iNEMO Science MuseumOosterdok
Game On
This exhibition has ended.
Temporary exhibition on video games and their role in play, social connection and creativity, with playable consoles from the Super Nintendo to the PlayStation 5.
Museum websiteMore in Amsterdam
You pick up two sticks at a Taiko no Tatsujin cabinet and hit a pair of big drums in time with the song on screen. Beside it stand Pac-Man, Street Fighter, Guitar Hero and Sega's Rad Mobile, all playable.
The show fills the Theater on NEMO's second floor. Sofas face screens for head-to-head matches, and the consoles run from the Super Nintendo to the PlayStation 5. Between the games are stations on gaming slang, cosplay and games as art, and on how scientists measure what games do to emotions, behaviour and even pain. In the Maker Space you build a level with wooden blocks on a pegboard and play it on a tablet. Guerrilla Games, the studio behind Horizon, is based in Amsterdam, so the Aloy statue in the show is a local.
NEMO pitches it at daily gamers and people who have never held a controller, and most of the room is for playing rather than reading. It opens at 11:00 and closes on 25 October.
Editor's pick
Playable consoles from the Super Nintendo to the PlayStation 5, in a show about how video games shape play, friendship and creativity. The one museum where fighting over the second controller counts as engagement.
Look for
The Taiko no Tatsujin drum cabinet
Look for the Japanese arcade drum game, where you beat two big drums in time with the song on screen.
Aloy on her Clawstrider
A detailed statue of Horizon's heroine riding a machine mount, from the Amsterdam studio Guerrilla Games.
The pegboard level builder
In the Maker Space, wooden blocks placed on a pegboard become a level you then play on a tablet.
The multiplayer sofas
Sit down, grab a controller and go head-to-head against whoever is on the sofa next to you.
The retro arcade row
Pac-Man, Street Fighter and Sega's Rad Mobile racer stand side by side, all playable, with high scores to beat.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Teenagers
Skip if
You want objects to study: most of the show is consoles and arcade cabinets to play.
With kids
NEMO Kennislink's free Dutch game dictionary decodes AFK, GG and looten for parents, alongside background pieces on staying involved in your child's gaming.
Also at NEMO Science Museum
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
8
- NEMO Science MuseumElekes Andor, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Vincent Ruijters - Crimson GiltTwycer
- Atlantic Window IV: Sedrig VerwoertPhoto: Sedrig Verwoert
- Stephan Vanfleteren - Transcripts of a SeaCourtesy of Het Scheepvaartmuseum
- Het ScheepvaartmuseumFernando via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam (Dutch Resistance Museum)A. Bakker / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
- Rembrandt House Museum14:43, 17 October 2006 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Joods Museum (Jewish Museum, Jewish Cultural Quarter)S Sepp / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0