Belgium's first video game "Pixels" museum will open its doors in the Customs House of the Tour et Taxis site in Brussels this month, featuring hundreds of machines, merchandise and 50 playable consoles.
The new museum, opening on Saturday, aims to display the entire history of video games through key consoles and memorabilia from across the years, and is based on the collection of video game enthusiast Jérôme Hatton.
Visitors will be greeted with Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox memorabilia, stretching from the ill-fated ET Atari game - often blamed for ruining the company - to more modern games like Mario and Street Fighter.
Credit: Jules Johnston/ The Brussels Times
The collection currently contains 250 machines and 2000 pieces of video game merchandise, in addition to 50 playable games ranging from Space Invaders and Pong, to more recent consoles and arcade cabinets.
Credit: Jules Johnston/ The Brussels Times
"Brussels is a laboratory where space is always created for innovation and creativity," said Pascal Smet, State Secretary for European and International Relations and Foreign Trade. "That is why I am delighted with the move of the Pixel Museum to our capital. The museum is one of the 7 video game museums in the world," he added.
Credit: Jules Johnston/ The Brussels Times
"The audiovisual sector is still too often underexposed and underestimated in the Brussels Region as a means of export and economic added value," said Smet. "We are going to change this in the coming years, says State Secretary for European and International Relations and Foreign Trade."
Credit: Jules Johnston/ The Brussels Times
This location is not the first home of the Video Game Museum, which initially opened in 2017 in Schiltigheim, near Strasbourg, but closed last July. At the beginning of 2021, it will move once more, settling in a different part of Tour en Taxis, where it will be provided with larger space.
Jules Johnston
The Brussels Times
