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History of Video Games Exhibit
Mandi Walls writes "Wired is running an article about an exhibit on the history of video games at Barbican in London. It's supposed to hit the US next year. They start at Space War! from 1962 and move forward from there."
The show is every player's dream. View more than 250 separate exhibits, including hard-to-find vintage titles. In a wonderful coup, organizers nabbed one of only 10 or so known working DEC PDP-1 minicomputers, which runs Steve Russell's legendary Space War! (1962), the first computer game ever. From there, you can move through old arcade favorites - Computer Space (1971), Pong (1972), Space Invaders (1978), and Pac-Man (1980) - and on to the Atari 2600 (1977) and Magnavox Odyssey (1972) consoles. Of course, the 21st-century Xbox, GameCube, and PS2 are represented, too.
There's more than hardware to lust after here. As curator Lucien King says, "Our broad aim is to explore the culture, history, and global context of the industry." The exhibition and accompanying book, Game On ($28, from Laurence King), deconstruct characters (like Lara Croft) along gender and age lines and examine their relationships with players. They also consider the various sociological contexts of releases from Japan, the US, and the rest of the world.
Game On offers case studies of specific titles (Pokémon and The Sims among them) that demystify just how games are made. It's not about a single creative genius working alone in some back room anymore. Games come from the collective imagination of large development teams. This idea, it turns out, parallels the evolution of the way we play games. What began as heroic individualism - solitary epics of self-expression - is increasingly about interaction among many participants.
The show also delves into the complex relationship between the gaming community and Hollywood. Comparing film posters, screenings, and playable versions of franchises like James Bond and Final Fantasy, it becomes clear that what makes a good game doesn't always make a good film and vice versa (think Tomb Raider).
Game On ultimately reminds us that games are part of a living culture. By making the works available to the public in an art gallery instead of a commercial environment, King hopes to invite a fresh, more critical appraisal. Who are they kidding? Fifty game stations. Zero quarters required. I'm there.
But that takes all the fun out of it. I mean, I can't even imagine playing Street Fighter II without a long row of quarters balanced along the bottom edge of the screen. ("I got next.") That'd be like having a clean floor at a bar: wholly unnatural.
"Game On offers case studies of specific titles (Pokémon and The Sims among them) that demystify just how games are made. It's not about a single creative genius working alone in some back room anymore."
Anybody hear of John Carmack?
Some people don't like Pokemon (come on, it's a yellow sqwishy thing!) ID software is a small group of dedicated individuals that have produced consistently and I think the best games still come from a small core of elite hackers and people with great imaginations. So much for large development teams... It is the game design that matters, not the number of people (look at Romero's ideas of grandeur...)
Imperium et libertas
Autocracy and freedom
It was the 1968 Spring Joing Computer Conference in Boston.
There was about a half million bucks worth of gear running the simplest possible spaceship game on a CRT.
And about a thousand people trying to crowd in to see it. All the other booths had boring stuff like glossy literature and programming manuals. And of course people in suits looking very unhappy because all everyone was interested in was space war.
The marketeers learned. Next year they had spiffy demos and babes to show them to you.
All though Spacewar often gets credit as the first video game in 1962, William Higinbotham an employee at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, NY had a working Pong-like game in 1958.
Designed from an analog computer hooked up to an oscilloscope, Brookhaven Lab was promptly besieged by players who waited on line for hours to get their chance to play.
Higinbotham never patented his device.
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.