As an event, E3 represents the apex of everything the videogame industry has become. However, this business hasn’t always been such a world beating, multi-billion dollar enterprise. Launching this week and continuing throughout the summer the Urbis centre in Manchester, England is hosting an exhibition that charts the history of the videogame from the humblest of bedroom programmer beginnings to its crowning a one of the most dynamic forms of entertainment on the planet.

For those interested in soaking up a little videogame culture, Videogame Nation weaves through all the different caveats of what videogames are today - from the arcade to the virtual world. The Exhibition will also be featuring a number of modestly priced lectures starting on the 7th of June with Chris Delay and Mark Morris of Introversion speaking on the founding of the studio, the challenges they face and what it means to be independent today.

This event certainly promises to be interesting at the very least. Summer is usually a pretty poor period for those UK gamers who want to go outside, meet other gamers and do stuff - and not least those in the North! - rather than watch live streams of gamers in California do it instead.