February 13, 2011

Video game goodness

I went to the awesome Arcade exhibit yesterday at Mediamatic. It's been going on for awhile already and they keep adding "levels". First was some interactive stuff, then arcade games, then a slew of console games. Next up will be handheld games.

Two of the interactive things were memorable. One of the best things of the entire place was this racing game you could play in your living room which used a projector on the ceiling and any object would become an obstacle (it could sense an object and you could change the course constantly). There were four cars controlled by wireless controllers. It was in battle mode where you could shoot the other cars with the lights from your headlights.

Race video cars in your living room

The other was a tea cup into which you drop this rfid tag that you got when you paid admission. The tag was registered to you, so with your tag in the cup, it would search online for your registered name and then sentences found with your name in it were projected around the cup. It was supposed to be spilling the secrets of your online life.

iTea

Oh, there was also Pong for smokers, you controlled the paddles with a lit cigarette. Of course someone was in there with a joint instead.

And then a bazillion consoles and arcade games to send everyone on a nostalgia trip. Oh, and weird Japanese stuff, like one where you are trying to uncover a nude photo. I also was totally winning a Mortal Kombat-like fighting game not knowing at all what I was doing, I just was slamming the buttons a lot. I couldn't even figure out how to jump and I still won two fights.

A couple of photos below; more are here.

Original Nintendo with Super Mario

Racing arcade game