The Puzzle of Putting Video Games in a Museum

At some point in my childhood, I persuaded my parents to buy me a computer game at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Obsessed, like many kids, with ancient Egypt, I'd spent the day marvelling at scarabs, sarcophagi, and ivory game pieces with canine heads. My favorite spot was the Temple of Dendur, where you could actually go inside the narrow chamber etched with hieroglyphs. In the gift shop, I spotted "Nile: An Ancient Egyptian Quest"--a three-disk "edutainment," co-produced by the museum and scored by Brian Eno, which invited me to bring the enchantment home. Soon, in defiance of the twelve-and-up rating, I was wandering the tombs of Giza with a talking jackal, searching for grave goods to nourish the souls of kings.