Emergents
The unexpected pleasures of playing a game from the top down
Looking down never felt so good.
Tag: Missile Command
News
Space Invaders, Missile Command, and other classics painted in fresco
Just in time for Easter, these regal fresco paintings inspired by the videogames of yore are now showing at Kim Foster Gallery on 529 W 20th Street in New York. The show, called Genesis, is the artistic outpouring of Dan Hernandez, a man whose love for classic arcade games is only equaled by his love for Italian Renaissance murals, apparently. Much of his art looks like something out of a Medieval cathedral or manuscript, but modernized with bloody, game-y pop art. On one canvas, you see a saint with nimbus throwing fireballs Mario-style, while right below him there are holy…
Interview
Want to know what happens to your body after 56 hours of Missile Command?
Hallucinations. Fatigue. Sleep deprivation. Madness. Victor Sandberg saw it all during his record-breaking Missile Command run.
Essay
Exhibition of 80s art ignores games for their lack of desire
It took a long time, but videogames are finally being placed in museums as artistic objects to appreciate. The Smithsonian exhibit, “The Art of Video Games” ran from last March until September, giving fans and laymen alike a chance to view and play pivotal games from the nascent industry’s first four decades. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City recently acquired fourteen games to put on permanent display, placing Pajitnov (Tetris) and Rohrer (Passage) alongside Duchamp and Kandinsky. This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s is on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art…