Time Machine Bronzeville
Donald Brooks Jones · 2024 · Exploration, Walking Simulator, Historical, Atmospheric, Education
PC
1 user reviews100% · 1
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About Time Machine Bronzeville
Explore the dynamic cityscape around East 47th St. and South Parkway Blvd - the heart of Bronzeville - on Chicago’s South Side, as it was between the World Wars. Encounter heroes and scoundrels, survivors and thrivers, in 3D interactive scenes that transport the visitor into detailed recreations of this vanished community.It was a time shaped by the Great Depression, Jim Crow segregation, and a burgeoning Chicago Renaissance in music and the arts, commerce and culture. It was the time of the Great Migration of thousands of African Americans as they fled the harsh realities of the South for the hope of a better life in the cities of the North and West.
Enter the Time Machine Bronzeville gallery and encounter a large tabletop Diorama displaying the recreated cityscape at the heart of Bronzeville. Take a stroll around the diorama and examine actual and imagined Bronzeville locations, animated with people and activity. See the archival photos and media and audio recreations that add authenticity to the experience that is, at once, arresting and immersive.
Click on any of dozens of diorama locations to reveal Popup Panels that include informative text, archival photos and audio recreations describing the places and their significance. Activate the Spyglass feature to take a closer look at the cityscape. At street level, you’ll encounter some of the characters and sounds that animate this vibrant community.
Take a ride on the Bi-plane with its undulating banner announcing, “Carnival Today!”. Get a birds-eye view of the neighborhood. Jump into the Jitney Cab and take a scintillating night ride through the streets of Bronzeville. View the cityscape from the L- Train to get a “South Side” perspective of the now-vanished cityscape.
Turn your attention to the gallery walls lined with dozens of black and white photographs and framed colored scenes. These are the portals to the Storyworld. Click on the photos or enter the scenes to see and hear the stories that helped shape America in the 20th century.
There is a lot to see and discover (and surprises to reveal) as you proceed on your journey in Time Machine Bronzeville. The Achievement Dashboard will keep track of what you have discovered and give hints as to what more there is to explore. Collect all of the Markers on the Diorama and the Gallery Storyworld and become the official Mayor of Bronzeville.
Explore… Discover… Be Surprised. Welcome to Time Machine Bronzeville
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
✦ AI summary
Time Machine Bronzeville is praised as a unique and enriching educational experience that effectively combines history, folklore, and interactive reenactment to explore Black life in 1920s Chicago. Players appreciate how the game's use of props and immersive storytelling creates a meaningful way to engage with history that complements traditional learning methods. However, the game appears to suffer from a lack of visibility and reviews, which may deter potential players from discovering this innovative and uplifting experience.
I'm writing this review for people on the fence. Seeing no reviews for this software made me hesitant. Now, it just makes me sad. Time Machine Bronzeville is incredible. If anything here speaks to you, then check it out. I feel that TMB is an example of an untapped mode within the videogame form. TMB mixes history, folklore, the arts, and reenactment to make an enriching and uplifting experience. While books will always be an irreplaceable way to understand black history, the scale of reenactment here is not to be underestimated. Time Machine Bronzeville uses props and stand-ins to force you to really reckon with how black people actually lived during the time period, it gives the user a guide on how to imagine what Bronzeville must have been like. I find the effect here very interesting. This game eschews the popular mode of photo-realistic videogame graphics. It offers instead something that appears "dated"—a photo-realism of the past. This choice reminds the viewer of the distance of time. Yet the dioramas could still be "real" by their arrangements and commitment to reenactment. Everything is where it is supposed to be, but the final step is interpretive, it's still up to th…12 found this helpful
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