7 Feb, 2011
An exhibition celebrating the very best of British videogaming is going on tour, starting with the North East of England this coming Saturday. Thousands of people visited Videogame Nation when it made its debut at Urbis in Manchester, showcasing gaming from the late 1970s to the present day and on Saturday February 12, it will stop at the huge Woodhorn Museum and Northumberland Archives near Newcastle where it will remain for the next seven months.
The unique exhibition is split into a number of sections, starting with a recreated bedroom in which gamers can play a host of titles from the late 1970s and 1980s while learning more about the people who helped plant the seeds of the gaming industry. There is a host of coin-op arcade machines, an office area which reflects the growing nature of gaming that is packed with a host of original design documents and posters.
A mocked-up football stadium showcases the best of sports games, streets are littered with handheld devices and a living room lets you kick back and relax with some of the more contemporary titles. With an emphasis on interactivity – and under the guiding eyes of a massive Yoda built from LEGO – players not only get to play dozens of games but they can also understand more about the processes of making them.
Visitors can design their own pixel art and box covers and display them for all to see and see items which have been donated by various British gaming companies. And, because this is an exhibition in the North East, many of the companies in the area including Ubisoft Reflections, Eutechnyx, the Falcus brothers and Pitbull Studios have been actively involved.
“Videogame Nation lets people who played games as children see just how far the industry has come while, at the same time, allow more recent gamers to see the immense heritage of gaming in the UK,” says curator and videogame journalist David Crookes.
“Gaming has become a hugely significant part of so many people’s lives over the years and yet there is still a feeling that games are for geeks. This exhibition aims not only to help strip away such preconceptions but also celebrate the contribution British developers have made to gaming. It’s a multi-million pound industry today but that wealth of cash hasn’t been to the detriment of creativity and we aim to look at games as a cultural influence and a still-developing form of interactive media.”
Woodhorn museum director Keith Merrin said: “Visitors to Videogame Nation will really be able to capture the mood of gaming. They will experience the whole range of machines from the ZX Spectrum, to the Mega Drive to the PlayStation and the latest Nintendo handhelds and we have some of the more obscure machines too including the Amstrad GX4000.
“As well as the actual games, visitors will also be able to see some of the stunning artwork created by games developers and magazine artists, read original design documents and view machines most of us had forgotten. The exhibition promises to be entertaining and informative for everyone.”
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