An old Intellivision console. Had a friend who had one of these.
You know how tomatoes are bred these days for durability during shipping at the expense of flavor? The same problem afflicts the Art of Video Games exhibit at EMP, and so many other traveling exhibits I’ve seen in recent years. It’s a bunch of kiosks, each containing an old game console and a video screen that shows a few of its hallmark titles. Only five can actually be played, and there’s only one (ONE!) display case with some artifacts like concept art and product packaging.

Yes, it does showcase the technical advances over the years, and it’s a bit of a walk down memory lane for anyone older than 10 years old. But it barely even tries to immerse you in the experience of creating or playing video games. For something entitled the “art” of video games, I was expecting way more behind-the-scenes insights into how they were created — i.e. the evolution from concept to release, the collaboration between programmers, artists, musicians and hardware engineers, the struggle against technical limitations.

It’s a shame because it looks like the original exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum was pretty cool, especially the three-day GameFest event, which you can still watch online. But the traveling version feels like the minimum that they could package up and transport easily. Save yourself $20, watch the original online and skip the bland tomato at EMP.