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Games Entertainment

A Reader Visit to the "Game On" Computer Games Exhibit 55

Posted by timothy from the blinkenlights-and-quarter-slots dept.
Michael Jennings writes: "Here is a review of the Game On exhibition that is on at the Barbican centre in London, and which will tour Japan and the US in 2003." Here are two previous mentions of the exhibit. Below are Michael's detailed impressions of the exhibit.

On Friday I attended the Game On exhibition about the history of computer games, at the Barbican Centre gallery. (Admission charge, 11 pounds ($16)). This is on in London from 16 May to 15 September, before moving to The Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh from October 2002 to February 2003 and touring to-be-announced venues in Europe, America and Japan in 2003.

The exhibition starts off well as you walk in. The first thing you see is a PDP-1, with a description of the development of SpaceWar in 1962. Sadly, the PDP-1 is not actually operating, but there is a later (1977) coin operated version of Space War that you can play. From there, we jump straight to the 1970s, where we have a couple of instances of "Computer Space," the very first coin-operated game, from 1971, which had a truly cool cabinet and was produced by Nolan Bushnell, who had then not yet founded Atari, but was otherwise unmemorable, (although this photo does seem to indicate that the sixties were not yet over). We then have working versions (of both cocktail and upright versions) of many coin-operated games from the 1970s.

Most of the classics are there, from a 1972 version of Pong (or Ping, as it was known in the UK due to the world "Pong" denoting a bad smell in British English). Space invaders, Mr and Ms Pacman, Asteroids, Tempest, Defender, Missile Command, Galaxian, Donkey Kong, Centipede etc. There is a very brief description of the Mame project, and a projection TV system running Mame with a choice of about 20 classic games. Unfortunately, the significance of the project from a preservation point of view is not adequately described, nor are the various issues that go with it. (I asked an attendant whether they legally owned copies of the 20 individual ROMs, and he had no idea what I was talking about). As we go on, a lack of explanation of the things on show turns out to be the major weakness of the exhibition. There are quite a few very significant things in the history of gaming in the exhibition, but in a lot of instances it isn't adequately explained just why they are significant, or even in some cases what they are.

From there, we go to a room containing "Ten playable consoles," showing a few of the things we might have had in our homes: working examples of both dedicated game consoles and early microcomputers: the Magnavox Odyssey, Atari 2600, Sinclair Spectrum, Nintendo Famicon, Spectravision, Commodore 64 (why not the Vic-20?) up to an early Amiga. This room also contains brief potted histories of the gaming activities of Atari, Commodore, Sega, Nintendo, Sony, with one or two pieces of classic hardware to look. Plus there is a little potted history of the IBM-PC (with an AT in a display case to look at). There is no mention of the Apple 2, somewhat curiously. No, it wasn't perhaps principally a gaming machine, but it was the first machine providing high resolution colour graphics that people could have in their homes. It was the first non-arcade machine I personally played games on, and I think this is true of a lot of people. (I cite the results of the "most nostalgic item" poll on Slashdot last week).

Up to this point, the exhibition has been largely chronological. From this point on, it drops the chronological aspects and becomes more theme based. This works with variable success. (Some themes work better than others). Some things that are historically quite closely related to each other are not close to one another in the exhibition due to the way they are categorised. A strictly chonological exhibition may have worked better.

Firstly we have a couple of rooms full of about 50 (mostly console) games that you can play. These are supposedly divided up into "Games of Action," "Games of Simulation," and "Games of Reflection and Thought," supposedly, but the distinctions are not very clear. Largely though it's just a room with lots of games in it. In one corner I found the Infocom game of "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy," which was the only text-based game in the whole exhibition. (No Star Trek, no ADVENT, no ZORK). This was a shame, as the culture of text games would have amongst other things helped bridge the gap between Space War and the 1970s arcade games and would have fit in well in the early history of games section).

After this, we had a section devoted to the making and marketing of five famous games (or families of games): Grand Theft Auto, SimCity / Sims, Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, and Pokemon. This section is good. We have original character concept drawings, storyboards and design diagrams from Yoshitaka Amano, James Kenny and other original designers of a number of these games, plus both artwork (both for marketing designs and simply for the sake of art) from many of the game designers. Most notably, we have a series of paintings from Ocean Quigley of Sims fame, showing his visions of various Sim Cities and Sim Worlds. This is really cool.

