Swedish Red Cross launches retro video game scheme in airports

The Swedish Red Cross has embarked on a retro video gaming initiative that aims to bring together good fun and a good cause.

Travellers passing through Arlanda airport in Stockholm and Göteborg Landvetter airport will perhaps have noticed that the traditional charity collection boxes have been replaced by video arcade games including those old classics Ms Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Galaga. Rather than simply making a donation to get rid of loose change, you can get a trip down digital memory lane for your money.

Pac Man arcade machines double up as massive charity boxes for the Red Cross. http://t.co/UtPU0PdVNW#retrogaming#arcade

— #iRetroGamer (@iretrogame) March 14, 2015

The top of the machines resemble a typical coin-operated arcade berth while the bottom is transparent, bearing only the Red Cross emblem.

The initiative is a joint project between the Swedish Red Cross and Swedish airport operator Swedavia.

“We have long had a well-established collaboration with Swedavia. In this project, we have twisted the perspective a little in order to find a fun new way to also reward people who make a donation – a win-win, so to speak,” says Morgan Olofsson, director of communications and fundraising at Swedish Red Cross.

The project is being touted as a ‘win-win’; it’s hoped being able to play vintage video games will get more people to drop their euros, crowns and dimes into the charity boxes, and for old-school gamers it’s a welcome chance to revisit the golden age of the 1980s in a modern world dominated by mobile screens.

Fancy a quick game of space invaders? Oh, go on then…