Designing Within Limits

Development of “The Art of Video Games” exhibition is underway and running at full tilt.  With more than 25 systems to pull together, hundreds of games to catalog, dozens and dozens of additional materials, or “ephemera” to collect, it is more than a full time job. Thankfully, we have a wonderful team at the Smithsonian to help keep me on track and get stuff done.

While doing the research for the exhibition, it became clear to me that, no matter how hard I try, there will be something missing that people will be horrified by it’s omission. Perhaps the Nokia nGage was the greatest game platform you ever used, the Fairchild Channel F holds the most memories from when you were a kid, or the NEC SuperGrafix should have been the “next great system”. The reality is, I could fill up several exhibition spaces with the number of systems and platforms released over the years. But that’s not what the AoVG exhibition is about and I find myself at odds over what to include and what not to.

To be clear, the intent of TAoVG exhibition is to examine the story behind the story, if you will.  To show how art, culture, society, and technology co-mingle to create the perfect elixir in which the base bits are transformed into experiential gold. And that gold comes at a price; the games and systems that spoke to generations of players, in the broadest sense, carry the highest social price. This does not mean there won’t be any exploration of the more eclectic and esoteric contributions to our favorite pastime, they just won’t be the total focus.

Suffice to say, there will be something on offer for all who attend the exhibition. But, I want to hear from you. So post your most beloved but least adopted game treasures from your game experiences below. Let’s see what makes the cut

(I’m still trying to figure out if the AdventureVision fits in here….)