The Science Museum has an exhibition on computer games at present, “Game On”. Given the subject matter timing was a problem - when could one go and avoid the inevitable horde of children? Any holiday or weekend is fraught with the problem of parents dumping their children upon poor museum staff, and given the point of the exhibition is its interactivity, well, this is less than ideal for the rest of us.

And so I thought: Christmas Eve - everyone will be out shopping, or at least out of London. And indeed they were. Unfortunately, the Science Museum shuts for three days a year: 24-26 December. And so we ended up booking for the 27th, and turned up at 10:00 on the dot, intent on beating the crowd.

This proved to be a wise decision. The exhibition ranges from Space Wars, Space Invaders and Ms. PacMan at the start, through to the Wii and PS3 at the end. For the Wii/PS3 you are given 5 minutes on one or the other, but the rest are fair game. And so we found ourselves with our pick for the first half hour or so, after which it became increasingly busy and harder to play your choice of sample.

In general it is very well planned out. Most items are played on the original machines, and most controllers and the like are in good condition. There was also a good range, although the focus was mostly on arcade rather than PC games. The EyeToy powered Super Monkey Ball proved to be quite good, and Polly found herself rather keen on Ms. Pacman.

The major disappointment turned out to be the newer generation games. They inevitable had so many menus than just getting into the game proved a chore, and bar graphical differences there was little to pick between the PS2, XBox 360 or PS3.

But we did get a chance to play 4 player tennis on the Wii. This, despite the rather basic graphics, turned out to be a lot more fun, waving the controller madly in the air in wild attempts to hit the ball. However, it remains to be seen if more games develop the controller concept further (or, indeed, if anyone ever has some stock in the UK).

In short, if you are in London and fancy some fun it's well worth the entry price. Just get in early to avoid the kids.