Alyssa Brown was born in 1999, nearly a quarter-century after the debut of the arcade game that would change her life.
Today, the University of Virginia graduate student is helping preserve a forgotten chapter of video game history, one rare “Pong” machine at a time.
Her journey begins with a University of Mary Washington undergraduate course called Games and Culture. During a class on the earliest days of arcade gaming, Brown started browsing an online archive of vintage flyers and came across “Robot,” a little-known game Allied Leisure released in 1975.
“I became obsessed with it,” she said.
Brown poses with “Omega Race” during a visit to Decades Arcade in Charlottesville. Ron Hailliburton created the game and considers it one of his favorite creations. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
The game, a volleyball variation of “Pong,” stood out for more than its rarity. Unlike most arcade games of its era, “Robot” invited players to compete against the machine itself, creating the illusion that it could think and respond like a human opponent.
“I am very interested in artificial intelligence,” Brown said. “It was so ahead of its time.”
She spent the next four years chasing a machine most collectors doubted still existed.
Hours turned into months spent combing digital archives, collector forums and decades-old arcade flyers. Brown eventually concluded that, if she couldn’t find one of the games by 2030, she would build her own.
Then a Facebook message arrived.
A collector in Warrenton had acquired a “Robot” cabinet from Fredericksburg, the same city where Brown attended college. He planned to auction it until Brown visited his arcade and explained why the machine mattered.
“He was really kind,” she said. “He decided to sell it to me.”
That discovery became the foundation of her graduate research at UVA.
Brown visits Halliburton at his Florida workshop. Halliburton helped found Allied Leisure before launching several arcade companies and continues to design games today. (Contributed photo)
Sean Duncan, a professor in UVA’s Department of Media Studies, encouraged Brown to turn her passion into a thesis examining the “Bronze Age” of arcade history, the largely overlooked period of the 1970s before blockbuster games like “Pac-Man” transformed the industry.
For Brown, her “Robot” machine was only the beginning.
“These machines were never intended to be preserved,” she said. “They were meant to be thrown in the dumpster after a couple of years.”
That makes the surviving games – and the stories behind them – increasingly valuable.
Collectors have spent decades repairing aging cabinets and hunting for obsolete parts. Brown appreciates those efforts, but believes preservation must extend beyond the hardware.
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