The National Videogame Museum — Attraction in Sheffield

Being that I work here, I might admittedly be a bit biased, but I DO plan to come to explore it as a patron quite often when my dissertation is completely finished.

Time for your money: Being that our minimum time recommendation for truly exploring the museum is two to three hours (I personally would recommend closer to four or five for a more rounded experience), you can easily get your money's worth, especially if you try to play a bit of everything on the museum floor.

Variety of exhibits: I also like the fact that we are continually adding to our exhibits and the variety we have never ceases to amaze me. There's over 100 exhibits on the floor ranging from special needs exhibits to full coding, and these vary often themselves. Every few months you're almost guaranteed to see games that you did not see the on your last visit. It's even more wonderful in that there is something for absolutely everyone (for example, we had an elderly couple roaming the museum just last week with their grandkids and having an absolute blast).

Knowledge of staff and facility: There's also the fact that the staff really and truly care about gaming and our patrons. If one of us doesn't have an answer, we do our best to find one. Being that video games span over almost fifty odd years, over various genres, and are created in copious amounts and countries, there is no way for any of us to know everything, but we do do the best that we can with what we have. Also, it's important to note that because of this fact, there is no way possible to display every aspect of video gaming- the space we have just isn't large enough (and the area we are currently in is actually larger and consists of more exhibits than the Nottingham location did, yet all currently on one floor).

Also, the facility is always tidy and well-maintained. The games are consistently reset for the next patron to enjoy and anything that may have been left behind by the patron is immediately moved to the front desk upon it discovery. The floor is concrete, so it is suggested that you wear shoes with good soles. Something that is truly convenient for families (and really most of our patrons) is the picnic area at the entrance to the museum. Because you are given a wristband specific to the day that you visit, you're welcome to come and go as you please throughout that day, as long as you have your wristband. You're more than welcome to bring food or drinks into the picnic area and eat onsite, however, food and drinks are not allowed on the floor due to the electronic aspect of the museum and delicacy of the equipment within (many pieces are on loan from developers or are incredibly difficult to replace because of their age or type).

Getting involved and helping the museum grow: As with any museum, our patrons are our biggest asset. Without you, we wouldn't exist. That being said, donations to the exhibition are greatly appreciated. Buying, running, and maintaining new controllers, games, consoles, televisions, gaming cabinets, memorabilia, displays, seating, etc. is incredibly expensive. If you love games, consider helping us out! Just make sure to call the museum first to confirm if it's a piece that we don't already have or is one we are in need of.

I hope that helped a bit! I won't be at the museum much longer because I will be moving out of Sheffield soon, but, I can tell you, I WILL be visiting pretty regularly because of how wonderful the place is, both in relation to the games and the...

I asked my friend if he wanted to go with me as I'd been bought a Father's Day Groupon deal and he said yes and he'll pay on the day.

I've played arcade games since I was about 5 years old and heard good things about this place.

My friend paid the full price of £11, which he thought was expensive as we got there at 12:30, but he paid it nonetheless.

As we walked round, I noticed the big wall with various Donkey Kong versions to play and had a go on a couple, but my friend was getting a bit bored as we'd walked round it all.

One issue I had was that some arcade machines didn't work properly.

Space Invaders, for example, the colours were not set right (the spaceship at the top wasn't red, the top row of the Invaders were), the screen is faulty as it nearly runs off the right side and the sound didn't work.

Ms Pacman (why no Pacman?) joystick didn't work properly and very hard to control.

Donkey Kong had an ordinary monitor in it and wasn't set to scan lines, so it seemed to be running on an emulator.

Phoenix didn't seem to have any sound either but played okay.

Pole Position wasn't the original maybe with the steering wheel and the only racing game was Sonic, not Outrun or something.

I had expected there to be more games upstairs, for example Paperboy, but was told that it was just on that floor and as such, felt very disappointed as most of the other items were on a small screen with controls that didn't really seem appealing and not many people were actually playing on them.

Overall, I think it has so much potential but the lack of real machines and the fact that the number of advertised machines isn't what I was expecting to be (they were merely small emulator items or whatever), made this very disappointing and after 50 minutes, we left and my friend didn't want to go back, so we didn't bother and I'll not be...

Before I start, I know it's a charitable organisation, and as such are probably limited on what they have to 'exhibit', so I'll try not to be too negative. That being said, my visit was a little underwhelming.

For the NATIONAL videogame museum, I was expecting it to be bigger, with many more exhibits, but again, as a charity, they are probably limited as to what they have to display. Before visiting, I was expecting to spend 2-3 hours there, I was there less then 1 hour.

There didn't seem to be a great deal of chronology to the NVM, that you would get from a regular Museum. Exhibits were grouped by varying types (Cabinets/Characters/Genres), as opposed to the age of the consoles/games. You couldn't really see the progression of video games over the years, and there didn't seem to be much of a flow to the museum. The glass cabinets displays they did have were very interesting, and brought back some memories, namely the PS1/Blu tack hack.... which I certainly didn't do back in the day!!!

During my visit, I noted some glaring omissions; Pong, A playable Atari 2600, Early 90 Windows gaming, A playable Sega Master System, N64/Goldeneye, Crash Bandicoot (Plenty of Sonic/Mario references), Halo, Minecraft, to name but a few.... Was good to see they had a Magnavox Odyssey though, as you can't have a museum without the Genesis of Games consoles!

The way that the NVM limits numbers, and split the day into 2 sessions, is a great idea. My session wasn't overly populated, and there was little to no wait to have a go on games. The exhibits they did have were in good condition, and had a guide with each playable game. Staff were easily visible in case they were required.

Hopefully going forward they can acquire more consoles/games, and expand the NVM to make it a more worthwhile experience for visitors...