Power UP at the Museum of Science and Industry

Power UP at Science and Industry Museum, Castlefield, 3–19 August 2018, from £7 - Book now

Yes, yes, we know a cultural day out during the summer hols should likely not involve staring at screens. The annual fine Power UP event, however, at the Museum of Science and Industry (celebrating the history of all things gaming) offers the chance to sample the earliest games alongside the most cutting edge today, and always demands an exception.

Pre-bookable sessions of 90 minutes or half days enable you to get your hands on over 160 consoles and challenge yourself and others to some of the most in-demand video games from the last 40 years.

We love that at Power UP you can get your hands on the first entertainment results from some of the earliest programmable computers such as Pong and Pacman alongside the latest in virtual reality and top releases such as Tekken 7 and Splatoon 2.

All the top Mario, Sonic, Disney and Lego games can be sampled alongside fighting, driving and sci-fi games. If you are feeling sociable or competitive multi-player games range from four-player classics such as Virtua Tennis and Goldeneye to 16 seater behemoths such as Halo 3 and Minecraft.

Put any rusty skills to the test in the bartop arcade game section including Space Invaders, Frogger and Donkey Kong and on classic PC games such as Lemmings. You can even rest and rehydrate between combat at the cafe in the gallery space too.

Whether your first experience of gaming was on an Atari, Acorn, Spectrum, Commodore, Nintendo, Playstation, XBox or is still yet to be unleashed, Power UP is welcoming for both games novices and die-hard experts alike. It’s awe-inspiring to see how the creativity, technology and design has developed to transform the way we play video games. It’s also fascinating to see the similarities in the successful games which make players continually (and addictively) put their game faces on and skills to the test.

Take time to sample the Invent, Shape, Create free summer holiday events including the dramatic daily Science Showdowns and new Summer Bee Garden too.

If you don’t want the kids to show your joystick skills up (we mean cramp your style), two adults-only evening sessions can be booked on the 10 and 17 August. Play top over-18 games such as DOOM, Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto to your heart’s content alongside bar, pizza and DJ.

Winner winner.