Evolution of Gaming

Evolution of Gaming is an interactive, retrospective event that celebrates the history of video games. It will showcase how games have shaped our culture, defined a generation, and set the foundation for games of today and tomorrow. Featuring consoles, games and plenty of hands-​on exhibits to enjoy, participants get a chance to relive (or experience for the first time) the glory of classic games such as Pac-​Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Frogger and Evolution.
This event was free hosted by the students of the Center of Digital Media program and runs for a few days. Pre-​registration is required through Eventbrite.
For a free event it wasn’t bad. I wasn’t expecting much, however, got a lot more out of it than initially expected. The layout is a standard museum layout with white displays, verbiage on the walls and games to play. My post dated apologies for hogging the Metroid 8-​bit game. For the guy who felt bad being beaten by a girl in Pac-Man…your self esteem will recover.
The exhibit primarily focused on the first 3 generations of gaming up until the 8 bit Nintendo.
Everything seems so archaic now in comparison to what the gaming industry has evolved in.
I was inspired to come check this out as a pre-​history before the release of the new Atari movie.
Personally I was in pixel and polygon heaven. I felt instantly old but the magic of Duck Hunt was still there for me. It was cool to learn that the flash technology used in the Nintendo gun for that game was ahead of it’s time but rarely used which baffles me. Had they been smarter in perusing and utilizing the technology to the fullest they may have dominated the first person shooter game genre.
The exhibit displayed a lot of rare consoles that I was unaware were in existence, however, some notables were missing such as the hand held devices.
Hyper Olympic is like a Power Pad made out of gorilla style make-​shift wood and wires. I competed in a running competition against strangers in this 8 bit glory. I may have been badly schooled, however, my waist got a good work out.
It felt weird holding an old 8-​bit controller. It felt like a lost friend in my hand, only my hands didn’t know how to adjust to it.
One of the highlights was the introduction of a beta virtual reality gaming console that is still in technological developments by many major companies. They had an exclusive preview of a game titled «Monster Smash.» You do have to sign a health waver beforehand. Because this game is in development and health regulations haven’t been passed or researched, you will get a head ache and some temporary eye strain that will last you the rest of the day (you only play for a minute).