Upstairs, we find a display comparing games culture between "Europe and the USA" and "Japan." The "Europe and the USA" section is unimpressive, containing a few sports-based games and a few military-based games, without really explaining what these have to do with Europe and the USA. (A discussion of how military simulators and games have influenced each other is the best). The "Japan" half is much better, talking about the influence of manga and anime, the influence of the Pachinko culture, the Japanese love of simulations games ("Go by Train", and "Bass Fishing"), plus a really good demonstration of how the game "Renegade" was modified from its Japanese version (which was set in a violent schoolyard) to its US version (which dealt with violence in a perhaps politically less sensitive gang-dominated urban jungle).

The section devoted to "Character Design" gives us a brief overview of the development of Mario and Sonic, and we then get to a section on "Childrens Games." The most interesting part of this is a display of handheld games, in particular early single-game handheld versions of Donkey Kong, Scramble, and a few others like this. (These were quite important to me, as I remember playing many of these in the early 1980s), as well as the usual Game Boys and the like. (I am not sure what makes these "Childrens Games" any more than a lot of the other games in the exhibition, however).

We then have brief sections on game sound and movie-related games. Nothing too exciting here, although lots of movie posters for masterpieces like "Super Mario Brothers" plus a couple of non-working arcade machines with movie related themes. (Tron, most notably. A bit of a shame this one isn't working. Also a shame they didn't devote more time to the movie, given the movie was about game culture. At least the are showing the film as part of the film season associated with the exhibition).

A section on multi-player games is much too small, unfortunately. There are a small number of networked PCs playing a small number of games. (Red Ace Squadron and Worms Word Party when I was there), plus a sign saying that a changing program of games will be shown over the course of the exhibition. This was a little disappointing, as quite frankly this is a small part of a bigger story: the development and evolution of Doom and Quake into things like Counter-Strike is an interesting story, and one that is not covered in this exhibition. (Perhaps they thought that if they had lots of people playing death matches, this would make the exhibition less family friendly). One of the following sections of the exhibition is devoted to the use of gaming technologies for urban planning, and demonstrates the produce V/Spacelab, which is a planning tool used in real urban design, that was developed from the Quake 3 engine. This is really interesting, and one of the best things in the exhibition, but it the obvious connection with the multiplayer game section is missed.

Finally, we have a section on "Future Technology" which talks about where we are going from here. A little bit on games with evolving characters, and voice and body based user interfaces. I would have liked to have seen something on cell phone based games (Japanese i-mode perhaps) as I think this is going to be a big deal.

On the way out, there is a theatrette showing documentaries on the history of games. I sat an watched the documentary "Thumb Candy" from Britain's Channel 4 hosted by Iain Lee, which gave a much clearer history of games than did the exhibition, but this is at the very end of the exhibition when most people are tired, so I was the only person in the theatrette.

As well as all this, the exhibition includes a number of generally small, "contemporary commissions," mostly concept art on games-based subjects. None of this tells you very much about computer games, but I did have the opportunity to play a game of Space Invaders where I got to shoot down the words from quotations from Focault while listening to the sounds of short wave numbers stations. If nothing else, this reminds me that I am in Europe.

I was interrupted by a reporter for the Russian language programs of the BBC World Service, who saw me taking notes for this review in front of the PDP-1, and after I told him a little about the history of Space War and the like, he recorded an audio interview with about my impressions of the exhibition. Thus, the people of Moscow may be hearing my thoughts translated into Russian.

The exhibition bookshop has a book devoted to the exhibition for sale for 20 pounds, plus copies of virtually every book devoted to computer games that the organisers could lay their hands on, a bit of manga and books devoted to manga, one or two tangentially related board games (Harry Potter, anyone?) a little bit of cyberpunkish sf (The Difference Engine, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), and, perplexingly, a large number of copies of Naomi Klein's "No Logo."

