If you were organising a worldwide exhibition tracing the history and cultural impact of videogames, where would you choose to hold its opening night? If you said Australia, give yourself a point.
If you said Launceston, Tasmania, give yourself a hundred points.
Game On 2.0 will open this weekend at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. The exhibition will run from July 3 to October 3.
The Game On exhibition debuted in 2002 and has since travelled the globe and attracted more than one million visitors. Game On 2.0 promises to track the “development of videogames from the earliest computer games to arcade-era hits and the very latest from today’s billion-dollar industry.”
Over 130 games will be playable, including the original cocktail table Space Invaders machine; arcade classics such as Pong, Asteroids and Donkey Kong; Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum games; and movie tie-ins such as Goldeneye, Star Wars and Discs of Tron, amongst many others.
The future of gaming is also covered thanks to the Virtusphere, a virtual reality sim allegedly reminiscent of Star Trek’s Holodeck.
Tickets are $15. If you do end up checking it out this weekend, let us know what it’s like!
NotoriousR
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:10 AMI remember when this was in Melbourne a couple of years ago. I got a postcard saying:
“Video games are bad for you? That’s what they said about rock and roll.” – Shigeru Miyamoto
Good times. If it’s anything like the Melbourne one, I urge people to go, it’s quite good.
NegativeZero
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:13 AMI was going to say it seems odd that it would be in Tassie and not at ACMI in Melbourne, then I remembered that this *was* at ACMI. Two years ago. How is this the world premiere?
NotoriousR
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:37 AMIt’s 2.0. TWO. TWICE THE AWESOME. DOUBLE. The next iteration. I’m bored now. Time for RDR.
thistler
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:16 AMGreat! And we’re going to Tasmania in a few months anyway! So I guess we’ll go to this and the barber shop quartet competition. win win.
Moulds
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:16 AMThis was pretty good when it was in Brisbane. I’d liked to have seen more retro stuff and obscurities although it was the only time I’d ever seen a full Steel Battalion setup.
dzc12
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:46 AMSame! Plus I saw a stormtrooper playing Dance Dance Revolution. Life = complete.
Ross Moir
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:28 AMAny idea when the rest of Australia will see the upgraded/updated version?
Chuloopa
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:30 AMI missed it when it was in melbourne.. so depressing :(
..and yeh – how is it a world premiere?… unless htis is a whole new expo… in which case, please tell me it’s coming back to melb!
Adam Ruch
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:30 AMDavid or someone: anyone know ‘why’ this is in Tasmania? Did the state government kick in some subsidies or something?
I find it truly amazing how inhospitable NSW seems to be towards the videogame industry!
Brink
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:33 AMSurely it will come to Adelaide (fingers crossed).
Andrew Burdusel
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:38 AMWill this be coming to sydney?
Seb
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:45 AMNice, launceston is my hometown so I’ll be going this weekend with some family
attila
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:49 AMI think they are being a bit cute with the 2.0 bit (though happy to be corrected if it is a significant update) – but it is worth seeing if you haven’t already.
As mentioned above, its worth checking out for Steel Battalion alone – that thing is like a love letter to peripherals.
Scared
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:55 AMTassie? No thanks. Send it back to Melbourne.
Valkyrie
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 12:18 PMAwesome, Tassie being home ex-home state I will be visiting between now and when it’s over at some point.
I’ll be sure to hit it up again this year :)
vibesublime
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 12:21 PMTo everybody saying that it’s already been held in other cities, that was the original Game On as far as I’m aware, whilst the image above says Game On 2.0, so I would assume that this is a new exhibition.
upandatthem
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 12:46 PMI’ve got a family function I have to travel to Lonny for, so I’m definitely gonna find time to squeeze this in!
Scott Besanvalle
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 12:48 PMIt is the new Exhibition. What’s so bad about having something down here for a change? lol :P
I will be going to this as it is in our hometown as well. :) Sick of paying extra money to go see something in a mainland state when it can be held here. How about you guys come down here for a change? lol :P
Hold it in Melbourne = “No Thanks” ;D
glennc
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 12:57 PMi saw it at the barbican in london.
hayden
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 1:46 PMMaybe a trip to Tasmania is in order. I went to the Melbourne one very early and I don’t think they had completed the set up yet, as I saw later photos and it looked a lot more complete.. Wasn’t all that impressive, just a collection of common consoles apart from the 2600 prototype.
CF2K
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 2:46 PMThis was very disappointing when I saw it in Melbourne, I seriously have more collectable stuff in my garage than what was promised at this exibit. 2.0 twice as crap.
Kato
Friday, July 2, 2010 at 8:34 AMI highly doubt that, but nice to brag anonymously online isn’t it?
Gem
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 5:56 PMI’ll be heading there on opening day, just because I can :P I went to Game On 1.0, up in Brisbane, after some nagging, and the whole family had fun. Hope this will be as fun as the Brisbane one! And that Virtusphere looks incredibly interesting
Yiani Mastrantonas
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 7:19 PMcool, where I live, I’ll be going this weekend
Aaron Clement
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 8:44 PMWoohoo!
Move to Tassie has paid dividends!!!
Will be heading up once we get settled in the new house, probably in the next week or two I’d say. Promise to bring back lots of piccies!
Alex neville
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 9:57 PMWTF MAN! LAUNCESTON!! I LIVE IN DEVONPORT! definetly going if i can
Nicholas Corcoran
Friday, July 2, 2010 at 4:41 PMi didn’t know much about this when i first heard about it but this seems more awesome than….. awesome?
QVMAG Launceston
Friday, July 2, 2010 at 10:29 AMHi guys,
To answer some of the queries…
YES – all NEW version of Game On with LOADS of stuff not in the original exhibition which has gone to South America at the moment.
Major feature include the Virtusphere – first time in Australia! Just amazing and alone worth the price of admission (which is cheaper than when the original Game On was last in Australia.)
Plus heaps of new games, 3D visualisation on many of these.
A brand new arcade section and history of the games is traced from pinball machines to NIA.
This is the World Premiere of Game On 2.0 (but yes, Chicago called the original Game On exhibition Game on 2.0 when it went there for the SECOND time… sorry for the confusion!)
AND NO ONE ESLE IN AUSTRALIA IS BOOKED TO HAVE GAME ON 2.0 at this stage. After Launceston the exhibition tours to Greece.
Hope to welcome you here at some stage :)
Necromanicide
Friday, July 2, 2010 at 10:48 AMAll ready to be at the official opening this evening… 7 hours to go… :)