The National Media Museum’s Games Lounge is a brand new attraction giving visitors the chance to plug into the history of videogaming, play classic, groundbreaking games in their original arcade or console formats and discover the story behind a global phenomenon.

The Games Lounge is also the first public gallery that draws on the collection and knowledge of the National Videogame Archive (NVA). Many of the playable consoles and objects on display form part of the NVA and have been donated by generous members of the public or bought from collectors such as Console Passion.

Anyone visiting the Museum will be able to play their way through the titles that helped videogaming become one of the most successful entertainment industries in the world; from the sensational Pong (1972) to releases from the 1990s such as Super Mario Kart and Golden Eye.

The Lounge features a selection of seminal games that are easy to pick up and play, either for a quick 5 minute blast or a few hours. Games have been chosen to ignite feelings of nostalgia in visitors who remember them when they were first released, and give young people the chance to play them for first time.

Visitors will be able to track the history of videogames through a giant timeline as well as view the early computers and games consoles that turned a nation on to gaming. A dedicated Museum website provides further information and interactive content exploring the tradition, culture and design of videogames.

Featuring 15 individual games, several of the Games Lounge consoles are free to play, and others are coin-operated for the closest recreation of the original arcade experience possible. The lounge also hosts a unique arcade-style cabinet designed to give wheelchair users access to many of the titles through a free-of-charge simulator.

The Urbis building in Manchester reminds me of something from a computer game; a giant glass monolith that has been transported from another world. Inside, the multiple staggered platforms that house the many galleries are perfect for a real-life game of Donkey Kong. Luckily, I didn’t have to face a huge disgruntled gorilla as Videogame Nation, a new original exhibition that tracks the history of British gaming resides on the first floor.

Outside the Videogame Nation exhibition in Urbis, Manchester

The first section of the exhibition is a haven for gamers with fond memories of the home-brew bedroom coding scene of the 80s. A grid of shelves showcases classic consoles and home computers surrounded by copies of Crash magazine and original posters for classic games. A bed featuring a Space Invaders duvet cover, a time-lapse video of Introversion lead designer Chris Delay working at home and a telephone that lets you listen to interviews with famous developers are all neat touches. The highlights of the exhibition though are the playable games that let you revisit landmark British titles and this section includes Elite, Jet Set Willy and Lunar Jetman.

An area dedicated to the bedroom coder

The gallery then explores racing games with a playable Amstrad GX4000 that lets you get hands-on with Burnin’ Rubber and a NES loaded up with Micro Machines. The next part of the story covers the UK arcade phenomenon covering the Pickford Brothers, Jeff Minter, US Gold and Ocean’s David Ward. This area also includes original arcade cabs of Ghost ‘n Goblins and Rainbow Islands that are 50p a pop.

Level design map for the Oliver Twins' Fantasy World Dizzy

Leading on from bedroom coding the exhibition then explores the formation of large British studios in the 80s and 90s using Molyneux’s Bullfrog and the Darling brother’s Codemasters as key examples. This was my favourite part of the exhibition due to the large amount of unique sketches and design work on show that gives a real sense of the creativity involved in making games. One wall is plastered with hand-drawn maps by the Oliver Twins showing the level designs for Dizzy and a long glass cabinet is filled with artwork from Ocean and Imagine Software artist Mark Jones. Original pencil drawings by Eoghan Cahill showing the foreground and background elements involved in Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars are another fantastic addition. Many more games are on offer too including Theme Park, Fantastic Dizzy, Cannon Fodder, Populous and Lemmings.

Original drawings from Revolution's Broken Sword

Sports games and the work of Dino Dini and Jon Hare are then recounted with Sensible Soccer and FIFA available to play on the SNES, compete with stadium chairs and astroturf. This area also includes a wonderful collection of original artwork by Bob Wakelin, the signature box art designer for many Ocean games. Visitors then have the chance to find out more about portable gaming with Maclean’s Mercury on the PSP and Worms on the Nintendo DS attached to authentic bus stop surroundings.

Fifa and Sensi united

The convergence of games and films is touched on with playable versions of Tomb Raider, Lego Indy and Lego Star Wars and a darkened viewing room looks at the relationship between television and games with a loop of programmes that includes Five’s Elite expose, Brits Who Made the World and Channel 4’s iconic Games Master.

Towards the end of the exhibition a room emblazoned with ‘Over 18’s Only’ uses games and YouTube clips to explore controversy surrounding titles such as Manhunt 2, GTA, Sony’s apologies to Manchester Cathedral and the infamous Jack Thompson complaining about Bully. The impact of videogames on our health are documented through a wall display of newspaper website screenshots and advertising campaigns such as the Department of Health’s recent Just Do Nothing warnings.

Stickers filled with visitors' thoughts

The exhibition concludes with a nod towards the future of gaming, specifically online distribution, an influx of massively multiplayer titles and the emergence of 3DTV gaming. The gallery also kindly includes a concluding panel promoting the NVA and a wall covered in sticky notes letting the visitor share their earliest memories of gaming.

This was my second visit to the exhibition and I still wasn’t able to spend as much time as I would have liked taking in the encyclopedic offering of detail. There’s enough to read and play to last a whole day and I had to tear myself away from several games. Understandably, not all the games were working and some had just frozen up but at least 80% were fully functional.

Videogame Nation puts into practice lots of elements the NVA has recently been thinking about regarding emulation versus the real thing. Many of the games featured in the exhibition are emulated, particularly the titles originally released for computers such as the BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum and Amiga. Loading times, the need to change cassettes and floppy discs and perhaps sometimes temperamental machines would make using original platforms difficult and costly in a public gallery environment. However, playing Jet Set Willy or Dizzy with a control pad feels inaccurate to the true nature of the original game.

