TWO generations have now grown up with video games and whether you love them or loathe them, there is no disputing the massive impact of the console revolution.

Whether it's teens with super-strong thumbs and heightened hand-eye coordination or it's supposed contribution to the child obesity epidemic and violence amongst 'youths', video games, like books, films and music, are a part of 21st Century life.

And now a major new exhibition at the Science Museum, Game On, takes a look at the brief history of this young industry and gives gamers the chance to get their blistered hands on more than 120 games.

The exhibition impressively covers the entire history of gaming, from the first ever computer game, to classic arcade games such as Space Invaders and Donkey Kong, to the best in console games like Street Fighter 2 on Super Nintendo or Virtua Fighter on Sega Saturn, to the new Xbox 360.

Exhibition sponsors Nintendo have confirmed they will feature its next generation console, Wii, when it is launched in Europe next month.

But taking pride of place at Game On for now is the world's first video game from 1962, Space War!, which was developed by a bunch of US university student who were donated the computer in the hope they would do something "constructive" with it.

Forty-four years on, Space War! - which is powered by giant computer and is little more than white dots for stars and a slowing moving arrow for a space craft - has spawned a £13 billion industry.

The average age of the British gamer is 28 and about 26.5 million people play video games in the UK - of those 45 per cent are female.

Probably the most important statistic though, is that 100 per cent of six to 10-year-olds in the UK play video games.

Game On looks at the positive and negative effects of this and how young bodies and brains react to playing computer games.

British children spend an estimated two months of the year staring at a screen and child obesity is becoming a national epidemic, while in Amsterdam a clinic has been set up for video game addicts who go on an eight-week 'detox' program including group therapy and counseling.

On the flip-side of the argument, a recent study found that surgeons who played video games were 30 per cent more accurate than their non-gaming colleagues and that it was not uncommon for game-mad Japanese teenagers to have super-strong thumbs.

In California, a game has been developed for children with cancer which features a heroine called Roxxi who destroys malignant cells.

While some will debate the pros and cons, most will just join the children and turn back time to try and remember how to master the favourite game from their childhood.

A quick word of warning; if you're taking children, especially young brothers, it's best to remind them that there are a lot of games to go around, as the two boys put on show for the media last week immediately started fighting over one game - and forgot about the other 219.

Some things will never change.

The exhibition runs until February 25. Tickets cost £8.50 for adults and £6.50 for children.