Discussion on:

Exhibit explores 'The Art of Video Games' (images)

They all had better graphics/sound/games than their counterparts at the time.

The Smithsonian made that decision well over a year ago.

Some background: http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/

The just-released 'Dust 514'' for PS3 (free downloadable FPS) is a platform-exclusive adjunct to the massive PC-only (until now...) MMORPG "EVE Online". Console players will interact, in their on-planet milleu, with EVE players (who contract them for specific enterprises/conquests). The results of Dust 514 battles, waged at the behest of (and provisioned/paid for by) EVE participants, are the deciding factor in EVE Online planetary conquests. I see this as the beginning of an actual confluence between console and PC games/gaming. It's telling that this first 'cross-platform experiment' is taking place on PS3 and not MS's XBox Live. Sony, driven to survive the future (amidst a new round of employee layoffs etc), is taking a bold step in the usage of PSN Home, et al, to allow pre-game lobbying and so on with PC gamers. This is nothing less than gaming history being made....

I've never understood why the PC and console game networks were exclusive of each other.

both Sony and MS have (until now, at least in Sony's case) been averse to eash others' gamers being 'in contact' with their own in-game, let alone a mutual 3rd party's (PC). As a player and as a 'fan', though, I've always desired both 'inter-league play' and the opportunity for a 'Super Bowl', over an NFL and an AFL (as it were) both playing the same game but ignoring each other competitively. I see the ergo-controller differences between XBox and PS3 the way I do *pinch-hitter/DH*, or those red, white, and blue ABA basketballs. I'm still surprised that it's MS who's continuing to refuse to allow their console customers to mingle with PC-ers, though. The current rumors of both company's next consoles have it that neither will contain a disk drive; they won't play old games, and content will come through downloads only (like Steam, Valve, Origin, PSN). With single-use customer-codes and no 'backwards compatability', they'd BETTER both be ready to let their respective player communities interact, or many of us will (gasp!) give up on 'gaming' and finally go get a life or something....

For more details and to see a trailer about the exhibit, read Wally Bahny's Geekend post: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/geekend/the-art-of-video-games-on-display-at-the-smithsonian/9298.

Thanks!

I went with my kids this past weekend, it was an awesome exhibit, brought back great memories, especially seeing the Colecovision and Mattel Intellivision consoles. They also had some playable games - pacman, mario bros, Myst..

What about "Pong" ? Gotta start somewhere.

Was there any exhibits displaying C64 and/or Amiga video games?
They have concept art from WoW... what about Everquest, or Ultima Online?

I started with an Atari 2600 game machine in 1973, in 1980 I saved up and got an Atari 800 computer system. The big surprise was the Star Raiders game cartridge that came with it. The biggest shock was the 3D movement through the star field as you traveled. The odd fact was it was said for a computer to do such animation at the time you needed a Cray 1 super computer to accomplish the graphic animation. Then your weapons were like photon torpedo's from Star Trek fame, and you like warped through space from quadrant to quadrant. Your also had shields to protect you from the enemy who flew Tie fighter shaped ships or ships that looked like cylon fighters. You also had to attack and destroy Base Stars. The game made you feel like you flew your star fighter in a Star Trek like universe being attacked by the dark side of the Force, or invaded by silicon life forms from Battle Star Galactica. All this on a 8 bit 6502 CPU computer that had sound and color graphics that filled your TV screen. And all you needed was a Atari Joystick to defend the Universe. The graphics looked so amazing you thought you had a super computer that was only took as much desks pace as a typewriter and less than half as tall. Atari now has upgraded Star Raider to a version two for home computers with much more details and better graphics but 30 years ago this computer that had many Atari games remade for it was a wonder. Other computers and more powerful game machines have come and gone or yet to be created but Atari was there first to open the market.

I'm surprised that the early Magnavox systems aren't on display. Our first family game system was the Odyssey2 which was a serious competitor for the Atari 2600 for a while. They even had a talking module.