The Game Masters exhibition was originally held in Melbourne, Australia and moved to Edinburgh late last year. It showcases the work of about 30 of the best known game producers and in effect also shows the evolution of games from arcades to consoles, PC gaming and today's thriving indie scene.
The exhibits start with the arcades including Pac-man, Tempest, Donkey Kong, Defender, Space Invaders. Asteroids, and Xevious. There is some info on these early arcade pioneers. What is surprising seeing all these lovely old cabs in close proximity is the variety this spell in gaming produced. Ok most of the games are shooters of some type but there are joysticks, trackballs, twin stick, vector graphics, sprites, fixed screen and scrolling games.
Moving on we get to arguably the biggest names in the exhibition first Miyamoto and Yuji Naka. On the Nintendo side we see, obviously, Mario and Zelda through the years. Although it does also kind of highlight just how much stuff Nintendo has rereleased seeing the same games on multiple systems.
The Yuji Naka and Sonic Team area features Sonic, Sonic 2, NiGHTS, Sonic Generations and Chu Chu Rocket.
Adjacent to these gaming superstars is the Blizzard Entertainment section. And DMA Design area. Lots of games ending in craft here.
Travellers Tales are next with a section devoted to their Lego titles. Sadly no Sonic R.
Then it gets really good. Yu Suzuki time. With a sit on Hang On and Outrun cabs not to mention a Virtua Fighter cab.
Next to that lot is the Tetsuya Mizuguchi area. A huge screen with Child of Eden and on smaller displays there is Rez, Sega Rally and Space Channel 5. And of course a PSP with Lumines. Loads of concept art for Child of Eden as well.
This area segues nicely into more modern music games with booths for Singstar, Rock Band and Dance Central. Round the corner it goes all PC focused with the works of people like Warren Spector, Tim Schaffer, Eric Chahi and Peter Molyneaux. After that lot there is a large area devoted to indie games with obvious stuff like Minecraft, Halfbrick, Rovio but also some more intriguing stuff from Scotland such as a game based on The 39 Steps. Also good to see Flower and its ilk on the Playstation 3.
At each area there are little video pods with headphones so you can listen to each of the developers discuss their work. I hope this material becomes available online or maybe on disc after the exhibition has wound up. [/COLOR]
Walking around looking at stuff isn't very exciting really and defeats the point of interactive entertainment. That's why everything at the exhibition is playable! The old cabs were a treat to play and always busy. The Tempest cab is a lovely thing with bright, crisp vector graphics and a smooth rotary controller. Hearing all those familiar sounds in that area made me quite nostalgic for old fashioned arcades.
Tricky to play stuff like Populous or Starcraft in this setting and really get a sense of what the game is all about but at least you can try.
Now while I think this is a worthwhile visit, especially for the old cabs, it's maybe not as great for forumites who have most of these games already or indeed are old enough to have lived through these eras. And it also inadvertently serves to highlight how far Sega has fallen from their arcade glory days through the Megadrive era and the downward spiral post Dreamcast.
I did have one other issue with this exhibition. The hardware. If you are going to highlight someone's work surely you would want to show it at its best? The old cabs were great. Apart from Virtua Fighter which has a discoloured screen looking as if there are unshielded speakers on either side. But most heinous of all is the retro consoles are hooked up to LCD screens via composite! And the systems are all PAL. (Insert Vader Noooooo .GIF)
At least the solitary DC showing Chu Chu was hooked up via VGA.
And Deus Ex appeared to be running in software rendering mode.
Anyway niggles aside I enjoyed the exhibition and might pop back through for some some time on the Tempest and Xevious cabs.
The exhibits start with the arcades including Pac-man, Tempest, Donkey Kong, Defender, Space Invaders. Asteroids, and Xevious. There is some info on these early arcade pioneers. What is surprising seeing all these lovely old cabs in close proximity is the variety this spell in gaming produced. Ok most of the games are shooters of some type but there are joysticks, trackballs, twin stick, vector graphics, sprites, fixed screen and scrolling games.
Moving on we get to arguably the biggest names in the exhibition first Miyamoto and Yuji Naka. On the Nintendo side we see, obviously, Mario and Zelda through the years. Although it does also kind of highlight just how much stuff Nintendo has rereleased seeing the same games on multiple systems.
The Yuji Naka and Sonic Team area features Sonic, Sonic 2, NiGHTS, Sonic Generations and Chu Chu Rocket.
Adjacent to these gaming superstars is the Blizzard Entertainment section. And DMA Design area. Lots of games ending in craft here.
Travellers Tales are next with a section devoted to their Lego titles. Sadly no Sonic R.
Then it gets really good. Yu Suzuki time. With a sit on Hang On and Outrun cabs not to mention a Virtua Fighter cab.
Next to that lot is the Tetsuya Mizuguchi area. A huge screen with Child of Eden and on smaller displays there is Rez, Sega Rally and Space Channel 5. And of course a PSP with Lumines. Loads of concept art for Child of Eden as well.
This area segues nicely into more modern music games with booths for Singstar, Rock Band and Dance Central. Round the corner it goes all PC focused with the works of people like Warren Spector, Tim Schaffer, Eric Chahi and Peter Molyneaux. After that lot there is a large area devoted to indie games with obvious stuff like Minecraft, Halfbrick, Rovio but also some more intriguing stuff from Scotland such as a game based on The 39 Steps. Also good to see Flower and its ilk on the Playstation 3.
At each area there are little video pods with headphones so you can listen to each of the developers discuss their work. I hope this material becomes available online or maybe on disc after the exhibition has wound up. [/COLOR]
Walking around looking at stuff isn't very exciting really and defeats the point of interactive entertainment. That's why everything at the exhibition is playable! The old cabs were a treat to play and always busy. The Tempest cab is a lovely thing with bright, crisp vector graphics and a smooth rotary controller. Hearing all those familiar sounds in that area made me quite nostalgic for old fashioned arcades.
Tricky to play stuff like Populous or Starcraft in this setting and really get a sense of what the game is all about but at least you can try.
Now while I think this is a worthwhile visit, especially for the old cabs, it's maybe not as great for forumites who have most of these games already or indeed are old enough to have lived through these eras. And it also inadvertently serves to highlight how far Sega has fallen from their arcade glory days through the Megadrive era and the downward spiral post Dreamcast.
I did have one other issue with this exhibition. The hardware. If you are going to highlight someone's work surely you would want to show it at its best? The old cabs were great. Apart from Virtua Fighter which has a discoloured screen looking as if there are unshielded speakers on either side. But most heinous of all is the retro consoles are hooked up to LCD screens via composite! And the systems are all PAL. (Insert Vader Noooooo .GIF)
At least the solitary DC showing Chu Chu was hooked up via VGA.
And Deus Ex appeared to be running in software rendering mode.
Anyway niggles aside I enjoyed the exhibition and might pop back through for some some time on the Tempest and Xevious cabs.
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