About Pong, Pac-Man and Pixels

On Sundays I like to play “Monopoly“. I am also always ready for a few quick dice rolls to play “Ludo” or a game of “Scrabble“, or what about the card game “Mau Mau”? The only problem is the lack of fellow players: as a reaction to my game proposals I normally raise incredulous looks and contracted eyebrows – the retro trend for analogue parlour games does not yet seem to have reached my Berlin friends…

This is different for digital retro games! I, therefore, met with a lot of excitement when I invited to a visit to the Computer Game Museum last weekend. On the way to the museum along the windy Karl-Marx-Allee my four companions had shining eyes full of expectations – all adult children of the eighties, male.

Our time journey through the world of computer games starts with a video: the “Telespiele” TV programme of 1975 shows a young presenter named Thomas Gottschalk with shoulder-length angel hair and green sweater vest presenting for the first time a computer game on German television. And as if this were not yet spectacular enough, another 300 additional treasures from the history of culture and technology wait on an exhibition area of 670 m² to be admired and checked out.

Regardless of whether you decide for a match with the pixel icons “Pac-Man“ and “Zelda“ or like to cast a nostalgic look at the game consoles of the 70s by Atari and Nintendo – in the Computer Game Museum Sunday just flies by. Only a bit of advice, based on my own experience: if a fellow player invites you to a game of “Pong” on a device called “Pain Station“ and pretends with a smile that the game is similar to Monopoly... don’t believe it! Having said that, “May the Games Begin”.

Tip: During The Long Night of the Museums on 28 January the Computer Game Museum invites to the special event “From the Old Fritz to the serious game”: on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Frederick the Great, visitors can discover what a Prussian King has to do with digital educational games. Admission from 6pm to 2am, entrance: the tickets of The Long Night of the Museums are valid.