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This is the first of two reports on 2 of the best gaming shows/exhibitions this year. Both were very, very good. This one is of the GameOn exhibition, at the Barbican Gallery in London and at the Royal Museum of Scotland. The Barbican show has closed, but the NMS one is running until 2/2/03. I highly recommend you visit.
-
The show showcased not unreleased games, but the originals of very old games, descriptions on walls, a top-ten of consoles, game sound and artwork, cultured gaming (Europe/US/Japan) and finally modern-day gaming.
The first thing I experienced was Donkey Kong (the original version). And damn it was hard. You play Jumpman (Mario), going up ladders, using extreme hammers (think SSBM) and jumping obstacles to get to the princess who DK has got. I got the 2nd highest score :)
Then I saw people playing the old version of Maximo, Spce Invaders and various other older games on digital 'tables', with the games being randomly projected onto a huge screen. Also, it was the original controllers, making it even more fun. All the games, though, were rock hard, real gamer's games, and took a while to even get 'OK' at.
The there was a massize version of Pong, massive in the sense it was played on a 50" projector screen. I only played this at the end though, near closing time, so in some weird twist of fate, I managed to play and lose against myself. If that's possible. Nonetheless, the experience was great.
Next came the Top Ten consoles. I can't remember much, but no.1 was of course Pong, on a smaller scale, with original controllers, and no.10 was the Sony Playstation, no big surprise. The other 8 were older consoles consolers, most of which ran fighting or racing games. In the Top Ten area however were displays of Gamecube, Dreamcast, Xbox, SNES and PS2. Although not in the actual top 10, various games were available. The SNES was running Mario Kart, still great after all the years.
The next section was on the development of games. A whole area was devoted to GTA3, interestingly enough, with 3 A4 pages of code next to an explosione, where one could make the assumption that that code was needed to make 'that' explosion. It looked hard. There was also the original post-it notes of missions nad rewards, character sketches and area maps, all of which I'll get a photo of next time I go.
There was also 2 walls devoted to FF sketches and information, with ink and colour drawings by Yoshitaka Amano, and they were originals too! Quite amazing, though, that one of the labels, for a drawing (a very detailed drawing) of Vivi from FFIX was labelled to have been from XI (wrong way round museum-people). Yet it was such a small imperfection in such a group of perfectionism.
An area was also devoted to the music of games, and had 2 games playing which are directly related to music (Dreamcast's 'Space Channel" and Sony's 'Rez'). There was also 3 walls of music. One wall had music from ga,es such as Wipeout, Wipeout Fusion, SSX Tricky and Rez (superb in my opinion), of excellent quality. Then there was a wall with very old 'bleepy' music from the first games, such as the tune for Pong, originally titled 'Ping Pong', and other greats such as 'LED Storm'. The final wall had music which had been composed, or was full versions, all of which was Sega music (Headhunter (huge orchestra for that), the Sonic games (Sonic R, 1998, Sonic 3D, 1997 apparently). That was a mix of great music and also music verging on cheesiness. There was another side of musc to wall 3, however, and it was the Dragon Quest music (I think, but if I'm wrong, I didn't say oit). This area was one of my favourites.
There was a cinema-style thing, but it seemed to lack a, well, screen, and it had 2 huge arcade machines instead, with clear 'Look but don't touch labels' on them. Darn.
Following this slight disappointment was an area full of new and old games. There was the original Castle Wolfenstein, some Net Yaroze games 9and an info panel), Max Payne, Goldeneye, Jax and Daxter (inlcuding original character sketches) and more. It was the 'Games from Europe/US Area', and also had Tony Hawks and a random american football GC game playing, of which looked awfully N64-ish somehow..
Then it was onto the weird Japanese area. There was a rivetting train-driving sim....and double dancemats, which was great fun, and was very fast paced. Following were some manga animations, a DK sketch by Shigsy himself (dated 21/2/01) and some Pokemon memorabilia and information. A DBZ game from ages ago was playing, and was quite hard. Not much else though.
