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Tetris was released in June 1984 for consoles and arcades. It became popular in 1989 when it was made available on the hand-held Nintendo Game Boy.

Tetris was released in June 1984 for consoles and arcades. It became popular in 1989 when it was made available on the hand-held Nintendo Game Boy.

Published Nov 13, 2013

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London - If you remember games like Tetris, the early console ZX Spectrum and were among the first to use the web, be prepared to feel very old.

An exhibition being planned for London is relegating these retro childhood favourites to the world of “digital archaeology”.

Videogames and computers from the 1970s to 1990s, including Space Invaders, Pong, the Game Boy, Mac Paint and the Linn LM-1 drum machine, will be on display at the Barbican museum from July.

The Digital Revolution exhibition has been designed as a “celebration of digital creativity”.

All the models are in working condition and will be available to play as part of the exhibition, which tracks their places in technological history.

Other examples include Manic Miner on the ZX Spectrum and the first website to be created by pioneer Tim Berners-Lee in 1991.

In May, researchers restored this early website that Berners-Lee created during his time at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known as CERN. It outlined the basics of what would become the web we know today.

The Digital Archaeology display is part of a wider exhibition looking at the impact of digital technology over the past 40 years.

Tetris was released in June 1984 for consoles and arcades and became popular in 1989 when it was made available on the hand-held Nintendo Game Boy.

The aim of the game is to stack the different shapes of Tetriminos together to complete rows, these completed rows then disappear. Once the rows reach the top of the screen, the game ends.

It was voted the “Greatest Game of All Time” by Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine and a digital version is now sold for phones and tablets.

Pong is a 2D arcade table tennis game. Paddles are moved along the sides of the screen to hit a moving “ball” back and forth. The player who scores the most points wins. It was the first game to be designed by computer maker Atari in 1972 and was created initially as a programming training exercise.

Space Invaders is an arcade videogame created by Tomohiro Nishikado in 1978.

It is a 2D “fixed shooter game” and the aim is to shoot aliens using a laser on a cannon at the bottom of the screen.

The cannon can be moved from left to right and the game ends if the rows of aliens reach the bottom of the screen.

Pac-Man, developed by Namco, was initially released in Japan in 1980. A player moves Pac-Man through a maze, eating pac-dots. When all dots, or pellets, are eaten, the player advances to the next stage.

Ghosts chase Pac-Man around the screen and if the player hits an enemy, they lose a life.

Google created a playable Pac-Man doodle in February last year that let people play an online version of the game in their browser.

The Magic Miner platform game was created by Atari’s rival console, the ZX Spectrum in 1983, while Mac Paint was an early photos and graphics editor available for early Macintosh computers from 1984.

The LM-1 Drum Computer was designed by engineer Roger Linn.

The first song featuring an LM-1 to reach number one in UK charts was the Human League’s Don’t You Want Me, in 1981. It has also been used by Peter Gabriel, Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie Wonder, who bought one of the first machines.

According to the release: “Digital Revolution explores and celebrates the transformation of the arts through digital technology since the 1970s.

“It brings together for the first time a range of artists, film-makers, architects, designers, musicians and game developers pushing the boundaries of their fields using digital media.

“It also looks to the future considering the impact of creative coding, DIY culture, digital communities and the creative possibilities offered by technologies including augmented reality, artificial intelligence, wearable technologies and 3D printing.”

Elsewhere in the exhibition, the Creative Spaces display looks at visual effects used in films such as Inception, Man of Steel, Dark Knight Rises and Rush.

The Sound and Vision display showcases how musicians have experimented with digital technology, including new music from will.i.am.

The exhibition runs from July to September. – Daily Mail

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