Halo 2600

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.

View manifest View in Mirador Viewer

Object Details

Artist

Ed Fries, born Bellevue, WA 1964

Exhibition Label

The engineer, programmer, and gamer Ed Fries was inspired by the idea that severe limitations precede creativity. Using the popular video game HALO as a departure point, Fries retooled the game’s mechanics and narrative to play on an Atari VCS, the vintage 1977 gaming console. HALO2600 contorts the boundaries of technological constraint by using the deprecated programming language of an obsolete system and rendering a contemporary video game in conversation with its techno-linguistic past. This “home brew” game cartridge---affectionately referred to among gamers as a “de-make”---acts as an update for a classic system that at once highlights video gaming’s prescience, obsolescence, and creative incitement.

Watch This!: Revelations in Media Art, 2015

Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mike Mika and Ed Fries

Copyright

Date

2010

Object number

2013.73

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Media Arts

Medium

video game for Atari VCS, color, sound

See more items in

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department

Time-Based Media Art

Data Source

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Metadata Usage

Not determined

Link to Original Record

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7503a13ff-06e6-4f19-997b-dec303893ee0

Record ID

saam_2013.73