Then it had some innvoative and simply new games. Mario Sunshine was obviously there, along with another game pod, but I didn't see what was playing. Possibly the most interesting thing, and winner of 'Best Multiplayer game at show' at ects* 2002, was a table tennis game with a bat as a controller, and using sensors and the like, you could play. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a go, but it looked inovative and the folk playing were having good fun...
But thats not all..there was two Zones, that was simply Zone 1! Zone 2 has mostly games to play. Noticably, Sonic Adventure 2, The Sims, Hitchikers Fuide to the Galaxy (text 'adventure' or hardest game ever), Pong 9again), and what Motorola VDot owners will know as Bricks were all playing. Also, many Game and Watch consolers, plus multiple handhelds, could be played, and many more could be seen.
In total, there was over 120 games to play. I only got to play a few, but when I go back next time, I'll play them ALL..yes, every last one, and get a paragraph report on the majority.
Really, I will
Well, until then, or until my GamesMatrix photos get developed, enjoy the post, and enjoy the show if you go. Its 3 quid for 5-15 to get in, and 5 quid for adults. Enjoy!
Fuzzy
-
The show showcased not unreleased games, but the originals of very old games, descriptions on walls, a top-ten of consoles, game sound and artwork, cultured gaming (Europe/US/Japan) and finally modern-day gaming.
The first thing I experienced was Donkey Kong (the original version). And damn it was hard. You play Jumpman (Mario), going up ladders, using extreme hammers (think SSBM) and jumping obstacles to get to the princess who DK has got. I got the 2nd highest score :)
Then I saw people playing the old version of Maximo, Spce Invaders and various other older games on digital 'tables', with the games being randomly projected onto a huge screen. Also, it was the original controllers, making it even more fun. All the games, though, were rock hard, real gamer's games, and took a while to even get 'OK' at.
The there was a massize version of Pong, massive in the sense it was played on a 50" projector screen. I only played this at the end though, near closing time, so in some weird twist of fate, I managed to play and lose against myself. If that's possible. Nonetheless, the experience was great.
Next came the Top Ten consoles. I can't remember much, but no.1 was of course Pong, on a smaller scale, with original controllers, and no.10 was the Sony Playstation, no big surprise. The other 8 were older consoles consolers, most of which ran fighting or racing games. In the Top Ten area however were displays of Gamecube, Dreamcast, Xbox, SNES and PS2. Although not in the actual top 10, various games were available. The SNES was running Mario Kart, still great after all the years.
The next section was on the development of games. A whole area was devoted to GTA3, interestingly enough, with 3 A4 pages of code next to an explosione, where one could make the assumption that that code was needed to make 'that' explosion. It looked hard. There was also the original post-it notes of missions nad rewards, character sketches and area maps, all of which I'll get a photo of next time I go.
There was also 2 walls devoted to FF sketches and information, with ink and colour drawings by Yoshitaka Amano, and they were originals too! Quite amazing, though, that one of the labels, for a drawing (a very detailed drawing) of Vivi from FFIX was labelled to have been from XI (wrong way round museum-people). Yet it was such a small imperfection in such a group of perfectionism.
An area was also devoted to the music of games, and had 2 games playing which are directly related to music (Dreamcast's 'Space Channel" and Sony's 'Rez'). There was also 3 walls of music. One wall had music from ga,es such as Wipeout, Wipeout Fusion, SSX Tricky and Rez (superb in my opinion), of excellent quality. Then there was a wall with very old 'bleepy' music from the first games, such as the tune for Pong, originally titled 'Ping Pong', and other greats such as 'LED Storm'. The final wall had music which had been composed, or was full versions, all of which was Sega music (Headhunter (huge orchestra for that), the Sonic games (Sonic R, 1998, Sonic 3D, 1997 apparently). That was a mix of great music and also music verging on cheesiness. There was another side of musc to wall 3, however, and it was the Dragon Quest music (I think, but if I'm wrong, I didn't say oit). This area was one of my favourites.
