Inserting coin and playing are the two basic actions before starting a game in an arcade machine with which Paris Through an exhibition, it offers a journey through time to explore the evolution of this form of leisure.
La Monnaie de Paris, the same institution that designed the Olympic medals, hosts the exhibition ‘Insert Coin’ forty arcade machines, dating from after World War II
until the early 2000s, with which to explore the relationship between money and entertainment.
That relationship is “very simple”since the coins were essential to activate the different games, one of the curators of the exhibition, Nicolas Galiffi, explained to EFE at the presentation this Thursday.
To support this immersion, a series of posters with prices in francs and euros “with inflation corrected,” details the other curator, Jean-Baptiste Clais, accompany the sample book.
“We have devised a chronological itinerary, so that things are simple and so that people can see the cultural evolution, that of machines and technology”Galiffi continues.
This is another of the exhibitions with which La Monnaie, the national mint of France, proposes in its museum visions on the meaning and use of money in its former Parisian headquarters, which dates back to 1775.
The starting point of ‘Insert Coin’ is located in the fifties with the so-called ‘noisy machines’ among which are a flipper, a table football and a jukebox, while the decade of the 60s and 70s is set in cafés. the different periods.
From mafia machines to video games
The first coin-operated gaming machines were developed in Chicago (USA) during the Prohibition period (1920-33) and their spread was closely linked to the activities of the mafia.
Video games took a while until the 1960s, when they were developed in scientific laboratories and universities.
The peak of arcade machines came in the 80s with the appearance of rooms dedicated exclusively to gaming and the heart of the exhibition echoes this with iconic names, such as ‘Pac-Man‘ and even ‘Indiana Jones’.
That variety of games in the entertainment rooms with “standard and specialized terminals”, Clais points out, it is important for “fans have a complete cultural experience.”
An experience that in the 90s “loses centrality” with the State’s fight against alcoholism and the prohibition of tobacco, but also with the arrival of the mobile phone, he explains.
The passage of time can also be seen in the designs of the machines and devices, in their sounds and in the digitization process, present in the numbers on the scoreboards and screens.
The aesthetics of the exhibition also take into account posters, teen magazines and typical sweets throughout history, which allows the intergenerational view to be praised.
“Everyone will find something that brings back memories and that they will also enjoy”says Galiffi, whose weakness is the 1978 ‘Space Invaders’.
In the case of families, he details, the first rooms will be a discovery for the little ones, but in the last one, where there is a Play Station, it is more likely that they will be the ones giving the lessons.
Another of the curators’ purposes is to convey the physical experience, for example, of jukeboxes, since today people are not used to the reverberation and spatial dimension of sound, which they associate more with an element coming from the ceiling.
Starting tomorrow, the public will be able to take part in this interactive tour thanks to the coins designed exclusively to allow recreation throughout the visit.
Most of the pieces on display belong to French collectors, although there are also some of Belgian origin.
Source: Gestion
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