Home / NMM@Boston / Games & Immersion
Both games and immersive media have deep roots in the Boston area.
You can learn about those here and experience them in many places!
PLAY
Spacewar! is a video game released in 1962 by Steve Russell and others. It was written for the DEC PDP-1 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Click this immage to play it!
Use these links to play two different versions.
Spacewar! (Brian Silverman & Vadim Gerasimov)
Spacewar! (mass:werk – media environments)
READ
Use these links to read about Spacewar!
Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums (Stewart Brand, Rolling Stone)
The Origin of Spacewar (J. Martin Graetz, Creative Computing)
The Story of Spacewar! (Computer History Museum)
Spacewar! (PDP-1 Restoration Project, Computer History Museum)
PLAY
Zork is a text adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. Use these links to explore the abandoned Great Underground Empire in search of treasure.
Zork I: The Great Underground Empire (PCjs Machines)
Zork (Parchment)
READ
Use these links to read about Zork!
The Enduring Legacy of Zork (Elizabeth Woyke, MIT Technology Review)
The Rise and Fall of Adventure Games (Digital Game Museum)
PLAY
Explore this fun little annex to the New Media Museum.
Touch the 360° image to begin exploring.
If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it on Kuula.
GO
Check out the 10 Action-Packed Arcades with the Best Games in Boston (Ameera Hammouda, Boston Uncovered).
Visit Replay’d at 252 Brighton Avenue in Allston.
Go to events held by Boston Post Mortem.
Attend PAX East at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
READ
Follow these links to find out more about the video game industry in Boston yesterday and today.
Five MIT-Developed Video Games that Revolutionized the Industry (Amy Marcott, Slice of MIT)
Boston’s Legacy in Video Game Innovation (Mass Technology Leadership Council)
Top Boston, MA Gaming Companies (Built in Boston)
LEARN
Learn a lot more about games by taking courses.
Games (Crash Course, Youtube Playlist)
Games (Crash Course, Official Website)
Game Design Courses (MIT OpenCourseWare)
Game Design Courses (edX)
TRAVEL
Take a road trip to visit The Strong Museum of Play.
The Strong Museum of Play (Official Site)
The Strong Museum of Play (YouTube Channel)
The National Museum of Play (Wikipedia)
World Video Game Hall of Fame@The Strong
Take more field trips to check out other game museums.
8 Best Arcades and Game Museums in the U.S. (Michael Berick, TravelAge West)
Virtual & Physical Game Museums Directory (Virtual Worlds Museum)
List of Video Game Museums (Wikipedia)
READ
Ivan Sutherland and his colleagues at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory performed some of the first experiments with head-mounted displays in the 1960s.
Here are links to resources where you can read more about it.
Virtual Reality Before it Had That Name (YouTube, Computer History Museum)
The Sword of Damocles (Computer History Museum)
A Head-Mounted Three Dimensional Display (Ivan E. Sutherland)
GO
LEGO® Discovery Center – Boston
598 Assembly Row
Somerville, MA 02145
NOTE Entry to LEGO Discovery Center Boston normally requires an adult to be accompanied by a youngster age 17 or under. Howerver, there are also Adult Nights, and they’re a blast!
DO
The LEGO Discovery Center is home to The Great LEGO® Race VR Experience. Once you put on the headset, you are immersed in a colorful and spell binding roller-coaster like ride. It is one of the most entertaining and accessible “true” virtual reality experiences available to the general public near downtown Boston.
VISIT
The LEGO Discovery Center also has a fun LEGO® 4D Cinema. This attraction is a 3D movie with well-timed, real-world wind, water and lighting effects.
It is great fun, but be prepared to get a little wet 🙂
WATCH
Check out this video — there are great insights about many things!
Belinda Ercan (YouTube Channel)
Belinda Ercan (Twitter)
PLAY
GO
Museum of Science
1 Science Park
Boston, MA 02114
DO
The Museum of Science has a neat, curved LED immersive wall.
Stand in the middle to see how it would feel to stand on Mars.
The wall also has an advertisement for Mission: Mars on Roblox.
Here is a trailer for the experience.
