The National Videogame Museum (Sheffield, UK) has undergone a major revamp of its most popular exhibits, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and will be offering imaginative creative activities, every single day this Summer, inspired by videogame heritage.

Summer of Fun at the Museum

The award-winning Learning Team has developed new hands-on activities, including designing mini arcade cabinets using paper based art and craft materials, creating a videogame jingle using a BBC: Microbit, and exploring analogue versions of popular videogames through classic board games, in a range of exciting events, every day throughout the school holidays.

Cat Powell, Director of Visitor Experience at the NVM said, “There are so many different ways to engage with The National Videogame Museum this summer! The team have worked hard to create a range of creative activities, which change throughout the holidays, giving visitors the perfect excuse to come back more than once and explore why videogames play such a role in our lives; all within our newly revamped space.”

The NVM will be open every day from the 24th July to the 3rd September (10am – 5pm) and will offer facilitated creative dedicated activities inspired by the following themes:

● The Arcade – “how we play together” – 24th July to 11th August

● The Lab – “how we learn together” – 12th August to 25th August

● Made In Sheffield – “how we make together” – 26th August – 3rd September

Tickets and more information about what’s on can be found on the NVM website.

Museum’s New Look

Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the “Level Up” project that invited local communities to feedback on the Museum’s content, visitors will be able to encounter new interpretations of three key exhibits at the Museum including a fresh exploration of Sheffield’s rich gaming heritage, in “Made in Sheffield”.

Shining a light on the city’s gaming legacy through new displays and objects, spanning forty years from the beginnings of Gremlin Graphics, the display features an exclusive beta version of Steel City Interactive’s upcoming boxing game ‘Undisputed’ which will be playable in the Museum.

Accompanying the playable “Undisputed” game is a special display of unique objects on loan from the studio, including an esports boxing world championship belt.

Not due for official release until October 2024, ‘Undisputed’ is created by Sheffield’s newest developer, Steel City Interactive. Visitors will be able compete with friends and family for the world title in a game that boasts 70 licensed fighters to choose from.

Gaming Memories

Also launching this summer, The National Videogame Museum (NVM) has an open-call to submit photographs online to its new digital collection, which aims to preserve people’s stories from their own gaming history.

Participants are invited to share photographs of themselves from their own collections, engaging with videogames – whether setting high scores in an amusement arcade, or playing videogames at home – all of your game playing photographs are of interest to the Museum.

This image archiving initiative aims to collect the frozen moments in time that establish how arcade machines created vibrant social interactions in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. As important as preserving physical games and hardware, the photographs will form part of the Museum’s efforts to capture the hidden stories and forgotten memories of early videogame history and its significant cultural impact on society.