Community Games Library

Swap a game. Share a story.

Every scratched disc and battered cartridge carries a story: LAN parties in high school, a sibling who wouldn't hand over the controller, the boss level you couldn't beat until well past bedtime, or devouring the game manual on the drive home from the shops. As physical games become harder to find on shop shelves, ACMI is opening a library built entirely on passing those stories on.

Throughout Melbourne International Games Week, ACMI will host a free, public games library where you can donate a physical game and take home someone else's in return. Bring a disc, cartridge, CD or other format, add it to the shelves, and leave with a title donated by another visitor.

Before you let your game go, fill out a memory card with a reflection on the first time you played, what the game meant to you, or a tip for whoever picks it up next.

Inspired by the street library model, and built on the belief that physical media matters, both as part of videogame history and as something that brings people together, the Community Game Library asks gamers to remember a time when a game was more than a download – when it was a birthday present, a walkthrough scribbled in a notebook, or a school lunch spent swapping strategies.