THE RETRO EXPERIENCE
Up until the late 1990s, Estonia, like many Eastern European countries, had little access to the Western European game market. Instead, a few specific consoles such as Dendy were popular, while unknown elsewhere in the world. Dendy was a “Famiclone”: an unauthorized copy of Nintendo’s Famicom produced in Taiwan for the post-Soviet market. Thus, titles such as Super Mario that enjoyed worldwide popularity in the 1980s only reached Estonia in the 1990s—and on a different platform. Partially translated titles (in Russian) and “compilations” of several games on one cartridge were also common, as were unofficial (and frequently broken) ports between consoles.
Moreover, a common way to play games in Estonia was to visit underground “game clubs,” often located in basements, where for a few crowns one could rent a device to play on. This peculiar scene shaped the country’s “collective cultural memory” (van Dijck 2004) of videogaming and reveals singular ways in which games were experienced, especially during the transition period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Lvlup! Museum is an initiative to reactivate this unforgotten folklore and reconstruct the history of gaming in Estonia through consoles, games, archival materials, and personal narratives.
In the museum, visitors can see the consoles from 1980s alongside with contemporary machines – old meets new and vice versa. Some rarities and interesting ideas from past are on display (for example Power Glove for PlayStation). Our museum is not only about playing the game, but having the unique experiense of beeing at someones living room twenty, thirty years ago. The atmosphere of our rooms is improved thanks to the surrounding artifacts of the past generations.
CREATORS
Camille Laurelli is a French intermedia artist who currently lives and works in Tallinn. He obtained a PhD in Art Research from Annecy Higher Art School in 2014 and holds a Master’s degree from Grenoble Higher Art School (2005). In addition to curating various exhibitions in galleries in France and Estonia, Laurelli is a visiting lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts. A retrospective catalogue of his work was published in 2018 through the collaboration of MAMCO art museum in Geneva and Annecy Higher Art School (ESAAA). Laurelli is a co-founder and artistic director of the Lvlup! Video game Museum.
Andrejs Rusinovskis is a qualified youth worker who has great experience of writing and facilitating cultural projects. Worked in many countries around the world. Designer of printed materials. Interested in the long history of video games and has written several articles on the gaming industry. Co-founder and technical director of the Interactive Video Game Museum LVLup!.
OUR FRIENDS
GOOD TO KNOW
Toilets: Toilets are located in the corridor.
Cloakroom: There is an unattended cloakroom at the entrance of the museum.
Pushchairs and wheelchairs: At the moment there is no possibility for guests in a wheelchair to access the museum.
Car parking: There is free parking in front of the entrance.
Photos and videos: Taking photos and videos is permitted in the museum, please tag us or use #lvlupmuseum
