Video Games at the MoMA

Video games at the MoMA

Start

Index

Pong

Space Invaders

Pacman

Tetris

Another World

SimCity2000

The Sims

Flow

Portal

Minecraft

Dwarf Fortress

Myst

Pac-Man (1980)

• Pac-Man was the first interactive flat landscape in a computer game.
• It was designed by Toru Iwatani as a non-violent game for arcade gamers. He wanted the game to be cute
• The player controls Pac-Man with a joystick. Pac-Man must eat all the dots while avoiding the ghosts. If he succeeds, he advances a level.
  

Space Invaders (1978)

• Space Invaders was one of the earliest video games to be released in arcades. It was created by Japanese game creator Tomohiro Nishikado
• The player controls a laser canon that can be moved left and right across the screen.
• The goal is to shoot as many alien invaders as possible to win a high score and stop the aliens invading Earth.

Pong (1972)

• Pong was released by Atari gaming company and was created by Allan Alock as one of the first video games.
• It can be played as a single-player or double-player game.
• The goal is to defeat your opponent by being the first to win 10 points.

Tetris (1984)

• Tetris was desgined as an abstract puzzle by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984.
• It is a highly addictive game and has become one of the most universal games of all video games.
• In 1989 it was included with purchase of the Nintendo Game Boy device.

Another World (1991)

• Another World is a cinematic platform game created by Eric Chahi.
• The player controls the central character, Lester, and must jump from platform to platform to continue moving forward.
• The game ends if Lester or his alien partner are shot.

SimCity2000 (1993)

• SimCity2000 is an open-ended city0building simulation originally developped for personal computers.
• It was created by Will Wright and, unlike most games, SimCity has no goals or end point.

The Sims (2000)

• The Sims, created by Will Wright, simulates the life of people in a suburban household.
• The player controls the characters and must respond to their needs. There is no universal goal, but the player can intervene to achieve their own objectives.

Flow (2006)

• Created by Jenova Chen and Nick Clark, Flow allows the player to assume the role of an evolving sea creature.
• The player must move the creature throw water and eat other organisms to advance to the next level.
• The difficulty of the game adapts to the player's capacities.

Portal (2007)

• This is a first-person puzzle platform game in which the player sees from the main character's point of view (first-person shooter)
• The goal is to follow the instructions of GLaDOS and move the character through portals to complete the challenges.
• The reward for these challenges is cake.

Minecraft (2011)

• Minecraft was created in 2011 and is a single-player computer game allowing the player to construct a world from cubes of 1 cubic centimeter.
• The optional goal of the game is to travel to The End and defeat the Ender Dragon.
• It was created Markus Persson, known by the pseudonym Notch.

Myst (1993)

• Myst was the best-selling computer game of the 1990s and was created by Robyn and Rand Miller.
• It is a first-person fantasy puzzle that can be played individually or in a team.
• The goal is to travel to several worlds, known as Ages, and to obtain clues by interacting with objects.

Dwarf Fortress (2006)

• Created by Tarn and Zach Adams, Dwarf Fortress is a single-player fantasy game.
• The player must build a dwarf settlement and create alliances with other dwarf colonies.
• It was the first computer game to use ASCII.