In addition to the superb range of permanent galleries, the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street, Edinburgh, hosts a couple of special exhibitions each year. Entry to these events is currently £12 and the latest offering is Game On - an interactive display about the history and culture of computer games. Many of the key titles produced over the last half century are available to play in person.
The touring extravaganza is actually making its second appearance at the Edinburgh museum. It began life in 2002, opening in London and heading north of the border later that year. I attended and my memory is naturally a little fuzzy after 22 years. I do remember the place being very busy and it was difficult to get near some of the games. This time around there is a time-slot booking system and visitors are asked to spend no more than two hours inside. Naturally the exhibition has been modified over the intervening years as game technology itself has advanced by leaps and bounds. Game On has toured the world and in each country it reflects some of the local gaming history. Scotland has a strong foothold in the industry, producing numerous hits such as Grand Theft Auto, Lemmings, Crackdown and Highland Song. Rockstar Games and 4J Studious (both based in Dundee) are major players in the market. As expected, the initial displays dealt with the embryonic video games in America. Early experiments with draughts and noughts & crosses were superseded in 1962 by Spacewar - a mainframe galaxy duel that became tremendously popular among science students on college campuses. The research computers that powered the game were prohibitively expensive and there was no prospect of releasing a version to the general public. Spacewar player Nolan Bushnell, along with Ted Dabney, hit upon the ideal of building their own computer with a minimal number of functional components. They created Computer Space - a game for one player, inspired by Spacewar, with the computer controlling the other spaceships. Bushnell and Dabney persuaded a pinball manufacturer to design a suitable cabinet (pictured below) and market the game, but it failed to catch on. Bushnell then founded the company Atari, which went on to become a household name in the gaming world. The big commercial breakthrough came in 1972 with Pong, essentially a basic table tennis simulation. Anyone could quickly get to grips with the familiar bat-and-ball action and the two player mode gave the arcade game a strong social and competitive element that turned it into a huge success. Millions of Americans popped quarters into the coin slot. By 1975, home consoles were being produced on a worldwide basis. They connected directly to a standard television and thus home computer gaming was born. I vaguely remember my Auntie Rona bringing Pong to our house when I was around six years old. The end of the 70s and early 80s witnessed a huge boom in arcade-style cabinet gaming. Many classics were released, beginning with Space Invaders in 1978.
One of the most successful shooting challenges, the aim is to prevent an array of alien spaceships reaching the surface by blasting them out of the sky, while dodging their return fire and sheltering behind defensive blocks, which themselves gradually disintegrate due to enemy strikes (or your own mistimed flak). It's a simple concept, yet endlessly playable and the controls can be learned within seconds. The popularity of Space Invaders marked a turning point for the accessibility of arcade games, spreading them beyond specialist halls and adult-only bars. Family environments such as cinemas, shopping malls and cafés now featured rows of coin-operated cabinets and a young generation of gamers emerged. Electronic characters began to enter popular culture and who isn't able to visualise Pac-Man, regardless of whether you've played the game or not? The yellow chomper was unleashed in 1980 and originally called Puck Man. Due to teenagers scratching off part of the leading letter and creating a different concept for the character, he was swiftly renamed. Again the gameplay was simple to understand. Use a single joystick to guide Pac-Man around the maze, gobbling up all the pills in sight. Meanwhile, four ghosts (Inky, Pinky, Blinky & Clyde) pursue Pac-Man and a life is lost if one of them catches up. Eating a fruit temporarily allows Pac-Man to turn the tables and kill the ghosts. This "power up" feature was innovative at the time. Pac-Man was an early example of a game character moving into other spheres such as merchandise, music and television. The exhibition then presented it's top-10 selection of home gaming consoles - all available to try. The Fairchild Channel F was the first to use interchangeable cartridges but it was Atari who cornered this market with the 2600 device, released in 1977. I remember a couple of schoolfriends having this hardware and each game cost around £30. Equivalent to over £100 today. If I remember correctly, the console itself cost £99 in the early 80s (it had been launched in 1978 at £199). An American crash came in 1983 after a much-hyped game based on the wildly successful E.T. movie had been rush-released for the previous Christmas. It was roundly panned and was the straw that broke the camel's back. In truth, the market had been saturated with a glut of inferior copy-cat consoles and below-par games. Atari had already blotted its copybook with a much-anticipated home version of Pac-Man that - despite wildly successful sales - was criticised for having poor graphics and sound.
Home microcomputers stepped into the breach and soared in popularity. The cassette format (or floppy disk) for games was a far cheaper proposition than pre-programmed cartridges and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum became one of the most popular machines in the UK. There were downsides. Games could take several minutes to load and the rubber keys on the early Spectrum models weren't conducive to rapid typing. Sound capability and colour range were also limited. However, the sheer affordability of the whole package ensured that a "Speccy" was a Christmas wish within the reach of many families. The device was the brainchild of Clive Sinclair, who had pioneered the electronic pocket calculator and made headway with an ultra-basic computer called the ZX81. Launched in 1982, the Spectrum became a huge success, outstripping rivals such as the Commodore 64 and the BBC Micro (both solid contenders). I spent many happy hours playing away on the original rubber-keyed release and later the more robust +2 model. The whole family joined in the fun and there were always people at school looking to swap games. A new title typically cost between £5 and £10. High Street newsagents sold the cassettes and there was a huge range available via mail order. The inevitable improvements in technology caused the Speccy to wane as a commercial force as the 90s rolled around, but what an impact it left! Later releases had been increasingly sophisticated but ultimately more powerful machines such as the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST began to muscle in. PC games were also entering the market. Consoles did come back with a vengeance as successive generations of high quality units were produced by Sega, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. On a personal level, I moved away from gaming as I entered my 20s, although I did dabble with my younger brother's Sega Mega Drive and I sourced a bargain Commodore Amiga in 1996 for a final throw of the dice. I just found other interests and as a result of my own life experiences, I found the retro elements of the exhibition far more interesting than the 21st-century gaming scene, vastly immersive as it is. I wandered over to the table covered in handheld 80s devices. I picked up Puck Monster, which I once owned. An obvious Pac-Man clone, I think it cost £30 and I bought the device with my birthday money. With just one gaming mode on offer, I quickly became proficient.
Today I was out of practice and my measly score a mere fraction of what I could achieve at the age of 14. I tried my luck at a few more vintage arcade cabinets - Donkey Kong, Asteroids and Missile Command - with varying degrees of success. Unfortunately I couldn't get near Monaco GP - a driving game I played many times in my youth (along with Pole Position). The newer exhibition material was grouped by genre. My attempts at playing were hampered by the complexities of contemporary controllers. No longer a simple joystick and a couple of buttons at the side. Learning the various press combinations is an art form in itself. Of course the 10-year-olds standing next to me were completely unfazed. The concept of game characters was also explored. Names such as Mario, Lara Croft and Sonic the Hedgehog were discussed. Nowadays players can even build their own avatar, which becomes part of their playing identity. Despite the advanced nature of modern technology, simple ideas do still hit paydirt and a prime example is Angry Birds - a simple but addictive slingshot premise that became a global phenomenon on early tablets and smartphones. The touch-screen interface was perfect for pulling back the elastic and letting fly. As of 2018, the game has been downloaded four billion times. Gaming now covers a wide demographic, with many females taking part, The stereotype of the teenage boy hunched over a screen no longer represents reality. It can also be a highly sociable activity, with global networking allowing gamers to communicate effortlessly with each other and form friendships. Yes, we have come a long way since the days of hitting a little white ball back and forth.
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