Melbourne 3

Getting our Game On… just wanted to say that… Anywho

We finally got to see what we came to Melbourne to see and that is the Game On exhibition – basically an exhibition of Consoles through the ages… From Pong to the On-Line game Pirates… (WTF?? – well I got to blow up a few Pirate ships that was fun and educational).

The exhibition was great – there was a large MAME mock-sole setup where you could wait in line and play almost anything… and every almost every other console that ever existed was there most of them in working order with all kinds of games that you could actually play. Daz was in his element telling us more then the small info plaque could tell us about both the consoles themselves and the games they were running.

A few highlights for the fan boys… I say STELLA – the man made prototype of the ATARI 2600 (I think) this was made large scale to see if all the bits and bobs worked before they miniaturised the whole thing for the home console. I think this was the place where the term “Computer Bug” came into existence (I will have to check Wikipedia for the facts - ) apparently the console suffered from a fatal error which turned out to be a real life bug stuck in one of the processor bits! UPDATE yes I was wrong it was from 1946 but it was a bug (a moth) and that's where the modern term comes from

I got to play machines that I had only previously heard about let alone seen – some good some bad some VERY bad… It makes me sad that I missed out on some of these consoles but then again maybe I would not be interested in them if I had had access back in the old days… who knows. All I know is that I am glad that I got to touch feel and play with these machines that enable me to play the games that I love. Without a market that these consoles forged (and many got lost in) we would not have modern gaming and the great times had by many people.

Now that I have gotten to the preaching stage I think I should publish and let the web world know about the great things going on at Game On…