This probably isn't news to anyone reading Ars Technica, but video gaming, once a niche pursuit, is now completely in the mainstream. What better recognition of that fact than an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, here in Washington, DC. As Ars' local correspondent and sometime museum reviewer, I braved the crowds and went to check out how one of the nation's premiere art museums dealt with our digital pastime.

The exhibition actually opened a couple of weeks ago, with a series of events, panels, and lectures. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to most of these, although I did manage to attend a screening of Tron in the museum's stunning Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, which paired the movie with glow necklaces and whimsical cocktails accented with dry ice.

Fast forward a couple of weeks (or skip through some cut scenes, if you will), to this past weekend, when I finally had time to visit the exhibit itself. Located on the third floor of the American Art Museum, it spans four decades of video games, from the Atari VCS to current consoles.

Bathed in a cool blue light, the exhibit greets you with a projected video featuring various luminaries of the video game design industry, recounting their experiences. The entrance is also where you'll find most of the exhibit's scant collection of game concept art, which I would have liked to see a lot more of.

There was also an interesting five-panel display comparing the evolution of game elements like jumping, flying, running and landscapes across the decades:

The exhibition also featured a handful of games that you could actually play for a few minutes at a time, from early favorites like Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. to more modern fare like Flower:

The bulk of the exhibit consisted of displays of gaming platforms from the early days of the Atari VCS and Commodre 64 through the 8-bit and 16-bit console wars all the way up to today, Each system was accompanied by a series of backlit stills from iconic games chosen by Internet voting, and a small video monitor that showed examples of the games in action:

The exhibit has already come under some criticism for its game selection and presentation, and I think that criticism is unfortunately well-founded. Given the setting, I expected to see many more artifacts of game development, especially concept art. The security guards' insistence that visitors travel strictly in one direction through the exhibit also seemed quite at odds with my growing experience of museum exhibit design (thanks to a rather cool project at my day job). Ironically, some of the most interesting content is best enjoyed from the comfort of your internet connection, such as the developer interviews hosted on the exhibit's webpage.

The exhibit runs at the American Art Museum until October 2012, when it sets off on a 10-stop, nationwide tour that runs until the end of January, 2016.