I went to the public kickoff of the Smithsonian's "Art of Video Games" exhibit today in DC. The exhibit itself is broken into three parts: a very small selection of game art, five playable games from different eras and genres (Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and Flower), and a history section that goes through all the games voted by the public to be in the exhibit. This last room consisted of displays of consoles with four games selected for each console. Additional information on each game could be accessed by selecting the game from video display to the left of the console display. I think it's all very well and good that gaming is getting highlighted by the Smithsonian, and the exhibit certainly stands out from pretty much everything else in the Portrait Gallery, but it's not very satisfying. As a fan of video games, you aren't likely to learn anything you don't already know, and you can see everything the exhibit has to offer (excluding the videos) in about 15 minutes. It's a great summary of some of gaming's greatest accomplishments over the last 40 years, but it straddles an awkward line between being too hardcore and too casual without really catering to either audience.

More interesting than the exhibit itself were two discussion panels I attended following the exhibit (you can find these online at the Art of Video Games' website). The first panel talked with some gaming pioneers while the second (and far more interesting) brought in heavy hitters like Ken Levine (Irrational Games) and Kellee Santiago (That Game Company). Particularly entertaining was Bioware Mythic's Paul Barnett who brought a much needed British element to the panel.

Over the course of the day, I had the opportunity to meet Chris Melissinos (exhibit currator), Kellee Santiago, Chris Kohler (Wired Game|Life), and John Mix Meyer (Wired Game|Life). Tommy Tallarico and his trophy girlfriend were also in attendance, and he and his designer sneakers were happy to sign autographs in front of his arm candy.

A third talk with Nolan Bushnell took place in the evening, but I was too lazy to reserve tickets, so I missed it. There's also a talk with Hideo Kojima tomorrow, but I missed the boat on that one too.

Is there anywhere I can see what four games made the cut for each console? I'm curious to see what was selected.

Thanks for bringing this up! I think it's about time that people began to realize that video games are a work of art. I also think that history will eventually consider video games a higher form of art than movies. Bold claim? Perhaps so, but that's how I feel. While  in a movie you merely absorb the information, in a video game you become part of a living world. So, which one is harder to pull off correctly, movies or video games? I personally think the answer is video games no doubt about it. Oh, and I enjoy movies, don't get me wrong.

So, what I always thought would be cool, would be to have a huge art book that's full of original cover art for various games. Mostly, I would love to look at the art of original NES games. Sure, some of those covers were terrible

http://vgaminglife.blogspot.com/2011/04 … -20xx.html

yet, terrible in a good way
By the way, I love what you said about TT! That was classic...

http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/a … ninggames/

I call it like I see it.

Interesting...

Nice to see shooters like the original Star Fox, Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Einhander on there. I'm not too big on shooters but you better believe I having those in my collection - I'm absolutely terrible at Einhander however.

Kind of iffy on Metal Gear's ability to be nominated in two categories... I know strategy is an important part of MG but I'd place it in action before I'd place it in tactics. But that's really a toss-up.

Also of curiosity is Tomb Raider being selected for action category on the Saturn. I'll freely admit the first time I played and beat the game I did it on the Saturn but I kind of see TR more as an icon of Sony since the second game and most of those that followed were only on the PS1 outside the PC.

Anyway, this has got me thinking... we had that poll for favorite soundtracks. Why don't we do something along those lines for games? That really wouldn't be too hard with the poll system in place. I can't remember, have we done something like that? Everyone could nominate their top 30 or maybe 50. Damn, just thinking about it... my list would be very PS1 heavy. I love the PS1 (with the SNES being a close second)

Additionally, unlike the results from soundtrack poll, you could break down the results and get the top games per console as well.