The exhibition also made me think about the best way to present expansive adventure games such as Elite or Broken Sword in a gallery setting. These types of games demand hours of gameplay and a comfy chair, presenting these titles as brief experiences doesn’t do them justice.

In a similar vein to the Barbican’s Game On exhibition, Urbis’ Videogame Nation is a comprehensive, labyrinthine history of the British gaming scene that successfully charts the rise of games from the bedroom to the multi-million pound studio. The exhibition narrative takes confusing diversions at times but this is symptomatic of a story that aims to squeeze in every last detail and not leave any part of the history out. One exhibition that I regret never seeing is Pong.Mythos; a diverse collection of art pieces inspired by Pong. Just as every photography, art or film gallery isn’t focussed on covering the entire history of the medium, I’d like to see more videogame exhibitions explore specific themes such as genre or designer.

Video of the Pong.Mythos exhibition

Last week I paid a belated visit to the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, a 5 minute train journey from Milton Keynes. Bletchley Park has a fascinating history and remained Britain’s best kept secret during World War Two. Codenamed ‘Station X’, Bletchley Park was home to an army of over 8,500 code breakers (most notably Alan Turing) who helped save countless lives by shortening the War by two years. Churchill held the base in high regard and described the codebreakers as ‘the geese that laid the golden eggs that never cackled’.

Nestled in the north-west corner of the park lies the NMoC, an entirely volunteer-led institution run solely on the passion and enthusiasm of its members. Open on Thursdays and Saturdays the Museum collects and restores computer systems developed primarily in the UK. The NMoC has many computers up and running, playing original software and it is their aim to show complete systems without any need for emulation.  Their latest gallery shows the evolution of personal computing, from the PDP-8 to the iPhone. I had a quick go on ‘Pengi the Penguin’ on the BBC Micro after being lured in by it’s hypnotic soundtrack that provided the background music for the gallery:

A museum volunteer bringing a PDP-8 back to life…

In addition to personal home computing the museum also features displays on calculators, abacuses and slide rules.

The Large Systems room features an ICL 2966, once used by Tarmac in the early 80s and is currently being restored with help from Fujitsu:

The Electronic Office room has a display of word processors and computers used in the workplace:

One of the busiest areas was the Flight Simulation room that lets visitors get hands-on with MS Flight Simulator:

The highlight of the Museum is the Collosus machine, first used to crack Nazi messages on 5th February 1944. The Colossus was the first electronic digital programmable computer, fed data by continuously spooling punch tape. Long excluded from the history of computing due to it’s secrecy, information about Colossus began to appear in the 1970s. Mark II of the Colossus at the NMoC was rebuilt over fifteen years from diagrams, old photographs and memory and is an imposing sight when running:

With plans for expansion underway including new galleries exploring the internet, super computing and a shop, it’s quite astounding just how much can be achieved with a small group of volunteers and a limited budget. One new room that sounds particularly interesting is the ‘Artist in Residence’ studio. The first Artist in Residence will be Pixelh8 aka Matthew C Applegate, a chip tune musician who creates new works from reprogrammed vintage computers. His latest commission by the NMoC, ‘Obsolete?‘, is an audio/visual study of the people, machines, and history of the museum. Here’s a taster of his superb work:

New galleries and exciting new plans mean I’ll definitely be paying the NMoC a return visit but the future of Bletchley Park is under threat. Several of the buildings at the base are in need of repair and unlike most National Museums, receives no government funding, running purely on donations and ticket sales. It’s predicted the Park only has ‘two to three more years of survival’ and this unique, historic landmark is in desperate need of external aid. To find out more about saving Bletchley Park and to sign the petition visit www.savingbletchleypark.org.

Today marked the arrival of the Starlight Fun Centre into the National Videogame Archive…

This remarkable piece of kit was kindly donated by Nintendo and was originally designed to spread a little joy around children’s hospitals. This all-in-one entertainment unit includes a Panasonic TV, a combination DVD/VHS player and a Nintendo Game Cube console, with pads and games.

The games Luigi’s Mansion, Mario Party 4 and Wario World are all included with the unit. It’s a fantastic example that illustrates how games are played in different environments to provide fun and escapism.

Alongside the first ever Sony Eye Toy camera, the other big acquisitions that helped launch the National Videogame Archive were the prototype Rock Band guitar and drum kit. Generously donated by Boston-based studio Harmonix, the prototypes are unique objects and are the first instruments built to test the control system before mass production. Building upon the innovation of Guitar Hero, Rock Band has allowed the non-musicians among us to taste the highs of performing music live, helped broaden music taste, redesigned the concepts of game interaction and raised the bar for accessible party games. Take it away Alex Navarro and Ike Adams…

Alex Navarro & Ike Adams of Harmonix Donate to the National Videogame Archive from gamecity on Vimeo.

The instruments recently made an appearance in the National Media Museum’s quarterly publication ‘Archive’. Featured on a one-page spread showcasing new acquisitions, the magazine helps to publicise the sheer breadth and diversity of the Museum’s collection. Made up of over 3 million objects, it is one man’s job to photograph the collection – this man is Paul Thompson. His expertise and attention to detail is demonstrated in this fantastic image of the Rock Band instruments that was captured especially for the Archive article.

Seeing someone perform Rock Band in expert mode is pretty awe-inspiring. Just check out the crazy skills of this talented 5 year old:

But why play just one instrument when you can play all four?

You can read more about the history of Harmonix and the impact of Rock Band over at Gamasutra.