Tag Archives: National Videogame Museum

Train2Game News National Videogame Museum Receive First Donation

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Evercade, Codemasters, and The Oliver Twins are delighted to share the news of the first donation to the National Videogame Museum.

Following the launch of The Oliver Twins Collection cartridge, exclusively for the Evercade Retro Gaming console, it was announced that all profits from this would be donated to the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield.

Today Evercade and Blaze Entertainment are happy to announce that the first payment of donations for over £11,000 has been made to the National Videogame Museum. The funds raised from all sales of The Oliver Twins Collection Cartridge from Evercade will continue to be donated until 31st December 2021, meaning that more donations will be made in the future.

Rick Gibson, CEO of the charity the BGI which runs the National Videogame Museum, said: “We have been preserving and displaying the Oliver Twins’ important work for the nation for many years and their support has been pivotal. We’re delighted and grateful for such generosity from Philip and Andrew, Codemasters, and Evercade. Thank you!”

“We’re absolutely delighted that the Evercade fans have responded so well to The Oliver Twins Collection,” said Andrew Byatt, Managing Director of Blaze Entertainment. “One of the key things about Evercade and its community is the desire for preservation of gaming history and the industry that forms an incredibly formative part of gamer’s lives. It’s our pleasure to donate these funds to the museum to help further their efforts and we hope that we can have just as healthy a donation in the future.”

“We loved seeing The Oliver Twins Collection added to the already impressive Evercade library and it’s been great to see fans old and new enjoying the games we created almost 30 years ago,” said Philip Oliver. “As patrons of the National Videogame Museum, it’s great to see our collection has raised these funds and we hope it will continue into the future. We also want to also thank Codemasters and Blaze Retro for supporting this great charity,” added Andrew Oliver.

“It’s incredible to see how much love there is for both the Oliver Twins and their early Codemasters titles,” said Jonathan Bunney, SVP Publishing at Codemasters. “The Collection, which wouldn’t be complete without Dizzy, is a time capsule for the die-hard Codemasters fans, and we’re proud to contribute towards such a worthwhile charity as the National Videogame Museum.”

The National Videogame Museum was originally opened in 2016 in Nottingham, before moving to Sheffield in 2018 and then taken over by the BGI in 2020, which is now a registered charity. The Coronavirus crisis has affected the NVM, as it has multiple places over the last year, although the NVM managed to briefly reopen.

The Evercade is a handheld retro gaming console that features curated collections of games from historic publishers like Codemasters, Team 17, Atari, Namco, Data East, and many more, all officially licensed. These are released in the form of physical propriety cartridges that work with the Evercade handheld console. The Oliver Twins Collection cartridge is one of 14 currently available since its launch in June 2020, and the Evercade will have over 250 games available by the end of 2021.

For more information on the Evercade, visit www.evercade.co.uk or email press@evercade.co.uk

For more information on The Oliver Twins Collection, visit https://www.evercade.co.uk/oliver-twins-collection-cartridge/

For more information on the National Videogame Museum and the BGI, visit https://thenvm.org/

Train2Game News Before It’s Too Late Saving Videogames

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The National Videogame Museum is launching a new initiative today at BFI Southbank, leading a network of museums and independent collectors who are engaged in videogame preservation.

The Videogame Heritage Society (VHS) includes the Science and Media Museum, Bath Spa University, British Library and Museum of London as well as many independent collectors. It will develop best practice and share knowledge across the museum sector and beyond about preserving and exhibiting videogames.

Ian Livingstone, chair of the BGI (the charity which governs the NVM) commented, “This group is for anyone who cares about or works in videogame preservation. We recognise that in the UK and around the world, the expertise in this field isn’t just locked inside museums and heritage institutions, but also inside a wide range of dedicated and passionate private collectors. The VHS will bring everyone together to preserve the important heritage of videogames in our country.”

The event today will also mark the launch of a new White Paper: ‘Time Extend’, on video game history, heritage and preservation. There will also be a special address from legendary Nintendo console designer Masayuki Uemura. The National Videogame Museum has worked closely alongside Uemura, who is a professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto and is giving a talk at the NVM on 26th February.

The NVM preserves the history of UK development through its UK Collection, a special collection within the Museum that focuses on the story of British videogames creation. This was recently launched with Rebellion, the first studio to formally collaborate with the NVM on the project.

Gina Jackson, Trustee for the BGI, said “In order to develop as an art form, to become more diverse and reflect all kinds of areas of our lives, and to build a cultural confidence that is sometimes absent, we need to be able to learn about videogames. In order to learn about them, we need to be able to access them and make sense of them. The work we’re doing at the NVM and BGI isn’t out of nostalgia. It’s out of a concern for the future. We want to be able to inspire and educate new kinds of game-makers to make new kinds of games.”