At lunch the other day, the chief curator and I were kicking around the idea of a video game exhibition. As an avid gamer and a curator, this was a topic I had spent some time daydreaming about. To have her bring up the topic … well, let’s just say I was geeking out a little.
We both had a moment where we were lamenting that there weren’t more connections to video games in South Florida, so we were discussing Ms. Pacman arcade cabinets and Nintendo Wiis. Then, as we dug deeper in our discussion, we realized there are connections. IBM built their first PCs in Boca Raton. She informed me that she used to work for the studio that created Cabela’s Big Game Hunter, which was based in Greater Miami. Legendary arcade gamer Billy Mitchell calls Hollywood home. There are plenty of games that are set in Miami, from Miami Vice tie-ins to DRIV3R to the barely-fictionalized Vice City of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Writing this has gotten me excited about all of the possibilities. What do you think of this idea? Is there a South Florida connection to video games that I missed?
-- Robert Harkins, Assistant Curator
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That could be a really cool exhibit. Something to think about...and you would have to have systems set up so people could play games.
ReplyDeletevery interesting!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome idea!!! I still play Donkey Kong on my SNES :) This article talks about a Miami lawyer who represented victims of "video game-related violence." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/24/tech/gamecore/main676446.shtml
ReplyDeleteThanks, everybody!
ReplyDeleteCDS, I agree that being able to actually play games must be a core part of the experience. Maybe just demos? I'm not sure how we would handle this.
KNS, linking to an article about the reviled (in the gaming community, at least) Jack Thompson is a knife through my heart. Read through the article carefully and you'll see that everything he states is supposition and theory. He has no facts to fall back on. That's all I'll say, because I obviously have a a very strong opinion on his actions.