The Physics Row

On the physics row — 112 cabinets — gravity holds the high score. These are games about arcs, bounces, collapses and pendulums: golf balls slingshotted into orbit, cars crash-tested with scientific enthusiasm, ragdolls launched down hillsides in the name of research. The controls are usually one button and a sense of timing; the depth is in the sandbox, where the same launch never quite lands twice and half the fun is the accident you couldn't have planned.

Physics cabinets reward a particular mindset: hypothesise loosely, test immediately. The front of the row carries the polished puzzlers, games with levels and intended solutions; further in you'll find the pure toys, where the score is whatever you decide it is. If a run goes wrong here it usually goes wrong gloriously — which is why this row, more than any other on the floor, gets the 'one more run' out of people who swore they were leaving.

112 physics cabinets stand on this row tonight, in the running order our supplier swears by — the big draws toward the front.