Museum of Science (YouTube Channel)
Museum of Science (Official Website)
PLAY
Mission: Mars (Museum of Science)
Mission: Mars (Roblox)
GO
Immersive Room
Museum of Science
1 Science Park
Boston, MA 02114
DO
Be sure that you stop by and play with the Particle Mirror.
This playful exhibit allows visitors to interact with computer simulations of particles as they move and generate sounds. A virtual mirror is created by displaying a video image of the room on a large wall, which is augmented with special effects to give the impression that the participants are in the same environment as the particles. A depth sensor detects the shapes of people in front of the display so they can push the particles around with their movements. — Museum of Science
Here are links to more information about Karl Sims and his work.
Particle Mirror (Karl Sims Website)
The Overlap of Science and Art with Karl Sims (Audrey Woods, CSAIL Alliances)
WATCH
The Museum of Science is home to three Immersive Theaters. The Mugar Omni Theater and Charles Hayden Planetarium deliver awe inspiring shows, while 4-D Films combine a 3-D film with precisely timed in-theater special effects like wind and rain.
NOTE Most experiences included in New Media Museum@Boston are near downtown Boston. However, the trip to Natick Mall to visit two destinations located within steps of each other is worth it. Consider going at slow times (e.g. weekdays or when the mall first opens on weekends).
GO
Dave & Buster’s – Natick Mall
1235 Worcester Street, Suite 3201
Natick, MA 01760
DO
A good “starter” VR game is Star Wars Vader Immortal: Lightsaber Dojo.
Here is a trailer to give you a sense of what it is like to play.
Dave & Buster’s (YouTube Channel)
Dave & Buster’s (Facebook Page)
Another great game is the two-player Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR.
Here is a video about the game.
Raw Thrills, Inc. (YouTube Channel)
Here’s a video of two kids fully “immersed” and having a “literal” blast!
Finally, Dave & Buster’s has a multi-player rig that simulates motion.
You and anyone you bring along will be immersed in a game together.
There are multiple games, so you let the operator know which one you want.
Be sure to try the flight simulator Top Gun: Maverick VR — it’s pretty intense, so don’t forget that you can close your eyes if it gets to be too much 🙂
PLAY
Dave & Buster’s has launched a world on Roblox, too!
Dave & Buster’s Announces Its Launch into the Metaverse with Dave & Buster’s World on Roblox
Here is their trailer for it.
Dave & Buster’s (YouTube Channel)
Here is a link where you can access it.
GO
Immersive Gamebox – Natick Mall
1245 Worcester Street, Suite 1010
Natick, MA 01760
Right at the bottom of the escalator by Dave & Busters is a venue that offers unique immersive gaming experiences. It is a bit like playing with Karl Sims’ Particle Mirror at the Museum of Science, but on steroids.
You and a team of players can enter a room with projection on three sides.
You will put on headsets to enable precise head tracking.
Then tell the operator which game you would like to play.
Here are links to pages that include trailers for the games.
Angry Birds
PAW Patrol
Ticket to Mars
Alien Aptitute Test
James Bunny
Shaun the Sheep
NOTE It is best to go to their website and Book in Advance.
READ
Learn more about virtual reality technology and history.
How does Virtual Reality Work? (Rebekah Carter, XR Today)
The Rise and Fall and Rise of Virtual Reality (The Verge)
Check out these pages.
Extended Reality (Cosma)
Augmented Reality (Cosma)
Mixed Reality (Cosma)
Virtual Reality (Cosma)
DIY
Jump in and try immersive games at home!
19 Best Roblox Games That Support VR (The Gamer)
Setting up VR for Roblox (Roblox)
VR Guides (Upload VR)
VRcompare: The Internet’s Largest VR & AR Headset Database
Hardware Reviews and Previews (Road to VR)
VR Games and Software Reviews and Previews (Road to VR)
EXPLORE
The New Media Museum collects, preserves and exhibits a variety of classic games and immersive interfaces.
Check out the New Media Museum’s Game Collection, Immersive Experiences Collection and Immersive Interfaces Exhibit.
NOTE The adventures on this page pick up where M. E. Hopper left off when she stopped doing public presentations and lectures about immersive media. The history of those events are still available on the Digital Den website.
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© New Media Museum created by M. E. Hopper
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