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Video Games

A new VR game puts you inside a James Joyce novel.

Cool Finds

This Game Turns James Joyce’s Most Notorious Novel Into Virtual Reality

But will it make you want to finish Ulysses?

Trending Today

New Foundation is Looking to Level Up Video Game Culture

The non-profit aims to preserve game code and the magazines, marketing materials and culture surrounding video games

This picture of Uncle Fester holding a lightbulb in his mouth is right above the "gobble hole" at the base of a pinball table.

Why Is This 25-Year-Old Pinball Machine Still the Most Popular?

You can even play a video-game version of this table

Most players of “Walden” go straight to survival tasks, admits Fullerton.

Can a Video Game Capture the Magic of Walden?

Henry David Thoreau’s famed retreat gets pixelated

An undated photo of video-game pioneer Roberta Williams during the early days of Sierra On-Line, the company she and her husband founded.

The Pioneer of Graphic Adventure Games Was a Woman

Mystery House was the first home computer game ever to include graphics as well as text

New Research

The Pokémon GO Craze Had Health Benefits—For a Little While

Though avid players walked about 11 extra minutes per day, the boost only lasted around six weeks

The creators of SurviVR consulted with members of the FBI and the NYPD, various intelligence analysts, Navy Seals and other security, terrorism and survival experts.

Face an Active Shooter in Virtual Reality, and You May Be Better Prepared to Survive a Real-Life Encounter

A new VR program called SurviVR aims to train employees how to deal with an active shooter situation in the workplace

The LudusScope is an open-source, 3D printed, smartphone-integrated microscope.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

With This Smartphone Microscope, You Can Play Soccer and Pac-Man With Microbes

Stanford engineer Ingmar Riedel-Kruse built a 3D-printed microscope that allows students to not only observe but also interact with tiny creatures

In NASA's new "Mars Rover" game, players drive a rover through rough Martian terrain, challenging themselves to navigate and balance the rover.

Cool Finds

Take a Spin Around Mars in NASA’s New Rover Game

Tour the Red Planet without the risk of a multi-million dollar crash

Ten-year veteran of the Smithsonian's protective services office, Sargeant Nadia Tyler is master of the wildly popular Pokémon Go.

Gotta Catch ‘Em All on the National Mall

Sergeant Nadia Tyler, a security guard at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, is collecting Pokémon creatures daily

Cool Finds

Before Pokémon Go, These Scavenger Hunts Were All The Rage

“X” marks the spot

A 1959 exhibition of the first video game "Tennis For Two," designed physicist William Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

The Pioneers of Video Game Technology Are About to Become the Stuff of History

The American History Museum’s Lemelson Center will record 20 oral histories from early video game innovators

The Age Suit at the Liberty Science Center lets users feel what it's like to get older.

Trending Today

Could Virtual Reality Inspire Empathy for Others?

Virtual reality could allow users to step into someone else’s shoes, experiencing things like having migraines or swapping genders

University of California, Irvine students playing League of Legends.

Cool Finds

UC Irvine Becomes the First American Public University To Offer E-Sports Scholarships

The university jumps into the world of competitive gaming

Shocking.

Cool Finds

Tesla vs. Edison Is a Video Game That Will Literally Shock You

Fight the ‘War of the Currents’

When Work Becomes a Game

Across corporate America, applying the principles of games to the non-game setting of the workplace is a growing phenomenon

Teslasuit, a full-body VR suit, worn in a demo.

Cool Finds

What It Feels Like to Don a Skintight Virtual Reality Suit

Though it sounds a little weird, it might be the future of virtual reality

Iranian men play a soccer video game at a CD shop in Tehran June 10, 2006.

Cool Finds

Inside Iran’s Budding Video Game Industry

The Iranian video game industry, shaped around piracy and economic sanctions, is slowly growing

The Museum of Pinball in Banning, California, boasts a treasure trove of vintage and modern pinball machines and arcade games.

Cool Finds

Take a Turn at the Flippers This Weekend at the World’s Largest Pinball Museum

So you didn’t win the lottery: why not try your hand at a game of pinball?

A climber stands in front of Mount Everest at Kala Patthar in Solukhumbu District of Nepal

Cool Finds

Virtually Climb Mount Everest From Your Living Room

A new virtual reality experience allows users delve into the world of Everest and scale the beast firsthand

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