Dungeon Master Forum

I was lucky enough to wangle a free invite to the press view of the Game On exhibition yesterday. It opens today proper. (May 16 2002)

If you don't know about this, it's a new exhibition that looks at the 40 year history of video games, and it's running at the Barbican in London, England from now until September.

I had an interest in going because last year I met one of the guys - Barry - who was helping out with setting up the exhibition. I met him when I went to a Retro games shop in London where I bought a Japanese Sega Saturn to play Dungeon Master Nexus. We got talking about DM. As some of you know, I am in touch with Doug Bell of FTL, and when Barry discovered this he was keen to try and get some Dungeon Master materials to put on display.

To cut a long story short, Doug agreed to send David Darrow's original art work over for the exhibition. I was also of the understanding that there would be a small exhibit devoted to Dungeon Master (this was something Barry was involved with).

I attended yesterday, and have to say I was incredibly disappointed. Although the show does boast 150 playable games - from the original Pong right up to Metal Gear Solid 2, but it's - well, dull. It feels really flat. It's like a load of machines and memorabilia collected over 2 floors with no real inspiration. Indeed, the Dungeon Master artwork is just stuck on a wall with no label, and completely out of context with the surrounding display. I tried to find Barry to talk to him about this, but he was very elusive, so I didn't speak with him.

Although this is the first exhibition of it's kind on this scale, anywhere in the world, and apparently took 4 years to put together, it's very uninspired. Some key games were looked at from concept to execution - Tomb Raider for example. But I don't consider two pages from the original design document, a BAFTA, and a few promotional posters to be particularly impressive. The only interesting game that received good treatment was Grand Theft Auto that has a re-creation of the 'sticky note board' used in development. Sure, the exhibition has some rare hardware such as the original Space War machine, but it isn't exactly presented in a great way. Sure, you can interact with loads of games and consoles, and play giant sized Pong - but the games by their nature are interactive. In my opinion, the exhibition shouldn't be relying on this as it's selling point - it must try much harder to engage the viewer. As a result, ironically, this exhibition feels far less intactive than some of the more modern displays in places like the Science Museum - (think Grossology).

I expected the show to be brighter, louder, more funky, with lots of multimedia elements atracting visitors to explore the history of individual games and developments. What we get is a fairly static collection of machines in rooms and some occasionally interesting background information. And the fact that the Amiga is in the "Top Ten Consoles" section really got my blood boiling... It's a computer, not a console!

At £11 a pop, on timed tickets, I would be hard pressed to recommend this to anyone other than diehard video games enthusiasts.

OK, rant over. If any of you go, I would be interested to see your views.

I can't go.. however I would have liked to have seen the DM booth. As you know my biggest interest has alaways been the art. so production artwork would have made it worth the 22cdn I would have had to play.. unless it too is completely uninspired..

Anyway, I'm hoping you have some images of this work either photos from the show or otherwise?

If you say "yes it will be on my web page.. whenever I get that done" I'll have to whap you one from long distance 2

I consider myself soundly whapped!

I do have a couple of pics, but my digital camera isn't great so they haven't come out too well. I'll stick them on my webspace as JPGs and post a URL. Obviously, I'll include them on my actual DM site when it's up and running.

Incidentally, I still have no ETA for the site. I haven't worked on it for several months due to Real Life (tm), and when I do get a minute to spare, my PC is so old and slow it's just painful. I am in the process of building a new PC, so hopefully within a couple of weeks I can start back on the site in earnest.

THWAP!!!

oh well, as I have not made the repairs on my site yet I'm not really one to talk.. However, I still must say I await your site in agony.. I'm dying to see the artwork!!

there are a lot of other things I would like to know of course.. but the art work is at the top of my list..

So just remember if I drown in my sleep from salivating over the thought of seeing those images.. it's on your head.. :p

moo

Don' get too excited - the DM artwork that's on display is the orginal artwork that was used on the box - so it's no different from anything you'll have seen already. There's no extra artwork - no sketches or anything. Just the final painting, which we all know and love.

There is one tiny difference - it doesn't have the word Master on it - that was added later optically/electronically. Only the word Dungeon was painted as part of the pic.

I thought I would get to see orriginal sketches of the mummies and chests and maybe some of the characters!!

DAMN!!!

Oh ok.. I guess I can wait then.. I've got the box here so I can look at that stuff any time.. I was just hoping that I could see what they really had wanted the monsters and items to look like at first.

moo