The Finnish Museum of Games
FINNISH GAMES AND GAMING CULTURE
The Finnish Museum of Games talks about Finnish games and their players over the course of the last three centuries.
In addition to digital games, The Finnish Museum of Games exhibits various board games, role-playing games and traditional games. A total of one hundred games offer a cross-section of the Finnish game industry and its history as well as a view into the creation of games outside of the actual game industry. Some of the games are well known, while others were never even published. The exhibition includes popular favourites such as Afrikan Tähti (1951), Angry Birds (2009), Fortuna (1926), Hugo (1993), Matopeli (1997) and Max Payne (2001), but also lesser-known games like UnReal World (1992), Pro Pilkki (1999), Stair Dismount (2002), My Summer Car (2016) and Hup-peli (1988). Most of the games are playable.
Experiences are an important part of The Finnish Museum of Games. Visitors get to play a total of almost one hundred games, and try out games from different time periods in their real environments. The museum’s arcade offers pinball machines, arcade classics such as Space Invaders and electro-mechanical games from the 1970s. The thematic rooms, each built to represent a specific decade, offer a view into gaming spaces from the year 1980 onwards. In addition to rooms built around the TV game Pong, Commodore 64, NES and the Commodore Amiga, you can also experience the atmosphere of an old game store, a cosplayer’s room and a retro-gaming room.
The Museum of Games is also a place where the past and present of the games industry can come together. It offers facilities for concerts, lectures, seminars, gaming marathons, hobbyist meet-ups, e-sports or even game jams. It is a place where anyone interested in games can feel welcome, where the atmosphere encourages new game ideas, and where gaming enthusiasts can present their own areas of interest.
The Finnish Museum of Games was created in cooperation between the City of Tampere, the Rupriikki Media Museum, Pelikonepeijoonit and the University of Tampere. The Finnish Museum of Games has received funding from the City of Tampere’s Museum Services and the Avoin Tampere programme. Part of the funding was also raised in a crowdfunding campaign arranged in 2015, where a total of 1,120 contributors supported the museum.
