Games, from Engaging to Understanding

a perspective from a Museum of Computing Machinery

poster & short paper at IFIP-ICEC 2015,
Giovanni A. Cignoni, Leonora Cappelini, Tommaso Mongelli

The paper presents the HMR experiences
in the adoption of several kinds of gaming approaches
for attracting and involving the public of the Museum
of Computing Machinery of the University of Pisa.

The Nights of Old Videogames a retrogaming tournament
already played for four editions:

• 2014, Prepare to be invaded;
• 2014, special IF, Since '81 and still jumping;
• 2015, Don't be shy;
• 2015, special AIRO, Killing Polyhedral Models.

Challenges on Old Machines visitors and students are
challenged to operate old machines, like an old Brunsviga,
or the Macchina Ridotta, the very first italian computer
virtually rebuilded as an accurate real-time simulator.

Ad hoc Edugames as the Blob Game of Life, a simulation
of a closed ecosystem ispired by historical mathematical
models like the Lotka-Volterra one.

Video Game Lab and toy-games, a course in video game
making, held from November 2014 to June 2015, saw
the development of three simple games centered around
the Museum and its collection:

• R_Evolution
• Boys don't Cray
• Nikola and the Ghosts of the Past

The HMR paper at IFIP-ICEC.