| IPHONE USERS: Please make sure your mute switch is physically turned off (even if the volume is up). Also, due to iOS restrictions, fullscreen mode is not available. |
To coincide with the new special exhibition Game Masters, The Franklin Institute has launched "The Adventures of Benjamin Franklin," a custom-developed retro 8-bit-style game in which Ben Franklin races to collect lightning, climb Independence Hall, and more. The game was designed by the in-house digital team at The Franklin Institute GameMaker Studio 2. The main character of the game is 8-Bit Ben, a pixelated Benjamin Franklin who navigates various worlds, collecting keys and lightning while avoiding pitfalls like rats and spikes.
Visit Game Masters: The Exhibition, open now through September 3.
Benjamin Franklin: Scientist, Inventor, Statesman, Writer …Composer?
In addition to a drinking song written in his youth, Franklin is believed by many to have composed a string quartet around 1778 while living in Paris. After its publication, the composition was lost to history until the 1940s, when a French musicologist discovered a manuscript of it at the Conservatoire de Paris. It had languished in a box of unrecorded documents until Guillaume de Van found it while classifying historical items.
Find out more about the the many musical talents of Benjamin Franklin.
More Ben Franklin Stories:
The True Story of the Kite and Key Experiment
Benjamin Franklin, The Original Hipster
7 Things Benjamin Franklin Never Said