Kimberly Voll walks through the exhibit of decades-old computers and video game consoles, and pauses at a grey-and-black Texas Instruments TI-99/4A personal computer.
“This was my very first computer,” says Voll, an instructor at the Centre for Digital Media and co-curator of the exhibit. “We got one of these around 1979. My dad had one and I used to sit on his lap and play games.”
A modern projector casts, onto the wall, a colourful image of the game the computer is running: Parsec, a space shooter game. When the game ends — the player’s spaceship exploding into colourful pixels — the display returns to the menu. The first option is to replay Parsec. The second, to launch the computer programming language BASIC.
“I wondered what this game BASIC was,” laughs Voll, explaining the fortuitous misinterpretation that led to a career in programming. “I wanted to play it.”
The TI computer, together with nearly two dozen other early gaming machines, is part of Evolution of Gaming, an exhibit that examines the history of video games. It’s at the Centre for Digital Media until Aug. 10.
On display are original arcade game cabinets like Defender, Space Invaders and Pac-Man, as well as a sleekly molded, bright green cabinet housing Computer Space, the first commercially produced video arcade game, released in 1971 by two entrepreneurs who would go on to found Atari.
Computers and consoles that were household names — the Commodore 64, the Apple IIe, the Nintendo Entertainment System — share the exhibition hall with consoles that were lesser known, but equally important in the development of video games. Chief among these is a Magnavox Odyssey, the very first home gaming console, released in 1972.
The Odyssey’s gameplay is primitive: two large white squares, projected onto an otherwise dark TV screen, can be moved around by turning dials on boxy controllers. The “graphics” consist of a sheet of clear plastic film, printed with colourful designs, that players stuck onto the TV screen. To keep score, players used paper score sheets and poker chips that were included with the game.
Players in the 1970s, weren’t “encumbered” by expectations of gorgeous graphics and 3D gameplay, said Voll. “These things that were just pixels on a screen weren’t just pixels — they were dragons, and foreign lands, and space ships, these incredible worlds with absolutely endless potential. And that’s why I fell in love with video games.”
Voll, who teaches a course on the history of video games, came up with the idea for the exhibit a year ago, and has been collecting vintage consoles, computers and games for the past five months. The exhibit includes oddities like R.O.B., a robot-shaped controller for the NES, a Zapper light pistol used to play Duck Hunt, and the Vectrex, a 1982 home gaming console whose crisp vector graphics rivalled those of arcade games.
Best of all, absolutely everything is playable, giving visitors the chance to experience landmark video games on the original equipment — everything from Pong to the very first Final Fantasy game.
“My own personal take... is that video games exist to be played,” said Voll. “If we’re not giving them that chance one more time I think that’s a fundamental disservice... Once we can no longer interact with this technology, once it’s broken, we can put it behind glass and [just] look at it.”
There’s even a nod to the future of gaming: a game, made by Voll’s students, that utilizes the cutting edge Oculus Rift goggles that immerse the player in a virtual reality 3D landscape.
Evolution of Gaming is at the Centre for Digital Media campus, 577 Great Northern Way, until Aug. 10. Admission is free, but only 100 people will be allowed inside per session. There are three sessions daily: 9 a.m. to noon; 1 to 4 p.m.; and 5 to 8 p.m. Schedule your visit at evolutionofgaming.ca.
