Bologna: Videogame Art Museum, a computer geek’s paradise

The Bologna exhibition lets visitors browse through thousands of video games developed over the years, starting with the very first, released in 1972. There are themed installations, consoles and computers on display and you can also try out the most popular and iconic among them. Don't worry if you feel a little disoriented: it’s a side-effect of the supersonic evolution of this sector, whose history is preserved in this museum. 

Interactive, captivating, relaxing: video games have given us hours of entertainment! But visiting the Videogame Art Museum exhibition space is more than just a fun experience; it is an opportunity to jump back in time and truly immerse yourself in the history and evolution of society and, in some cases, expressions of contemporary art. Detailed information panels describe the first eight generations of consoles and video games from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, while a room dedicated to video projections literally catapults you into the most significant stages in the evolution of the video game. 

Feeling the urge to geek out? This museum has you covered, with a “free to play” area offering a huge array of free arcade games –  the video game industry is a fast-moving industry with a turnover of 1.7 billion euro per year, after all.  Among the most popular blasts from the past, they have Space Invaders, Pac Man, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Want to know more? Insert Coin, the non-profit association that manages the museum, promotes cultural, recreational and educational activities, organising special events that offer guests the chance to challenge themselves or take part in tournaments, with over 80 retro consoles and more than 500 video games.

The Videogame Art Museum in Bologna is home to a fully functioning reproduction of Spacewar, the first ever video game. For the uninitiated, this game, presented to the public on 14 February 1962 at MIT in Boston by its programmer, Steve Russel, centres around the art of combat and the fight between two spaceships. Back then, video games like OXO and Tennis for Two had already been created, but they were simply experiments on electronic circuits. Spacewar was the first to be programmed on a computer. Today, it has been reproduced, together with the old-school monitor and two joysticks.