22/02/2007 Game On Exhibition
Throughout this week i had seen different ads for the Game on Exhibition
at the Museum of Science in London. It looked pretty interesting but i didn't think much of it at the time because i was broke and there was no way
i was going to drag myself out of bed at 9:00am on a holiday and beat the rush hour traffic just to check it out. Besides, i lived outside of
London and it costs a lot more to get a train before 9:00am.
Chapter I: Fate? Destiny?
Chapter II: That's a lot of Games
Chapter III: The Losing Spree
Chapter I: Fate? Destiny?
Well something came up and i somehow found myself in London on an early Tuesday morning anyways so i decided to check it out and see what all the fuss was about. This was my first time in this part of the city so i had to ask around a bit but i finally found my way to the Museum and spent some time wandering aimlessly around the different sections, man it was huge. I got into the Game On section at about 2:00pm, i must admit i imagined some boring lecture about the history of computer games but instead it was more like a huge arcade featuring important and popular games from the industries history; past and present. The catch was you only had 1 and a half hours to play as much as you can and i wasn't about to let it go to waist. I had this vibe of nostalgia as i walked through the lounge which pretty much lasted throughout the whole exhibition. I was like a little kid again only difference was i sported a blazer with a formal shirt and a goatee sticking out from underneath my chin.
Chapter II: That's a lot of Games
Each game was enclosed in an arcade cabinet-esque container and had one or two game pads sticking out depending on the type of game. They had Pong, Street Fighter (1 and 2), Prince of Persia, Pro Evolution Soccer, Madden NFL, Halo (multiplayer), Final Fantasy VI, Dragonball Z, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Goldeneye, etc... the list just goes on. I couldn't try out Wii Sports and PS3's Motorstorm 'cus the waiting line was way too long but i could see them in action and Motorstom in particular looked great (graphics-wise that is). There was also some good concept art and game design information on display for games like Max Payne and GTA. They even had the original Max Payne character clothing on display; the leather jacket, Hawaiian shirt, pendant etc all worn by the actor that did the comic scenes and used to create the texture for Max in-game. It was enclosed in some see-through plastic cabinet but in my opinion they should have let viewers try it on and take pictures of themselves in mid-air while executing slow motion bullet-time dives.
Chapter III: The Losing Spree
For some reason i was on a serious losing spree, got my behind handed to me in Street Fighter II and i thought i was the best in the whole world...
obviously not! It was a tough match though but someone had to loose. To add insult to injury some little kid beat me 3-Nil in Pro evolution soccer 5!
I mean WTF? Oh well, i can argue that it's been a while and i was pretty rusty, besides i bet he'd been playing it all day... at my prime things
would have been much different!
Anyways it was a pretty interesting exhibition afterall and i was kinda glad i went. On a side note the actual science museum was pretty spectacular!
I'd probably check it out in greater detail someday.
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