There was a cinema-style thing, but it seemed to lack a, well, screen, and it had 2 huge arcade machines instead, with clear 'Look but don't touch labels' on them. Darn.
Following this slight disappointment was an area full of new and old games. There was the original Castle Wolfenstein, some Net Yaroze games 9and an info panel), Max Payne, Goldeneye, Jax and Daxter (inlcuding original character sketches) and more. It was the 'Games from Europe/US Area', and also had Tony Hawks and a random american football GC game playing, of which looked awfully N64-ish somehow..
Then it was onto the weird Japanese area. There was a rivetting train-driving sim....and double dancemats, which was great fun, and was very fast paced. Following were some manga animations, a DK sketch by Shigsy himself (dated 21/2/01) and some Pokemon memorabilia and information. A DBZ game from ages ago was playing, and was quite hard. Not much else though.
Then it had some innvoative and simply new games. Mario Sunshine was obviously there, along with another game pod, but I didn't see what was playing. Possibly the most interesting thing, and winner of 'Best Multiplayer game at show' at ects* 2002, was a table tennis game with a bat as a controller, and using sensors and the like, you could play. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a go, but it looked inovative and the folk playing were having good fun...
But thats not all..there was two Zones, that was simply Zone 1! Zone 2 has mostly games to play. Noticably, Sonic Adventure 2, The Sims, Hitchikers Fuide to the Galaxy (text 'adventure' or hardest game ever), Pong 9again), and what Motorola VDot owners will know as Bricks were all playing. Also, many Game and Watch consolers, plus multiple handhelds, could be played, and many more could be seen.
In total, there was over 120 games to play. I only got to play a few, but when I go back next time, I'll play them ALL..yes, every last one, and get a paragraph report on the majority.
Really, I will
Well, until then, or until my GamesMatrix photos get developed, enjoy the post, and enjoy the show if you go. Its 3 quid for 5-15 to get in, and 5 quid for adults. Enjoy!
Fuzzy
Apparently not.
Oh yeah, and *POP*
:D
Oh yeah, and *POP*
:D
Its quite along long explanation, come onto MSN if you can.
A gaming exhibition in Scotland? How would i get there from waverly station?
This is the first of two reports on 2 of the best gaming shows/exhibitions this year. Both were very, very good. This one is of the GameOn exhibition, at the Barbican Gallery in London and at the Royal Museum of Scotland. The Barbican show has closed, but the NMS one is running until 2/2/03. I highly recommend you visit.
-
The show showcased not unreleased games, but the originals of very old games, descriptions on walls, a top-ten of consoles, game sound and artwork, cultured gaming (Europe/US/Japan) and finally modern-day gaming.
The first thing I experienced was Donkey Kong (the original version). And damn it was hard. You play Jumpman (Mario), going up ladders, using extreme hammers (think SSBM) and jumping obstacles to get to the princess who DK has got. I got the 2nd highest score :)
Then I saw people playing the old version of Maximo, Spce Invaders and various other older games on digital 'tables', with the games being randomly projected onto a huge screen. Also, it was the original controllers, making it even more fun. All the games, though, were rock hard, real gamer's games, and took a while to even get 'OK' at.
The there was a massize version of Pong, massive in the sense it was played on a 50" projector screen. I only played this at the end though, near closing time, so in some weird twist of fate, I managed to play and lose against myself. If that's possible. Nonetheless, the experience was great.
Next came the Top Ten consoles. I can't remember much, but no.1 was of course Pong, on a smaller scale, with original controllers, and no.10 was the Sony Playstation, no big surprise. The other 8 were older consoles consolers, most of which ran fighting or racing games. In the Top Ten area however were displays of Gamecube, Dreamcast, Xbox, SNES and PS2. Although not in the actual top 10, various games were available. The SNES was running Mario Kart, still great after all the years.
The next section was on the development of games. A whole area was devoted to GTA3, interestingly enough, with 3 A4 pages of code next to an explosione, where one could make the assumption that that code was needed to make 'that' explosion. It looked hard. There was also the original post-it notes of missions nad rewards, character sketches and area maps, all of which I'll get a photo of next time I go.
