Right. First off, apologies for my absenses. Secondly, this blog will be getting back into the swing of things shortly. Hopefully. The monthly blog will return and I've got some cool ideas for future articles swimming around in my head.

But, what better way to switch things back into gear than with a whistle-stop tour and mini-review of the most awesome exhibition to hit Manchester this summer. It's called Videogame Nation, it's located at Urbis and it's been up and running since the end of May. I've only just had the chance to go visiting, but it's open till the end of September, so there's plenty of time to go back for seconds.

It's not a huge exhibit but it's very interactive, I spent about an hour and a half there and for a measly £3 that's pretty darn good. I took some photos, but please excuse the picture quality throughout. I took them on my phone and a whole bunch of them didn't even turn out visible at all, which is why chunks of the exhibition are missing. Click on each picture for larger images.

But what's it all about? As the name implies, it's all about the rise and rise of video gaming over the past thirty years, with a particular focus on the role of Britain in the history of gaming, but covering all aspects of the hobby – consoles and computers, from Atari and Grandstand, through Commodore and Spectrum, Nintendo and Sega, right up to current gaming monoliths such as Microsoft. There's even a few coin-ops thrown in for good measure.

The exhibit features a fairly even mix between information and graphics boards, museum-styIe displays of hardware, software, memorabilia and original game design documents, and fully operational hands-on gaming.

The walls are covered with quotes, anedotes, information, all kinds of great graphics and everything from original box artwork to design documents to magazine covers:

Perfect examples of gaming hardware and software sit in glass cabinets. Until now, I though museum quality hardware was a myth... but some of these look pratically new:

In between the hardware there is plenty of mint software, cool memorabilia and some truly one-of-a-kind items:

Machines available to play on include NES, SNES, Mega Drive, Amstrad GX4000 (!), PlayStation 1, 2 and 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PSP and DS, with many more retro formats including Spectrum, BBC and Commodore computers available via some pretty impressive emulation.

I can't remember each and every game that's hooked up, but I took a fair number for a spin. The games plugged in are weighted towards British (and specifically, North West) contributions and include Jet Set Willy, Lego Star Wars, Elite, Burnin' Rubber, Micro Machines, Donkey Kong Country, Lemmings, Populous, Pac-Man World 3, Burnout Paradise, GRID, Operation Wolf, Motorstorm, Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Wipeout, Sensible Soccer and more, including the original Star Wars arcade game!

If it sounds like I'm gushing... it's because I am. I loved every bit of it. It's not often I get to see something like this, so obviously put together with care and a genuine love for a hobby that is such a big part of my life. Get down and see it if you can, although I don't suppose many people round here are even in the right part of the world.

Anyway, these few pictures and words can't do the display justice. So before I go I'll simply thank the folks who made the whole thing. Oh, and head over to Console Passion when you get a chance. They provided some of the hardware for the exhibit and are a great online retro store to boot.

And with that I'll leave you with a quote that I think people may find appropriate: