Hong Kong's Restart! Beyond Gaming Exhibition is a joyful trip down memory lane

South China Morning Post

10 hours ago

For scores of Hongkongers who grew up during the 2000s (this writer included), many of their formative years would have been spent hunched over a mechanical keyboard, jostling for shoulder space with one or two adolescent friends and smashing the keys as pixelated, Dragon Ball-inspired characters battled it out on-screen in the free PC side-scroller Little Fighter 2.
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Such was its popularity, and so strong is its trigger for nostalgia for simpler times, that Little Fighter 2 has managed to maintain a player base all the way up to 2025, when it marks its 25th anniversary.
The game is just one of many on display at the 'Restart! Beyond Gaming Exhibition' taking place at Airside in Kai Tak, Hong Kong, until November 9. Exploring the world of video games within the context of the city, the free exhibition asks the question: if gaming goes beyond entertainment, what more can it be?
The Restart! Beyond Gaming Exhibition showcases old games consoles. Photo: Restart! Beyond Gaming Exhibition
Spread across six zones, 'Restart!' takes visitors on a deep dive through five decades of gaming history. The first zone comprises a console wall that includes everything from the blocky woodgrain Atari 2600 to Hong Kong-modded Famicoms and stacks of gleaming Super Nintendos.
The second zone reframes 300 Nintendo game cartridges from the 1980s and 90s as objets d'art in a layout evoking the arcade game Breakout, while the third pays tribute to the unassuming inventiveness of local tinkerers – those who hacked, fixed and Frankensteined machines to keep play alive in this dense metropolis.
Restart!'s second zone showcases 300 Nintendo game cartridges from the 1980s and 90s. Photo: Restart! Beyond Gaming Exhibition
Then, like a retro-modern Proustian tableau, an entire arcade zone has been resurrected, complete with playable games such as The King of Fighters '98 and Bubble Bobble that can be controlled with the wonderfully tactile joysticks and buttons of yore.