Monnaie de Paris invites visitors to a huge game of games until June 30, 2024 as part of the exhibition Insert corner (“Insert a coin”), aspect evocation “slightly forgotten in the history of money”. Namely, its use in coin-operated amusement machines such as jukeboxes, table football, pinball machines and other video game terminals.
Thanks to diving into places of socialization, especially of young people, from the end of the 20th century until today, these objects are (re)discovered in a time machine-like environment. Record covers by Claude François, a yéyé idol in general, as well as 70s and 80s designs in vibrant colors are there. Not to mention the inimitable little beeps of these machines, the soundtrack of instant teleportation.
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“We wanted to highlight the entertainment machines that were a cornerstone of all youth culture from the end of World War II to the 1990s and 2000s, and it was obvious to us to put them back into context”remember Nicolas Galiffi, co-curator of the exhibition Insert corner.
Bistros, bars and cafes as well as game rooms such as arcades are settings for these machines. “The fact that we tried to find traces of these places and presented them is a way of recreating an atmosphere that visitors can immediately recognize.”.
Time travel
THE “time travel” begins with the discovery of these machines, “put on a pedestal” – normal, became icons – before transforming into the world of interactivity.
Insert corner allows to “any visitor, who knew these machines in their original locations, to immediately find himself immersed in this universe. And those who do not know these machines or who have met them through the series of films, but not necessarily playing in them, find context in to which they were used”.
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In the first room dedicated to the exhibition, the visitor discovers the ancestor of pinball, David Gottlieb’s Baffle ball. “It is a kind of bagatelle game, an 18th-century French game adapted by Americans in the 1930s, with a coin-operated mechanism. This is his first time playing Entertainment has a coin mechanism where you put coins to play,” explains Nicolas Galiffi. The throne is also in this space “one of the first arcade machines, which is a computer space from the 70s, the first with a commercial purpose”.
With him, French table football“something very European in practice obviously because football is a European sport”, including in its production. The picture is complete with a jukebox, “one of the machines that has attracted interest since the 1950s“.
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Around these objects of imagination related to music, cars and mopeds – personal means of transport, “a great symbol of freedom in thirty glorious periods” -, technology, science fiction (conquest of space) and sports (among others the Tour de France). “All these major themes inspired the games and could crystallize the interest of young people for the next thirty years. Pinball machines gradually took over these themes of interest to young people,” explains Nicolas Galiffi.
“When we face a game like Space Invaders, one of the first very successful terminals dating back to 1978, we physically face pixels that don’t look like much. On the other hand, in the minds of teenagers from the time, which was fed by magazines, comics , novels, a little television, music… sounds like small ships that kill small aliens, that come to attack the Earth”.
Intergenerational experience
“The Complete Gaming Experience” offered by the exhibition is intergenerational. Grandparents, parents and their children have eyes that shine in front of these machines. They bring back memories for the oldest, and delight the youngest. At the end of the visit, they are often experts.
With family or friends, Insert angle it often causes a smile, a child’s joy or even an exclamation full of nostalgia. “Ah, no, street fighters! It’s Killer Instinct, but it reminds us of them,” – exclaims a visitor in wonder as he enters the reconstruction of the arcade room, called “Argentic City” where, among others, there is the unforgettable Pac-Man.
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“We know that these machines have power over many people.”, notes Nicolas Galiffi. The exhibition thus becomes a summary of friendliness. Better, “friendliness is reborn”. “People haven’t really changed, analyzed by the co-curator ofInsert anglesociety itself, for a thousand reasons, no longer offers them places to hang out like we knew twenty years ago.with”.
Nicolas Galiffa is looking forward to this exhibition, which opens in March, “we were able to recreate a kind of unconscious memory of this friendliness that was partly created by machines.” This is confirmed by the queues seen around the machines.
A matter of technology
The exhibition, chronologically, also talks about the technical evolution, which was accompanied by the evolution of the market over the decades. “Anything that involves automation is a real industry, which has been very attentive to its public. For example, in the 50s and 60s, pinball machines appeared and took a significant market share in cafes, bistros and some arcades. The first video games, which experienced significant commercial success. Space invaders, we are doing a lot of damage to this auto industry. The latter then reappropriated those video games. Therefore, he tried to develop this new market share and adapt the existing ones. underlines the co-commissioner.
Pinball machines, which were electromechanical, will gradually mutate thanks to, among other things, electronics. “The games will continue to improve to the full immersion we found in the 80s and 90s: pinball machines have sounds that are recorded, missions dictated by small screens… All of this is really very inspired by video games.” Manufacturers combine technical development and player interest.
Objects of private space
However, when cafes and bistros began to decline in the 80s, and even more pronounced in the 2000s, access to pinball machines in public spaces decreased. Coin operated amusement machines change status: from object, “arranged in public space”they have become “private space objects“.
Collectors dismantle them and later, without the coin mechanism removed in the late 90s, they appear in start-up social spaces. The models found there are contemporary, but closely mimic what existed. The table football, which has not aged at all since it was created in the 1930s by the Bonzini brand and designed in 1959, has also become well established in business. Like other slot machines, pinball – a French word borrowed from the English term meaning “beater” and referring to a small blade that returns the ball – gradually made its way into “our homes and jobs”, while it was definitely imprinted in our memories. As a family or group, Insert corner is an excellent opportunity to invest a small room in a good dose of friendliness.
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From 7 years until 30.06.2024
From Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Wednesdays late at night until 9 p.m.
The ticket provides access to the museum, exhibition halls and includes parts of the game : full price (including 10 game pieces), 12 euros – reduced price (including 10 game pieces), 6 euros – free (including only 2 game pieces)