To gamers it is not news that video games are pleasing to look at and sometimes they can be downright awe inspiring. A new exhibit coming to the Smithsonian American Museum of Art will celebrate the beauty and artist merit of video games.The exhibit will look at the evolution of art and style in games over the past 40 years. The best part is we got to choose which 80 games would be included! And last week the games were selected to be featured in the upcoming The Art of Video Games exhibit were announced.
The Smithsonian asked people to vote for their favorite titles in a number of categories, like era, platform and game genre. The voting site was open from February 14th until April 17th and featured a pool of 240 games spanning the 70's and 80's up to present titles. The winning titles were announced via live webcast, it only could have been more fitting if it were via Second Life or WOW, on May 5th and is available HERE.
The exhibit will b e divided into five eras, because comparing Pitfall and Uncharted isn't really going to work. Beginning with well the beginning of consumer games in Era 1: Start! Which will include classic Atari, CalecoVision and Mattel's Intellivision so basically starting about 1979. Era 2: 8-Bit which, you guessed it looks at the 8-Bit generation it includes the Commadore 64, the 8-bit Nintendo and the sega Master System. Era 3: Bitwars! which includes the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. Era 4: Transition includes PC titles, the N-64, the Dreamcast, Sega Saturn and PS1. Era 5: Next Generation begins with the Xbox and the Game Cube and ends with current gen systems.
The games will also be displayed by genre. The Art of Video Games will categorize games by action, adventure, target (which includes shooters), and Combat/Strategy. The game type is broadly applies to titles, for example Double Fine's Brutal Legend falls into the combat/strategy category and Llamasoft's Attack of the Mutant Camels is considered a Target game, both of which will be included in the exhibit.
The exhibit will open on March 16th 2012 and run until September 30th. For a full listing of games that will be included or to check out more information on the Art of Video Games visit the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
