Video games have been an integral part of children’s lives for nearly three decades, and since their inception, have been a source of contention between children and their parents. But many of today’s children are now being raised by the first generation to come of age with video games. The teenagers who spent hours in front of an Asteroids machine in the 1980s are now the parents who purchase $50 Xbox games for their children.

At “Digital Play: Reloaded,” a new exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, children and their parents can experience some of the best new and classic video games and open a conversation about their intergenerational appeal.

“It’s very important for parents in this day and age to be able to speak video games with their kids,” the museum’s deputy director and director of digital media, Carl Goodman, said. “This is a big part of their lives which parents should have some involvement in, whether to help with purchasing decisions, understanding their children, or just being able to talk about something they’re spending several hours a day involved in.”

Many of the games on display are set up to show the development from a game’s original version to its most recent iteration. Parents will get a kick out of the original 1981 Donkey Kong, Nintendo’s breakout American hit and the first game designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, who has been likened to the Beatles of digital entertainment. The game introduced the character of Mario, who jumps over barrels to rescue his girlfriend from a menacing primate and who later starred in dozens of his own adventures for the arcade and home consoles.

Younger children especially will enjoy Nintendo’s more recent Donkey Konga, a 2004 home game in which users (playing a kinder, gentler version of the gorilla) clap along and play a bongo drum controller to match the beat of the music on the screen. It is one of several games on display in the “Bemani” style (first developed by Japan’s Konami Corporation in 1997 with the game Beatmania) in which players employ a mastery of timed sequences to dance, make music, or even rap. Stepmania, another example, is an open-source version (one that any developer can add to) of the incredibly popular arcade game Dance Dance Revolution (the one that regularly draws a crowd of spectators around sweaty kids getting an intense workout to precision steps in arcades), in which users can add their own songs and sequences online.

“The kids will likely be drawn to the newer games and parents to the older ones, but a very interesting conversation takes place when they try to articulate the appeal to each other,” Mr. Goodman said.

Playing Pole Position, the 1982 arcade racing game, produces instant nostalgia in adults, with its simple soundtrack, trademark exhortation of “Prepare to qualify,” and dated advertisements such as billboards for Gator skateboards. Burnout 3: Takedown, a new racing console game, moves at a blistering pace with thrilling, cinematic crash sequences and bonus points rewarded for the messiest wipeouts.

“The goal [of Burnout 3] is to drive irresponsibly and recklessly and create beautiful slow-motion car wrecks,” Mr. Goodman said. “The game revels in the cinematics of an automobile crash, but it’s not particularly upsetting because the cars are not driven by people nor are there any people on the streets.”

The arcade classic NBA Jam, introduced in 1993, is as memorable for its innovations in game play as its sportscaster catchphrases “He’s on fire!” and “Delivers the facial!”. Next to it in the exhibit is NBA Street 3, a 2005 home game that drops star players in real locations such as “The Cage” on W. 4th Street or Rucker Park, Harlem’s street-ball mecca.

Contemporary artists have been influenced heavily by video games and many choose to reference them in their work or use them as raw material for digital projects. In “Pac-Mondrian” (2004), a video “artcade” game by art collective Prize Budget for Boys, Pac-Man gobbles his way through “Broadway Boogie Woogie,” Piet Mondrian’s 1943 abstraction of the New York City grid.

“We’re beginning to understand the cultural importance of what used to be thought of as a mere novelty,” Mr. Goodman said.

It takes a highly developed sense of dexterity to succeed at Arcadia (by New York outfit Game-Lab), a 2004 Web browser game that challenges players to conquer four classic-style games simultaneously. Arcadia is an example of how original arcade games continue to live and thrive online.

The back room of the exhibit is devoted to the timeless theme of alien invasions, “the bread and butter of the video-game industry,” as Mr. Goodman put it. Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Missile Command were three wildly successful arcade games released between 1978 and 1980, and each involved blasting one’s way through science-fiction scenarios. Their modern counterpart is the PC game Half-Life 2, which is projected against the back wall. It is a triumph of complex graphics and sophisticated 3-D game play, in which physicist Gordon Freeman uses an array of exotic weapons to destroy an invading force of hostile aliens. This is probably the only game in the exhibit that is unsuitable for young children, as it carries a Mature rating.

After visiting the exhibit, families should head upstairs to view the Museum’s outstanding permanent collection, which offers hours of hands-on activities that explain sound editing, animation, special effects, and all aspects of the moving image.

“Digital Play: Reloaded” through May 30 at Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Avenue at 36th St. in Astoria, Queens, 718-784-0077, www.movingimage.us. Adults, $10; children 5-18, $5; under 5, free.