I went to the Game On exhibit in Chicago last Monday and I give it thumbs up. I had heard that they used emulators, but almost all the machines there actually were on original hardware. They did have one MAME machine connected to a big screen but the rest were actual arcade machines and consoles. I finally got to play an Atari Jaguar and have to agree that it does have a very odd controller. It seems like it your fingers should go up in the front but it doesn’t have trigger or shoulder buttons.
There were some omissions, of course. Computer games were under-represented. There was no Doom, or Quake or even Ultima or Diablo. There was, however, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Other omission were online games of all kinds and fighting games (there was a copy of one of the street fighters). In fact, the only FPS game was Metroid Prime which people claim isn’t really a FPS at all.
Despite these holes, the exhibit was rather complete with everything from Space Invaders to DDR, from Donkey Kong to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. We spend three hours in there playing games. All in all, it was worth the trip. Check it out if you can!