Game On returns to the UK, London's Science Museum

by Christopher Grant { Sep 18th 2006 at 10:27AM }

Sure, Europe has to wait for a lot of things, but one thing they did get first was the Game On exhibition. Game On is a touring video game exhibition started by London's Barbican Art Gallery in 2002. Since then, it's been all over Europe, Israel, Chicago (twice), San Jose, most recently Seattle, and is now returning home to the UK where it will run at London's Science Museum from October 21st to February 25th, err, rather 21 October to 25 February.

Your £8.50 adult admission nets you access to a lineup of consoles, dating back to the PDP-1 (the Space War machine), drawings by Shigeru Miyamoto, and hundreds of games. Anyone hit up this show previously and care to offer a recommendation to your fellow gamers?

[Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]

Read - Video game exhibition announced (BBC)
Read - London Science Museum's Game On info
Read - Game On tour page

Tags: Game On, GameOn, London, London Science Museum, LondonScienceMuseum, UK

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Chilano @ Sep 18th 2006 10:38AM

Game On is definitely worth a visit. I caught it when it first started here in the UK. It's a pretty good look at how games have come on from the very early days, right upto present day. (Although at the time I saw it, the Xbox was their latest generation console). If you're near London, be sure to check it out.

SparckZero @ Sep 18th 2006 10:41AM

I too went to Game On when it first opened in the UK, and it was well worth it - it's great to see just how far things have come since the early days. Pretty much everything is playable!

Well worth checking out - especially at £8.50. Can't say fairer than that.

Justin @ Sep 18th 2006 10:45AM

I was lucky enough to be in London in 2002 when this was first shown (on a total fluke, I didn't fly halfway across the world just for it!) and it was a lot of fun. Lots of hands-on play with various machines from various years. It was interesting from a US perspective, too, since it had a definite European/UK flair, so there were systems I had never seen before.

If you've been into gaming since its inception, there's little new here, but it's still awesome for nostaglia. They had a MAME arcade cab to play a ton of different games, and a bunch of "golden-years" machines set on freeplay. It was the first time in probably over a decade I got to play Star Wars (Atari's 1983 arcade game) in the sit-down cabinet... they're a lot smaller than they were when you were 10. ;)

They had lots of neat concept art as well, early sketches from Sonic and Mario, as well as some EA games, like the Sims. Not sure if anything's changed or not in that.

HIGHLY recommended. (Although it is a bit unnerving at first to walk in and see video gaming treated with such reverence... seeing the little museum cards next to your favourite arcade games of the 80s can make you feel very, very old!)

LeFishy @ Sep 18th 2006 12:53PM

I went to the opening one, and thoroughly enjoyed it, although i was younger and didnt appreciate the history and art behind games as much. I fully intend to go and enjoy the experience as a more mature understanding individual when it returns.

vulturevalley @ Sep 24th 2006 10:33PM

I wish I would have known about this the two times it came to Chicago. Maybe it will make a third appearance.

abigsmurf @ Sep 18th 2006 12:09PM

From what I understand, as Nintendo are sponsoring this, they'll have Wii boothes for you to play on

Jameyt @ Sep 18th 2006 1:10PM

Saw it in Seattle. It is definitely worth a visit. Plan for most of a day. If you're reading this blog, you need to be there. Being able to play the old Star Wars game, Tron Discs, Asteroids, etc, etc in cabinet form and then to have pretty much every console game you can think of to boot (Pitfall, etc) makes the cost of admission more than worth it.

Sobtanian @ Sep 18th 2006 4:43PM

I was there too in London 2002, loved the exhibition :)

very much recommended

I also took some pictures, here's 2:
1 some monkey island concept art (Guybrush in his undies!)
http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/6139/gameon014fl8.jpg

2 they had a feature about the creation of GTA3, here's a "programming tree"
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7702/gameon018bv6.jpg