For me, the best part of this year's 4C's didn't happen at the Palmer House. No, by far and away the most exciting and fulfilling experience of the past few days was getting to see the Game On! exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. My only regret was not having more time to see it (I was limited to two hours on Friday before catching a flight back to St Cloud). If I'd only known about this exhibit sooner, I would likely have blown off an entire day of conferencing to really spend some time there (not that having papers read to me isn't exciting, of course). Of course, I took lots of pictures, but many didn't come out. :-(

The exhibit is chronologically laid out, beginning with a PDP machine (of Spacewar! days). While the machine isn't running, it's still fun to see (the side panel is open, giving you a good view of the innards), and an emulator nearby is running the game (you need a degree from MIT to control it, BTW). There is also a huge PONG game on a projection screen. I noticed some young boys tinkering with the buttons and knobs; I taught them how to play and had a few very rousing minutes of late 70s videogaming. This exhibit was done RIGHT; these weren't just games to look at; the focus was on giving people a chance to actually play them. It was like some grand arcade in the sky.

There were dozens and dozens of games set to free play. Some were running in vintage arcade cabines, others on vintage consoles and computers, and some on emulators (with the system hidden). Naturally, (and no surprise), the classic games were drawing bigger crowds and more ecstatic hoots than the modern kludge. I daresay, the kids playing PONG were having more fun than anyone else in the museum. What's more, they were connecting with their parents!

There was simply too much at the exhibit to describe it all in detail, but suffice it to say that it was very inclusive and well researched. I didn't expect, for instance, to see an Amiga 500 running Lemmings! at such an exhibit; yet there it was. There was also (thankfully) a variety of European games and equipment that I hadn't ever seen up close before (much less played). The games ran from twitch to Colossal Cave; I can think of no genre that wasn't well represented here. I played Bubble Bobble, Discs of Tron, Star Wars (cabin), Warren Robinett's Adventure for the VCS, Super Mario World, Elite, and so many more.

The only really sucky thing about this exhibit was the section on "Game Audio." While they paid homage to the greats like Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway, guess what you heard when you put on the headphones--modernized "remixes" of these classics. Sanxion Loader set to strings?? Blasphemy! I was so angry, I really wanted to rip those headphones out of the wall. Why the @#$#(@ they didn't have the original tunes defies logic. I was really disappointed about this part of the exhibit and am still tempted to write a letter to the bozo responsible for this travesty.

I'd really like to get a chance to go back and study this exhibit in greater detail, but I'm also hoping that more stuff like this will start springing up in other places (like Minneapolis).