There is also a program of films and lectures/discussions taking place to go with the exhibition. The films are "Tron," "The Driver," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (huh?), "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," "Resident Evil," "Existenz," "Ghost in the Shell," and "The Matrix," some of which are clearly worth seeing.

What's good? There is some very cool stuff on display. They have a PDP-1. They have lots of old arcade machines. You can play most of the games. The paintings of SimCity are good. Most of the stories in the histories of gaming are here if you look carefully. The final section on the use of the Quake 3 engine in urban design was great. There haven't really been any major museum exhibits on computer games before, and this is a good effort.

What's bad? There is a lack of coverage of text based games, and anything PC-like prior to Windows 95. There is a lack of coverage of PC gaming. Many of the items on display aren't adequately explained. The organisation into categories doesn't really work.

Is it worth spending my money on? Yes.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Slashdot welcomes reader-submitted features -- thanks, Michael!
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A Reader Visit to the "Game On" Computer Games Exhibit More

A Reader Visit to the "Game On" Computer Games Exhibit

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  • Finally, they realize what I've known for years: the only real computer game is Pong--the rest are just updates.


    • Believe it or not, the legendary Pong was never in the country I am currently staying. Never was, never is, and (who knows ?) never will be ?

      Many third world countries were late to the electronic games, and during the "Pong haydays", many of these countries' count of nationwide telephone lines in the 4 figures. Some were even less than 1000 !

      Consequently, the "Game On" exhibition will NEVER hit these countries, and I can bet my bottom money that it will never come here.


  • Excellent review.

    I wasn't going to visit this exhibition but now I think I will.

    Thanks Micheal.

    Btw, did they have any take on the future of video gaming or even anything on the current, quite interesting scenario?


    • As I mentioned in the review, one of the sections of the exhibit is devoted to "Future Technology", but is devoted to technology more than the games themselves. (Things like new game interfaces and voice controls and things like that).



      There is a discussion [gameonweb.co.uk] of the future of gaming on September 7 to mark the end of the exhibition. This might be worth going to.

      Michael

  • No MMOG? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25, 2002 @11:34AM (#3584022)
    That's surprising, considering EverQuest is now 'ancient' in terms of the gaming world, and there are a host of others out there and many that are up and coming.

    Despite the newfangled graphics, MMOG has its roots much deeper - MUD/M*/etc. There isn't a single graphical MMOG out there that hasn't taken something from MUDs.

    (I leave out the RP, simply because in most of these games, there is no roleplaying, the sole purpose is to kill things, get experience and gold, and get to the highest level. It transcends any setting. There are, actually, some MMOGs that actually set roleplaying as the thing that matters.)
    • >some MMOGs that actually set roleplaying as the thing that matters

      Dunno if you're referring to the new graphical games or the M*s, but tons of MOOs were completetly non goal based, meaning the only thing people did was RP, even if they used the MOO to automate and 'game' some of the RP elements.

      Ah, memories.
    • While most "roleplaying" computers games aren't roleplaying, I agree, it is important to distinguish those games that have a plot and story with puzzle solving and clue collection from those that don't. While it's not actually roleplaying, I'd consider something like the Ultima series and it's bretheren to be closer to roleplaying than an storyless game like Everquest. (The irony is that Everquest has actual human beings to interact with, so it *should* be a better roleplaying experience than something where you play alone vs the computer. But in practice it doesn't seem that way. It seems that playing a MMOG prevents any complex plots from existing, because the game can't be safely designed to let PC's change the world in any signifigant way. (If you rout the low-level orcs from the area and save the townsfolk, then what is the next low-level newbie supposed to do? So you have to have respawning and other such anti-plot features to make it fair.)

      It is a shame that it sounds like there were no representatives of the Ultima style of game in the exhibit. There were lots of that type of game to choose from: the Phantasie series, the Bard's Tale series, the AD&D series (i.e. the original Pool of Radiance), and so on. They could have had at least one, and it is certainly an important part of that era of computer gaming.

  • I went along on Wednesday... (Score:3, Informative)

    by kerincosford ( 228730 ) <[ku.oc.erehllup] [ta] [nirek]> on Saturday May 25, 2002 @11:43AM (#3584047)
    And thoroughly enjoyed myself.

    The early arcade machines constantly broke down. But credit was due to the exhibition staff, as they immediately broke the cabs open to get them up and running again.

    I was pleased to see a section devoted to game sounds and music, as thats an area which is often overlooked. They had Rez set up on a big screen with even bigger sound, Space Channel 5, listening posts so you could listen to all the old C64 hits, and a very cool commisioned 3-player game called Ping which produced some amazing sounds.

    I thought it was a little odd that I didn't see a Neo-Geo anywhere (although its possible that I missed it), but it was nice to see the Vectrex sitting proudly next to the PDP-1, running Space War!. It was also heartening to see that the new-generation of consoles didn't overwhelm the exhibition. The X-box in particular was pretty much non-existent - just 2 boxes relegated into corners, with DOA3 and Amped. Makes sense - whatever your opinions of Xbox, it hasnt made any impact on the history of videogames, at least not as much as GameCube, which put on a strong show (Super Monkey Ball, Pikmin, Super Smash Brothers Melee).

    I was a bit puzzled as to why the FPS genre was completely ignored however. No Doom, no Quake, no Half-Life. And no mention of online games, despite there being a section specifically devoted to multiplayer gaming.

    On the whole though, its well worth the £11. Its a joy to wander round checking out Sensible Soccer, Tempest, Flashback, Pong, Breakout, Super Msrio Kart, all the games you love.

    Make sure you have enough time though. You could easily spend an entire day there - I only had a couple of hours, so I'm going to have to go back, probably when it visits Edinburgh later in the year.
    • Given that they devoted space to a display showing how the Quake 3 engine was being used to drive a simulator being used for urban planning, it would be nice to have seen some mention of Quake elsewhwere, yes.


    • ...I'm going to have to go back, probably when it visits Edinburgh later in the year.

      Has it been confirmed that the exhibition will be visiting Edinburgh?

      That would suit me down to the ground as I'm living in Edinburgh at the moment but I searched their website but wasn't able to find any mention of it.

      • Yep, it is definitely visiting Edinburgh once it finishes at the Barbican in September. Its supported by National Galleries Scotland, and apparently its going to be at the National Gallery on the Mound, although that seems like an odd venue to me.
    • The exhibition catalogue includes a whole section on "Ranger Gone Bad 2", so quake is sort-of there. Doom isn't mentioned (AFAIK), which is a bit odd.

  • The review says:
    the Japanese love of simulations games ("Go by Train", and "Bass Fishing")

    Hey! I still remember playing a Bass Fishing sim on my 16-bit Sega Gen. in the US, and it rocked (even if it was a bit unrealistic)! Don't forget sims that are ultrapopular here, such as the "Deer Hunter [planetdeerhunter.com]" series, and its various spin-offs and clones.

    "Go by Train," however, sounds like it wouldn't fly, or chug along, overseas.

  • fps games (Score:1, Insightful)

    by dollargonzo ( 519030 )
    i wonder how much coverage of fps games there was (perhaps i missed it in review). i would surely hope it was small, due to the fact that doom and quake1 are really the inly innovations and new technologies. subequent versions have not really done anything new. all they did is improve grafx, but the gameplay quickly became nonimportant.

    QED
  • I was interrupted by a reporter for the Russian language programs of the BBC World Service, who saw me taking notes for this review in front of the PDP-1, and after I told him a little about the history of Space War and the like, he recorded an audio interview with about my impressions of the exhibition. Thus, the people of Moscow may be hearing my thoughts translated into Russian.

    Geek rebellion in Russia

    MOSCOW, Russia - The geeks of Russia, Atari controllers in hand, black rimmed glasses on their face, are presently chanting "ÌÛ ÕÎÒÅÒÜ SLASH-DOT" (which translates to "We want 'Slash-Dot'" in Russian)* outside of the President's home early yesterday morning. They seemed angry, holding up signs with the symbol "/." on them. President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin watched from the windows, unsure of what to do. He phoned President Bush about the matter as a counsel.

    Bush promised to send the commander right for the job. Putin asked why he was sending only a lone commander instead of a general and an army. Bush replied that he only needed a single commander to give the people what they wanted, that being Slashdot, and that soldier was Commander Taco.

