Four pupils from Melanchthon Bergschenhoek (VWO5 Technasium) built a bartop arcade cabinet for GameLab. Last week, they presented it alongside a game they had made for the Maritime Museum.
The arcade cabinet turned out beautifully. The pupils — Auke, Keandro, Niels and Maarten — took a careful approach: they determined the dimensions precisely, then had the wood laser-cut at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in Delft. Proper openings for the screen and keyboard make this a practical cabinet that GameLab can use at events. It really catches the eye!
Alongside the cabinet, the pupils had developed a game, which they naturally presented on it. Last year, they made a game for the Maritime Museum in which you try to lay a cable in the sea using the shortest possible length. The game needed to support more players. To achieve this, they gathered knowledge and inspiration at GameLab. A good example of collaboration between secondary and higher professional education.
Classic arcade cabinets
By playing on classic arcade cabinets, they realised their question had a simpler answer than they first thought: two players can take turns and compare their scores. This was common in games from the 1980s and 1990s. Using this principle, they successfully expanded the game.
They cleverly delivered their presentation on the cabinet too, explaining their working methods and the choices they had made to achieve the best result. It was clear that all of them had contributed and worked well together. The presentation was of a standard worthy of higher professional or university education.
Both the arcade cabinet and the game are excellent, and the pupils can be proud of their work. We look forward to seeing the cabinet at GameLab, but have agreed that Melanchthon Bergschenhoek will keep it on site for a while first. After all, it is a wonderful example of what Technasium pupils can achieve!