Halo 2600

Copied Ed Fries, Halo 2600, 2010, video game for Atari VCS, color, sound, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mike Mika and Ed Fries, 2013.73, © 2010, Ed Fries

Artwork Details

Title
Halo 2600
Artist
Date
2010
Location
Not on view
Copyright
© 2010, Ed Fries
Credit Line
Gift of Mike Mika and Ed Fries
Mediums
Mediums Description
video game for Atari VCS, color, sound
Classifications
Highlights
Object Number
2013.73
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2013.73

Artwork Description

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.

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