There was also 2 walls devoted to FF sketches and information, with ink and colour drawings by Yoshitaka Amano, and they were originals too! Quite amazing, though, that one of the labels, for a drawing (a very detailed drawing) of Vivi from FFIX was labelled to have been from XI (wrong way round museum-people). Yet it was such a small imperfection in such a group of perfectionism.
An area was also devoted to the music of games, and had 2 games playing which are directly related to music (Dreamcast's 'Space Channel" and Sony's 'Rez'). There was also 3 walls of music. One wall had music from ga,es such as Wipeout, Wipeout Fusion, SSX Tricky and Rez (superb in my opinion), of excellent quality. Then there was a wall with very old 'bleepy' music from the first games, such as the tune for Pong, originally titled 'Ping Pong', and other greats such as 'LED Storm'. The final wall had music which had been composed, or was full versions, all of which was Sega music (Headhunter (huge orchestra for that), the Sonic games (Sonic R, 1998, Sonic 3D, 1997 apparently). That was a mix of great music and also music verging on cheesiness. There was another side of musc to wall 3, however, and it was the Dragon Quest music (I think, but if I'm wrong, I didn't say oit). This area was one of my favourites.
There was a cinema-style thing, but it seemed to lack a, well, screen, and it had 2 huge arcade machines instead, with clear 'Look but don't touch labels' on them. Darn.
Following this slight disappointment was an area full of new and old games. There was the original Castle Wolfenstein, some Net Yaroze games 9and an info panel), Max Payne, Goldeneye, Jax and Daxter (inlcuding original character sketches) and more. It was the 'Games from Europe/US Area', and also had Tony Hawks and a random american football GC game playing, of which looked awfully N64-ish somehow..
Then it was onto the weird Japanese area. There was a rivetting train-driving sim....and double dancemats, which was great fun, and was very fast paced. Following were some manga animations, a DK sketch by Shigsy himself (dated 21/2/01) and some Pokemon memorabilia and information. A DBZ game from ages ago was playing, and was quite hard. Not much else though.
Then it had some innvoative and simply new games. Mario Sunshine was obviously there, along with another game pod, but I didn't see what was playing. Possibly the most interesting thing, and winner of 'Best Multiplayer game at show' at ects* 2002, was a table tennis game with a bat as a controller, and using sensors and the like, you could play. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a go, but it looked inovative and the folk playing were having good fun...
But thats not all..there was two Zones, that was simply Zone 1! Zone 2 has mostly games to play. Noticably, Sonic Adventure 2, The Sims, Hitchikers Fuide to the Galaxy (text 'adventure' or hardest game ever), Pong 9again), and what Motorola VDot owners will know as Bricks were all playing. Also, many Game and Watch consolers, plus multiple handhelds, could be played, and many more could be seen.
In total, there was over 120 games to play. I only got to play a few, but when I go back next time, I'll play them ALL..yes, every last one, and get a paragraph report on the majority.
Really, I will
Well, until then, or until my GamesMatrix photos get developed, enjoy the post, and enjoy the show if you go. Its 3 quid for 5-15 to get in, and 5 quid for adults. Enjoy!
Fuzzy
-
The show showcased not unreleased games, but the originals of very old games, descriptions on walls, a top-ten of consoles, game sound and artwork, cultured gaming (Europe/US/Japan) and finally modern-day gaming.
The first thing I experienced was Donkey Kong (the original version). And damn it was hard. You play Jumpman (Mario), going up ladders, using extreme hammers (think SSBM) and jumping obstacles to get to the princess who DK has got. I got the 2nd highest score :)
Then I saw people playing the old version of Maximo, Spce Invaders and various other older games on digital 'tables', with the games being randomly projected onto a huge screen. Also, it was the original controllers, making it even more fun. All the games, though, were rock hard, real gamer's games, and took a while to even get 'OK' at.
