BLIP: Arcade Classics from the Museum Collection

Arcade games once captivated the public with their interactive, space-age graphics and futuristic "blips" and "bleeps." Today they are objects of nostalgia. Although they have been remade, updated, anthologized, and emulated for an audience of 'retro-game' enthusiasts, and can be found nesting in portable and home-based digital devices and in various corners of the Internet, there is no substitute for playing them in their intended format: as dedicated systems comprised of software, hardware, and housing.

The video arcade games in BLIP were made between 1978 and 1982. They were added to the Museum's artifact collection in 1989, the year Moving Image presented the world's first exhibition of video games. A quarter-century after their initial introduction, these video arcade games remain touchstones of digital entertainment. Blip features ten playable arcade games: Asteroids (1979), Defender (1980), Frogger (1981), Galaxian (1979), Missile Command (1980), Ms. Pac-Man (1982), Space Invaders (1979), Space War (1978), Tempest (1981), and Tron (1982).  Back to Past Exhibitions and Installations index