Love it, hate it, or be apathetic about it, but it's a momentous occasion for The Video Game Soda Machine Project. As of today, the fan project has catalogued 3,000 soda machines found across over 1,300+ video games from 8-bit gems to the latest AAA titles.
The Video Game Soda Machine Project started out in 2016 as nothing more than a few tweets from curator Jess Morrissette. After getting a few entries here and there, some of which were his own discoveries and others, community submissions, Morrissette moved the project to its very own website. Three years later, The Video Game Soda Machine Project has officially catalogued 3,000 soda machines from over a thousand video games and dozens of platforms and consoles that have come and gone over the years.
The Video Game Soda Machine Project spans the history of gaming. Fans of the project have found 3,000 soda machines across 1,300+ video games. That's just not just on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. There are soda machines that have been found on the original NES console, on Atari, and even the Sega Saturn. While the soda machines themselves are hardly important, the project is a culmination of gaming. It showcases how gaming has evolved over the years, not just as an industry but as a part of human life. It lists soda machines from games we've never heard of, game's we've long forgotten, and even games we still play today but never really looked at closely.
Going through the Video Game Soda Machine Project website is like going back in-time. There are soda machines from 8-bit retro classics like Lethal Weapon. There are even some from old Japanese visual novel-style adventure games. We’ve found soda machines from old gems we used to play as kids, and we’ve even discovered a handful of games we ended up thoroughly enjoying from the project’s catalogue.
Here at Player.One, we definitely appreciate the work that was put into the Video Game Soda Machine Project. It’s not just a catalogue of Soda Machines, of course, but it’s a catalogue of the video games that host them. Video games have been such a big part of our culture for decades now, and the project serves as a memorial and testament to these games as much as it does the soda machines that belong in them.
