Game Changers: Another Way to Play
There was a room
devoted to each game with nice illustrations of its history and new versions by
contemporary designers. It showed how
games evolve as people invent new rules and misremember old ones. It saw games
as the history of people trying out ideas.
I was most taken
with the billiards room. As well as some lovely pictures of how it developed
from a game based on grass through snooker and pinball machines. It’s origins
on grass are still seen in the green baize. There was a great snooker table
with one raised leg so you had to pot uphill to reach that pocket. I became
addicted to an electronic pin ball machine where the ‘ball’ drew a pattern as
it flew round the board and created great splashes of colour as it hit the
edges.
The chess room
would have been more fun if I’d gone with someone else as it included a number
of boards down the middle of the room with new variations of the game. There
were some digital versions too but these were all being used. The maze room was
the least interesting as the interactive elements weren’t so much fun but there
were nice pictures of garden mazes.
Closes on 7 May
2017
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