The Video Game Museum of Rome (VIGAMUS) is an

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

video game museum Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

that displays the

history of video games The history of video games began in the 1950s and 1960s as computer scientists began designing simple games and simulations on minicomputers and mainframes. '' Spacewar!'' was developed by MIT student hobbyists in 1962 as one of the first su ...

. The first official announcement for the museum was at the Italian Videogame Developer Conference (IVDC) in 2010. The museum opened its doors to the public in October 2012. VIGAMUS is among the founding members and promoters of EFGAMP, the European Federation of Game Archives, Museums, and Preservation Projects. This federation aims to find new opportunities of digital preservation, with a particular attention to video games. Located in a large exhibition center, the museum is divided into different areas of video game history, starting with the

Magnavox Odyssey The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September ...

. The collection displays 440 pieces of video game ephemera and has more than 100 panels with information about the history and background of the items displayed. Fifteen video game retrospectives give the viewers first-person knowledge of making certain games. In addition to the regular exhibits, the museum also has different interactive areas for

arcade games An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

console game A console game is a type of video game consisting of images and often sounds generated by a video game console, which are displayed on a television or similar audio-video system, and that can be manipulated by a player. This manipulation usually ...

s, and an

Oculus VR Reality Labs is a business of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon W ...

room. Some of the unique items featured at the museum include the

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master disks and

Crytek Crytek GmbH is a German video game developer and software developer based in Frankfurt. Founded by the Yerli brothers in Coburg in 1999 and moved to Frankfurt in 2006, Crytek also operates further studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. ...

demo disks. The museum partnered with

to launch a graduate course aimed at

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

development. The museum also has its own magazine called VMag about the video game industry. VIGAMUS Steel Battalion

Video game tournaments and conventions

The museum often hosts themed nights or tournaments, such as their ''

Dark Souls III is a 2016 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. The third and final entry in the ''Dark Souls'' series, it is played in a Virtual camera system# ...

'' Day and the 20th Anniversary of ''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

'' Tournament. The museum invites guests to play in a tournament to win versions of the newly released games or themed prizes. In November 2016, the museum partnered with the Leonardo Caltagirone Group to launch GAMEROME, a new video game convention.

Interactive areas

Console

The console interactive areas feature 36 stations for visitor use, with new games added frequently. There are different themed corners and rooms, such as the

Assassin's Creed ''Assassin's Creed'' is an open-world, action-adventure, and stealth game franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice D ...

and

Steel Battalion is a video game created by Capcom for the Xbox console where the player controls a "Vertical Tank"—a bipedal, heavily armed mecha. To control the tank and play the game requires the use of a large controller (Mega-Jockey-9000) made specially f ...

Arcade

VIGAMUS has a large collection of Arcade cabinets from the '80s and '90s and some of their featured games include: *

Street Fighter II is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Syst ...

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 ''Tekken Tag Tournament 2'' is a sequel to the ''Tekken'' fighting game series. It was released for the arcades in September 2011. It received an update, subtitled ''Unlimited'', on March 2012. A console version based on the update was release ...

King of Fighters ''The King of Fighters'' (''KOF'') is a series of fighting games by SNK that began with the release of ''The King of Fighters '94'' in 1994. The series was developed originally for SNK's Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware. This served as the main pl ...

Oculus room

Launched in June 2016, this room houses the

Oculus Rift DK2 Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a division of Meta Platforms, released on March 28, 2016. In 2012 Oculus initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Rift's development, ...

, sponsored by ASUS, visitors have a chance to play a variety of games in VR.

Video game tournaments and conventions

Interactive areas

Console

Arcade

Oculus room

References

Further reading