back in 1999: it was called Videotopia. Videotopia had its own Slashdot story a while back.

It was a room full of 1980's coin-op games - it was like being dropped back into an old-time arcade (except the air wasn't thick with cigarette smoke - times have changed.)

I got to play Computer Space and Pong, along with many other classics like Tempest and Asteroids.

Unfortunately, the tour schedule on the videotopia web site has no entries past 1999. There's still some interesting pictures of games to drool over, though.

- Tim

I, Robot, Atari Inc., 1984. Originally titled "Ice Castles", I, Robot was the first game to feature 3-D polygon graphics. It even allowed you to just "doodle" with the polygon objects rather than actually play the game. Although I, Robot was not a success, it was the direct ancestor of today's most sophisticated polygon racing and fighting games. Only 1000 I, Robots were ever produced. 500 stayed in North America, and 500 were reportedly exported to Japan.

I, Robot, Atari Inc., 1984. Originally titled "Ice Castles", I, Robot was the first game to feature 3-D polygon graphics. It even allowed you to just "doodle" with the polygon objects rather than actually play the game. Although I, Robot was not a success, it was the direct ancestor of today's most sophisticated polygon racing and fighting games. Only 1000 I, Robots were ever produced. 500 stayed in North America, and 500 were reportedly exported to Japan.