Video Games

The digital realm is not limited by the dimensions of the museum walls and instead brings learning experiences to visitors of all ages in new and exciting ways.

Navigate Hidden Treasures With These Smithsonian 3-D Games

AR/VR technologies give audiences new ways to experience museums that complement a traditional visit, engaging visitors and fueling learning opportunities

Game developers consulted with historians to create accurate depictions of 19th-century Native American life. The new version features playable Native characters.

New 'Oregon Trail' Game Revisits Westward Expansion From Native Perspective

Developers hired three Indigenous historians to help revamp the iconic educational computer game

“The Co-Lab” is a first-of-its-kind collaborative design experience where museumgoers can build virtual future communities in real time, alongside artificial intelligence (A.I.) acting as a design partner.

What If Humans and Artificial Intelligence Teamed Up to Build Better Communities?

Smithsonian’s 'Futures' exhibition team and Autodesk announce groundbreaking interactive experience to showcase a bold new problem-solving philosophy

A student does her remote learning at a Boys and Girls Club in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Ten Research-Backed Tips on Parenting in a Digital Era

With screen time at a high during the Covid-19 pandemic, two educators offer some advice

Magnavox’s Odyssey cost $99.95 in 1972—about $625 in today’s money. By comparison, today’s web-ready, famously portable Nintendo Switch sells for around $300.

The Failure of the Magnavox Odyssey Led the Way for the Future of Gaming

The first console reached homes 11 years before Nintendo, marking the beginning of a multibillion-dollar industry

"Halo 2600" game map.

How the Smithsonian Is Documenting and Preserving Video Games

At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a researcher develops strategy for digital preservation

Archaeologist Ben Edwards and his daughter Bella recreated the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape in the computer game "Minecraft."

Explore a 5,000-Year-Old Welsh Tomb Recreated in Minecraft

The virtual world now boasts a cube-based recreation of Bryn Celli Ddu in its heyday

Pac-Man became one of the first video games to broaden the medium’s appeal in both the U.S. and Japan.

Why Players Around the World Gobbled Up Pac-Man

Born 40 years ago, the hungry little critter turned women and children into gamers, changing the industry forever

Emily Simpson's character in "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" shows off a diving beetle in front of the virtual museum.

Join a Smithsonian Entomologist and the Monterey Bay Aquarium for This Beetle-Centric 'Animal Crossing' Livestream

Airing on the aquarium's Twitch channel at 4 p.m. EST today, the two-hour session will focus on the video game's diverse insect population

The game's art dealer, a cunning fox named Redd, sells Arnold Böcklin's Island of the Dead under the name Mysterious Painting.

Can You Spot Animal Crossing's Art Forgeries?

Gamers are brushing up on their art history knowledge to spot Redd's counterfeit creations

"Occupy White Walls" features hundreds of architectural elements. Users are represented by avatars resembling common reference mannequins.

This Free Game Lets Users Build Their Own Virtual Art Museums

"Occupy White Walls" allows players to design their own art galleries—and explore others' out-of-the-box creations

The list includes Sagrada, Pandemic, Settlers of Catan, Wingspan and Dune.

Twelve Board Games You Can Play With Friends From Afar

These virtual versions of classic and lesser-known games are ideal for social distancing

Artist Shing Yin Khor is recreating famous works of art, including Marina Abramovic's The Artist Is Present, in "Animal Crossing."

Meet the Artist Behind Animal Crossing's Art Museum Island

The art within Shing Yin Khor's virtual world represents a sassy response to the game's built-in natural history museum

AlphaStar, playing as the StarCraft race Protoss, in green, dealing with flying units from the Zerg players with a combination of powerful anti-air units. The AI program mastered all three races in the game, Protoss, Terran and Zerg.

A.I. Mastered Backgammon, Chess and Go. Now It Takes On StarCraft II

DeepMind's AlphaStar learns the complex strategy video game, which has trillions and trillions of possible moves conducted in real time

The 8-bit system looks dated by today’s standards.

Thirty Years Ago, Game Boy Changed the Way America Played Video Games

Nintendo's handheld gaming system proved to be a huge success, thanks to its durability and battery life

Poker poses a challenge to A.I. because it involves multiple players and a plethora of hidden information.

This Poker-Playing A.I. Knows When to Hold 'Em and When to Fold 'Em

Pluribus won an average of around $5 per hand, or $1,000 per hour, when playing against five human opponents

A.I. Is Learning Teamwork by Dominating in Multiplayer Video Games

Google's DeepMind labs trained bots play a virtual version of capture the flag, showing them how to work as a unit

Nine Innovators to Watch in 2019

These big thinkers are set to make news this year with exciting developments in transportation, energy, health, food science and more

Clean and compelling, Spacewar! pitted two player-controlled ships against one another and rewarded superior strategists. The PDP-1 lacked the memory to accommodate AI opponents.

How the First Popular Video Game Kicked Off Generations of Virtual Adventure

A simple contest of sci-fi strategy, ‘Spacewar!’ ushered in what is now a 140 billion dollar industry

High school students at the University of Maine Farmington's Upward Bound program play the World Climate simulation.

This Game Is Moving People to Take Action Against Climate Change

In the 'World Climate' simulation, people play delegates to UN climate negotiations and work to strike an agreement that meets global climate goals

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