03 May

31 Aug

Swindon Museum of Computing launches ‘Gaming on the Go’ Exhibition

Whether it’s ‘Brain-Training’ on the train or ‘Donkey Kong’ on the beach, the modern handheld games console lets us play computer games wherever and whenever we want. In a new exhibition, the Museum of Computing in Swindon looks at the 35 year history of this device. It features some of the most (and least) successful portable games consoles, the machines that laid the foundations for mobile gaming today.

In 1976, toy company Mattel launched ‘Auto Race’, a portable electronic game with a 21 LED display, a reprogrammed calculator chip as its central processor and a program that fitted into half a kilobyte of memory. Despite its simplicity, it was a great success. Mattel followed it with many others including such classics as ‘Football’ and ‘Sub-Chase’. Fast forward to the present day and the latest console from Nintendo the 3DS, has two high resolution colour screens, one touch sensitive the other 3D, stereo sound, motion sensors and augmented reality software.

“It’s not often you get to see such an amazing collection all in one place” commented museum curator Simon Webb, “this is a fascinating look at the machines, the games and the technology, it’s certainly come a long way”

Gaming on the Go has over 50 exhibits with many available for visitors to play. The exhibition is open until late summer 2011, standard museum admission charges apply.

03 May - 31 Aug | £2.00