The Museum of Arts and Crafts in Paris is hosting a fair dedicated to the history of Video Games, the MuseoGames, from June 22 to November 7, 2010. Following the press day of Monday June 21, we invite you to discover our impressions.
Intended for both nostalgic and passionate gamers, the MuseoGames invites you to relive the epic of Video Games, from its genesis with Pong, to the first Xbox of the name. The show is divided into several spaces, in order to present the Video Game to you in different aspects.
After the concept widely put forward by LittleBigPlanet, and taken up by ModNation Racers, the “Play, Create, Share” could adapt to this living room by “Watch, Play, Share”.
The Start area
This first piece allows you to watch several films in order to present the different professions of video games, or to discover the opinions and anecdotes of some French pioneers in the field, such as: David Cage (Heavy Rain, Nomad Soul, …) , Philippe Ulrich (founder of Cryo Interactive), Viktor Antonov (artistic director on Half Life 2), Jean-Michel Blottière (director of Tilt magazine, the newspaper for gamers in the 80s), etc…
The Collection area
Before entering this space, you will pass through a dark room, which loops on several screens, video game monuments from the past.
Before arriving in the “Play” space, the nostalgia already begins. Sheltered behind thick iron gates like wild beasts, it is all the machines and accessories from your childhood that leap by your throat. Exposed before your eyes, it’s names like MO5, Atari 2600, SuperGraphX, Nintendo NES, etc… which will bring back many memories to you, among dozens of other collector’s items, because it is indeed a collector’s item.
The Play area
Then comes the arrival in a long room, with in the center, a gigantic table on which are exposed all the machines known since the birth of video games. In addition, screens and joysticks are arranged throughout the table, on each side, allowing you to go from spectator status to player status. You can thus freely immerse yourself in the hits of the past, on period machines: Pac Man, Arkanoid, Alex Kidd, Sonic, Mario Kart, Pong, Boulder Dash, Tekken, Sega Rally, Super Mario Bros, etc … are all playable titles, to the delight of visitors. And be careful, if you only see screens on the tables, they are not emulators, but indeed the machines of the times, hidden under the table, you just have to bend down to see it.
Each game screen is projected in large format on the wall, behind the corresponding console, in order to avoid that the concentration of people around the same machine prevents you from seeing the game. A very good idea.
You will therefore have the opportunity to discover the following machines, each with a descriptive sheet, and the period price:
- Magnavox: 1974 imported from the USA ($ 100, or $ 520 in 2010)
- Atari VCS 2600: 1978 (1790F)
- CBS Colecovision: 1982 (1990F)
- MB Vectrex: 1983 (2490F)
- MSX: 1983
- Amstrad CPC 464: 1984 (2990F or 4990F, depending on monochrome or color screen)
- Apple IIE: 1984 (13000F)
- Amstrad CPC 464: 1984 (2990F or 4990F, depending on monochrome or color screen)
- IBM PC / AT: the ancestor of all our current PCs, released in 1984 (60000F !!). FYI, it was equipped with a 6MHz processor, 256KB of RAM, 20MB of hard disk. And yes youngsters, we started on incredible machines!
- Atari 520 STF: 1986 (3490F)
- Amiga 500: released in 1987 (4490 Francs)
- Nintendo NES: 1987 (1490F)
- Master System: 1987 (1490F)
- Gameboy
- Neo Geo: 1990 (2990F)
- Megadrive
- Super Nintendo: 1992
- Jaguar: 1994 (1490F)
Etc …
Last room in the living room, the arcade room, where you will not have to ruin yourself in coins in order to have the famous credits, to replay video game myths: Space Invaders, Time Traveler, NBA Jam, Police Trainer, OutRun, Marvel vs Capcom, Astro City2, …
Conclusion
A show reserved primarily for nostalgics, which allows not just “to see”, but indeed to (re) discover the machines of the time, by playing titles engraved in the memories. Even if some legendary games like Street Fighter 2 Where Final fight would have been nice to see again in the arcade, at € 5.50 entry, whether you are nostalgic or not, you can indulge in all the games present at the show … a show not to be missed!
We warmly thank Anthony Mazelly from Agence Warning, France Auda of the Museum of Arts and Crafts, as well as all the staff of the show, for their welcome and their sympathy.
As a bonus, a short video of the museum visit.
