Halo 2600

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
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.

Watch This!: Revelations in Media Art, 2015

Works by this artist (29 items)

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Karl Schrag, Noon Sun through Clouds, 1975, aquatint with stencilled color on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1993.38.8, © 1975, Karl Schrag
Noon Sun through Clouds
Artist
Date1975
aquatint with stencilled color on paper
Not on view
Karl Schrag, Ecce Homo, 1940, aquatint and etching, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Git of Mrs. Walter Louchheim, 1972.60
Ecce Homo
Artist
Date1940
aquatint and etching
Not on view
Karl Schrag, End of the Island, n.d., lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1967.12
End of the Island
Artist
Daten.d.
lithograph
Not on view
Karl Schrag, Dark Trees at Noon, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Woodward Foundation, 1976.108.103
Dark Trees at Noon
Artist
Not on view

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Artist
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linocut
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Claire Falkenstein, Untitled, 1976, embossed paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Falkenstein Foundation, 2019.27.18, ©1997, The Falkenstein Foundation
Untitled
Artist
Date1976
embossed paper
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Claire Falkenstein, Mandala, 1977, lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Falkenstein Foundation, 2019.27.19, ©1997, The Falkenstein Foundation
Mandala
Artist
Date1977
lithograph
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Image Not Available
Les Quais de la Seine a Paris
Artist
Date1917
hand-colored etching on postcard
Not on view