    Interviewers spoke with some of the geeks. One of them told the Associated Press that "we demand a nerdy website that will tell us all about video game conventions. We Russian nerds also need an inside source!" Confusion still reigns, wondering whether the "source" meant SourceForge or Slashdot.

    --Associated Press

    *I do not speak Russian - this is a horrible translation as near as I can figure out as I picked the first word off of a very bad English-Russian translator site when I typed in "we" and "want". For all those who are Russian or speak it, please do not be offended or laugh at me. Well, laugh at the comment. Not at me. Meanieheads.
  • Since when is a word processor a game, and how can you make it multiplayer?

    "There are a small number of networked PCs playing a small number of games. (Red Ace Squadron and Worms Word Party when I was there)"
  • anything but good coming from this. If the gaming companies and groups had more explorative confrences/etc such as this one, the entire industry would be revolutionized.
  • I am surprised there is no mention of the landmark game Elite for the BBC. This was HUGELY popular, and even helped increase sales of the BBC. Check out New Kind [newkind.co.uk] for a realistic PC version, and Darkness Falls [clara.co.uk] for a new slicker game.
  • This movie was mentioned because it was definitely inspired by video games, with its wire-fu, fighting-game-physics fight scenes, even though it wasn't actually based off a video game.

    Sometimes the inspiration is a bit more deliberate. There is an old Jackie Chan kung fu movie in which Jackie, his friends, and his opponent are all electrocuted by a Street Fighter II arcade game, and temporarily turn into various Street Fighter characters. (Imagine Jackie Chan as Chun Li!)
    • This movie was mentioned because it was definitely inspired by video games, with its wire-fu, fighting-game-physics fight scenes, even though it wasn't actually based off a video game.

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Crouching Tiger was a tribute to old HK martial arts movies. I would have said the reverse: that Crouching Tiger is included in the programme because HK martial arts films influenced a great many video games.
  • If nothing else, this reminds me that I am in Europe.

    Funny, I thought it was in the UK. Ohh, little bit of politics...

    TWW

  • Original spacewar as java applet (Score:3, Informative)

    by XNormal ( 8617 ) on Saturday May 25, 2002 @01:49PM (#3584421) Homepage
    The original spacewar game is available here [mit.edu] as a java applet.

    It actually runs the original PDP-1 assembler code in an emulator.
  • The various references to this show got me to thinking about games of old. And do you know what I want?

    I want those old table video games in every pub in the world! Think of the joy of whipping you drinking mates at Mario Kart!

    The sheer naked pleasure of 4 player bomberman while pished without the fear of getting guinness into your own carpet!

    BINGO!
    • last time i was in a pub in shepherd's bush, london (the irish one on the corner of the green, forget its name, by the Empire, opposite the Vesbar) they had a table video game that let you choose between space invaders, donkey kong and two others.

      also, the oxford street virgin megastore cafe has 4 or so different tables available.

      andy
  • So I agree with the posters comments about text gaming being a big gap. Between the pure text games (Zork, Leather Goddesses of Phobos) and the graphics heavy stuff lies a range of slideshow based graphics games that were significant for me. Not having Oregon Trail seems like a huge admission. I understand how these get missed, but before the show travels maybe it will be revised.
  • It's cool, I got to play Tempest, Miss PacMan, Defender, Donkey Kong, Crystal Castle and Centipede with their original controls on a Vintage arcade machine... And it was free!!!

    Now the rest of the exhibit was featuring some computer games and many console games as well. But this did not bring much since you can play this using an emulator (the original joypad are not much better than any cheap PC joypad.) The recent games (X-Box, PS2 and GameCube, PC...) can all be played in video games stores.

    There were also some cool material on some games but not much more than what you would find in the preview section of any game magazine. And also some handheld I remember playing as a kid.

    So was it worth it? I would say yes if you are really into retro gaming (and are an avid MAME fan like me who wants to play the original thing), but I would not go to London just for that!
    Go The End/AKA to do some serious clubbing the night before (it's both good fun, and get's you in the right mood to play video games ;o)

    If you are into more modern games (late 80' and 90's area), keep your £11 and go to the Trocadero and play R360. That's some wicked game!

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