Posted in: Games, Movies, Video Games | Tagged: entertainment, Game Masters: The Exhibition, gaming, video game history

Game Masters: The Exhibition In Edinburgh – Reliving Forty Years of Gaming

By Phil Harris

Bleeding Cool were delighted to get tickets to Game Masters: The Exhibition, a fabulous trip through forty years of videogaming history at The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The exhibition not only charting videogaming history but also allowing ticket holders to play over one hundred different games from that period.

As you step through the door you are greeted with banks of classic arcade games to play, from Space Invaders to Centipede, Asteroids to Ground Control each representing a specific development in game play and style from the true unforgiving ages of hard. Each machine surrounded by a gaggle of eager people reliving their past, experiencing the game for the first time or watching their children, the next generation of gamers get to grips with something classic. The sheer popularity not only expressing the love of these classics but also the significantly brilliant design ethics that were behind each and every game – making them equally entertaining today.

As you leave the safety of the arcade you open into a true cornucopia of gaming. With Nintendo's offerings of Mario and Zelda plastering one wall, Sega sitting in the centre and Blizzard Entertainment and Project Ico's games sitting to the right – Shadow of the Colossus still looking amazing amongst its peers, like a glittering toy box of play. Behind you as you enter is a tribute to DMA, the Dundee studio who created Lemmings and of course Grand Theft Auto with a video describing the history of that games launch and original copies of design documents crossed and crossed again with amusing anecdotes and the design teams thoughts and etchings.

Travel deeper in and you reach music based games, with a whole dance floor to engage some whilst Project Eden is played by others and if you think the experience is over you are so wrong as doubling back you are treated to the works of Warren Spector, Tim Schafer, Rovio's Angry Birds, That Game Company's game releases to date and Simon Meek's brilliant interactive vision of The Thirty-Nine Steps to mention a small fraction of what is on offer.

The sheer thought that has gone into a display of this kind is gratifying to long standing gamers and educational to those new to the hobby with each section excellently documented with exciting concept art, writing, attached video commentaries and more to describe their impact on the games industry and why they are represented there. As with any exhibition covering such a vast hobby with so many genres you could find omissions but you feel this is not due to lack of trying but the fact the companies involved failed to respond in time and to be honest, they're the losers as Game Masters The Exhibition represents one of the finest collections we have seen.

If there was any minor criticism of the exhibition it would be to do with sound levels. Some of the audio point and click adventures sat too close to understandably louder dance games and a little more space or headsets would have alleviated this problem. However this is a minor problem in a great exhibition with fabulous staff who are eager to help alleviate issues if a certain game seems to have crashed or you have questions.

We cannot recommend Game Masters: The Exhibition enough. Numbers in the exhibition at any one time are controlled, so you don't have to wait too long to play a classic game, disabled access is fantastic – as is the rest of the museum – staff are very friendly and helpful and it is set in the heart of a fine museum with hours worth of other interesting exhibitions to see, itself nestled in the centre of Scotland's capital Edinburgh.

Games Masters The Exhibition runs until 20 April 2015 and if you're going to be in and around Scotland in before that date and love video games this is simply one not to miss.

Find out more here.

Phil Harris (@PhilipGHarris) is a games developer and writer currently working with One Thumb Mobile on their MMORPG Celtic Heroes. He also created Zentorii, helped design Nevistech's Pet Roulette for Android devices and is the story writer for Blazing Griffin's new space strategy game Distant Star: Revenant Fleet. To read more about Phil check out his profile on Indie Teamup.

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