This Sunday's Museum of Video Game History, January 11, 2026 organizes a lecture by a distinguished British author and editor Mike Diver under the name The Charms of Imperfect Arcades: Electronic Board Games in the 1980s.
At a time when computers were out of reach for most, games like these brought the arcade feel to homes, including classics like Space Invaders, Zaxxon, Pac-Man i Throne. Electronic board games (eng. electronic table-top games) marked the period from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, and were published by Epoch, Konami, Tomy, and Nintendo. With the advent of portable consoles in the early 1990s, they slowly fell into oblivion until Mike Diver documented them in his book From Coin-Ops to Table-Tops: The Essential Electronic Games (Numskull Publishing, 2024) and gave them the attention they deserve.
The lecture will be accompanied by photos and information from the book, and will include games such as Astro Wars i Puck Monster, with interesting facts from the time when they were created. Although technically they couldn't be compared to the arcade originals, these games were special in their own way and represent a fascinating part of video game history.
Mike Diver has been following, researching and writing about the world of video games for over two decades. He has worked in editorial, marketing and public relations for major media outlets such as VICE and the BBC, and over the years has made a significant contribution to the reflection and understanding of video game culture and design. He is the author of the book Indie Games: The Complete Introduction to Indie Gaming i Retro Gaming: A Byte-Sized History of Video Games, in which he combines research work with a passion for games, focusing on the history of video games, creative processes and their place in the contemporary digital heritage.
The lecture will be held in the Museum area, at the address Draškovićeva 10, starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are also valid for visiting the Museum, and can be purchased via the following link links.
