Trendswatch: games galore
Jonathan Knott finds many museums are expanding their collections and interpretation into the digital domain of computer games
A retro experience was on offer at a recent exhibition at the Museum of London (MoL), with the opportunity to play four video games from the 1980s and 1990s, including the text-based adventure Streets of London.
In the past year, the museum has acquired 18 games that either depict London or were developed by Londoners. Ten of these, ranging from vintage items to Tomb Raider III and Sim City 3000, featured in the MoL’s show London in Video Games, which ended in April.
The MoL’s digital curator, Foteini Aravani, says the games, which cover 1982-2000, shed light on how people think about the city. “It’s not only about the depiction of the city as a space, it’s about the social history,” she says. “A lot of the older games reference Thatcherism and the social changes of the time.”
Whether as historical objects, art or the basis for commercial ventures, digital games are growing in popularity at museums. The Barbican’s exhibition on games, Game On, has been on tour since 2002 and is currently in Oslo, Norway (until 29 January 2017).
The Museum of Modern Art in New York began acquiring video games in 2012 and the V&A in London hosted a games designer in residence from October 2013 to March 2014. Also, the National Football Museum in Manchester recently held Pitch to Pixel, a football gaming exhibition.
Aravani says the historical relevance of games is undeniable: “Video games are vital documentation of our democracy and society.”
The museum takes a twofold approach to collecting them, she says. “We preserve the physical items but most are on obsolete media. We also digitise the games so they can be run on emulators and don’t have to worry about losing the content.”
Playable games in the show were run by Raspberry Pi technology, but the keyboards were from the ZX Spectrum – a 1980s computer. Other games were displayed in cases, with context provided by artwork and old hardware such as the Commodore 64. The exhibition attracted a range of visitors, from nostalgic 40-somethings to teenage gamers, says Aravani.
Alistair Otto, the group commercial experiences manager at the Science Museum Group, says new audiences were attracted to the Play It! event at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, held in partnership with the European Gaming League. Visitors were able to sample games from the past 30 years. The event is due to tour to the Science Museum, London, on 22 July, titled Power Up.
Even when they are not the main focus, games can help engage audiences with exhibitions. A notable success was the Wellcome Collection’s High Tea in 2011 (see below). The online game – where visitors play a 19th-century British opium smuggler – accompanied a show on recreational drugs and was played more than three million times in three months.
Gaming the system
“High Tea is about the historically controversial subject of the opium wars. There is a lot of potential to base games around the stories of objects or scientific systems.
Games can help people understand things more easily than if you explained them in an abstract way. By playing to the rules of the game, you’re learning the rules of the system. The statistic we were most pleased with was that more than 50% of people said they were likely to find out more about the trade of opium, or the opium wars.”
Martha Henson is a consultant at Frankly, Green + Webb
In the past year, the museum has acquired 18 games that either depict London or were developed by Londoners. Ten of these, ranging from vintage items to Tomb Raider III and Sim City 3000, featured in the MoL’s show London in Video Games, which ended in April.
The MoL’s digital curator, Foteini Aravani, says the games, which cover 1982-2000, shed light on how people think about the city. “It’s not only about the depiction of the city as a space, it’s about the social history,” she says. “A lot of the older games reference Thatcherism and the social changes of the time.”
Whether as historical objects, art or the basis for commercial ventures, digital games are growing in popularity at museums. The Barbican’s exhibition on games, Game On, has been on tour since 2002 and is currently in Oslo, Norway (until 29 January 2017).
The Museum of Modern Art in New York began acquiring video games in 2012 and the V&A in London hosted a games designer in residence from October 2013 to March 2014. Also, the National Football Museum in Manchester recently held Pitch to Pixel, a football gaming exhibition.
Aravani says the historical relevance of games is undeniable: “Video games are vital documentation of our democracy and society.”
The museum takes a twofold approach to collecting them, she says. “We preserve the physical items but most are on obsolete media. We also digitise the games so they can be run on emulators and don’t have to worry about losing the content.”
Playable games in the show were run by Raspberry Pi technology, but the keyboards were from the ZX Spectrum – a 1980s computer. Other games were displayed in cases, with context provided by artwork and old hardware such as the Commodore 64. The exhibition attracted a range of visitors, from nostalgic 40-somethings to teenage gamers, says Aravani.
Alistair Otto, the group commercial experiences manager at the Science Museum Group, says new audiences were attracted to the Play It! event at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, held in partnership with the European Gaming League. Visitors were able to sample games from the past 30 years. The event is due to tour to the Science Museum, London, on 22 July, titled Power Up.
Even when they are not the main focus, games can help engage audiences with exhibitions. A notable success was the Wellcome Collection’s High Tea in 2011 (see below). The online game – where visitors play a 19th-century British opium smuggler – accompanied a show on recreational drugs and was played more than three million times in three months.
Gaming the system
“High Tea is about the historically controversial subject of the opium wars. There is a lot of potential to base games around the stories of objects or scientific systems.
Games can help people understand things more easily than if you explained them in an abstract way. By playing to the rules of the game, you’re learning the rules of the system. The statistic we were most pleased with was that more than 50% of people said they were likely to find out more about the trade of opium, or the opium wars.”
Martha Henson is a consultant at Frankly, Green + Webb