Video games go to the next level, 40 years of passion

To mark the fortieth anniversary of their birth, the Grand Palais to the rank of the place universal phenomenon. Decryption of a video game celebration

Just like a painting, a book, a sculpture, here are the games become art and cultural objects. The holding of the Paris exhibition "Story Games" at the Grand Palais, in a place devoted to works of the greatest artists, is akin to a consecration. Except that the video game, announced as the tenth art, has already established itself both as object and as a vehicle for a new culture in France alone, combine, some 28 million devotees.

Emotion

"Story Games" offers a logical, since it is the origins of the game until today. Some forty-somethings, though warned of what lies ahead, struggle to hide their emotion. We see from excited as chips end up twenty, thirty years ago to handle frantically knobs and levers of "Pong" from Atari vintage, the "Smurfs" and "Pacman" and "Mario" (the real , pix elated to death), "Space Invaders" and "Barbarian II," or other "Mega Man" ... a dizzying experience, because starting from the beginning of time it leads to the cathode full light, in this case, the reconstructions of Hollywood fictions play with the player is the dues ex machine.

This perspective delivers a misleading axiom: a artistic allegedly plotted the evolution of this inventive Enchev-tration. But one looks in vain in the history of games the name of a new Columbus - artist or programmer - deciding to explore the areas in which today cleared grow virtual entertainment. There is none. Video games are more or less, children of chance and demonstration.

Consoles and games of the 1980s are back with a vengeance in recent years. The retrogaming is popular among gamers. Back 40 years of passion in an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris

Question of calculations

"The idea of ??creating a game has come to work in research labs in computer science where we sought to assess the capabilities of computers," says Jean-Baptiste Clais, curator of "Story Games". "Space War," the amoeba origins, thus appeared in 1958 on an oscilloscope screen: one star, two rockets, boom! It was not fun, but to demonstrate the capabilities of computers. This same game post-seventy-huitards become entrepreneurs try to impose in 1971 as a "terminal" in a few bars of the West Coast, under the name "Odyssey." Although Stoppers commercial, entertainment minimalist become embedded in the recent history as the first video games. Hence the 40 candles blown out this year in Paris.

A family tree
Success will come in 1972 with "Pong" (read elsewhere). Therefore, the video will, over several periods that correspond to many advances in computer technology, to colonize the world of games. There were roots to 1983 a kind of ancient time, the pixel animated. Then came the Middle Ages, "the era of design," with the representation of the universe, which is the peak in 1990. 1994 was something of a renaissance with the arrival of 3D. When the image is refined, around 2000-2005, we approach modern times. Since 2006, with consoles and high definition displays, here are some games to reconstructions of visual realism confusing, the arrival of motion detection, but also the return of the universe and aesthetic (the "Pixel Art" ) thought to be stored in the closet.

Perpetual leafing

This fascination with two opposing trends highlights the diversity of games. This is due to their evolution, which is certainly not linear. Mr. Clais calls this a "family tree", including "Pong" is the trunk (see also). The branches would élancent, crossing, developing, each living their destiny ...

That is why, far from being monochromatic, planet video combines all shades of the rainbow, rainbow play, it is uncontrollable, indecipherable, unexpected, unpredictable, she uses all the springs . As the imagination in the visual arts, film, theater, literature, gaming tree is constantly leafing. It does no limit imposed. In the equal of other arts.