The there was a massize version of Pong, massive in the sense it was played on a 50" projector screen. I only played this at the end though, near closing time, so in some weird twist of fate, I managed to play and lose against myself. If that's possible. Nonetheless, the experience was great.
Next came the Top Ten consoles. I can't remember much, but no.1 was of course Pong, on a smaller scale, with original controllers, and no.10 was the Sony Playstation, no big surprise. The other 8 were older consoles consolers, most of which ran fighting or racing games. In the Top Ten area however were displays of Gamecube, Dreamcast, Xbox, SNES and PS2. Although not in the actual top 10, various games were available. The SNES was running Mario Kart, still great after all the years.
The next section was on the development of games. A whole area was devoted to GTA3, interestingly enough, with 3 A4 pages of code next to an explosione, where one could make the assumption that that code was needed to make 'that' explosion. It looked hard. There was also the original post-it notes of missions nad rewards, character sketches and area maps, all of which I'll get a photo of next time I go.
There was also 2 walls devoted to FF sketches and information, with ink and colour drawings by Yoshitaka Amano, and they were originals too! Quite amazing, though, that one of the labels, for a drawing (a very detailed drawing) of Vivi from FFIX was labelled to have been from XI (wrong way round museum-people). Yet it was such a small imperfection in such a group of perfectionism.
An area was also devoted to the music of games, and had 2 games playing which are directly related to music (Dreamcast's 'Space Channel" and Sony's 'Rez'). There was also 3 walls of music. One wall had music from ga,es such as Wipeout, Wipeout Fusion, SSX Tricky and Rez (superb in my opinion), of excellent quality. Then there was a wall with very old 'bleepy' music from the first games, such as the tune for Pong, originally titled 'Ping Pong', and other greats such as 'LED Storm'. The final wall had music which had been composed, or was full versions, all of which was Sega music (Headhunter (huge orchestra for that), the Sonic games (Sonic R, 1998, Sonic 3D, 1997 apparently). That was a mix of great music and also music verging on cheesiness. There was another side of musc to wall 3, however, and it was the Dragon Quest music (I think, but if I'm wrong, I didn't say oit). This area was one of my favourites.
There was a cinema-style thing, but it seemed to lack a, well, screen, and it had 2 huge arcade machines instead, with clear 'Look but don't touch labels' on them. Darn.
Following this slight disappointment was an area full of new and old games. There was the original Castle Wolfenstein, some Net Yaroze games 9and an info panel), Max Payne, Goldeneye, Jax and Daxter (inlcuding original character sketches) and more. It was the 'Games from Europe/US Area', and also had Tony Hawks and a random american football GC game playing, of which looked awfully N64-ish somehow..
Then it was onto the weird Japanese area. There was a rivetting train-driving sim....and double dancemats, which was great fun, and was very fast paced. Following were some manga animations, a DK sketch by Shigsy himself (dated 21/2/01) and some Pokemon memorabilia and information. A DBZ game from ages ago was playing, and was quite hard. Not much else though.
Then it had some innvoative and simply new games. Mario Sunshine was obviously there, along with another game pod, but I didn't see what was playing. Possibly the most interesting thing, and winner of 'Best Multiplayer game at show' at ects* 2002, was a table tennis game with a bat as a controller, and using sensors and the like, you could play. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a go, but it looked inovative and the folk playing were having good fun...
But thats not all..there was two Zones, that was simply Zone 1! Zone 2 has mostly games to play. Noticably, Sonic Adventure 2, The Sims, Hitchikers Fuide to the Galaxy (text 'adventure' or hardest game ever), Pong 9again), and what Motorola VDot owners will know as Bricks were all playing. Also, many Game and Watch consolers, plus multiple handhelds, could be played, and many more could be seen.
In total, there was over 120 games to play. I only got to play a few, but when I go back next time, I'll play them ALL..yes, every last one, and get a paragraph report on the majority.
Really, I will
Well, until then, or until my GamesMatrix photos get developed, enjoy the post, and enjoy the show if you go. Its 3 quid for 5-15 to get in, and 5 quid for adults. Enjoy!
Fuzzy