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In May 2025, I had the pleasure of spending two weeks at The Strong Museum as a Valentine-Cosman Research Fellow to conduct research on the collectible card game (CCG) genre. While the field of Games Studies has grown significantly in the last decade, locating texts, artifacts, and archival materials focused on games and play in most institutional libraries and archives is difficult. Given my own research focus is understudied, even within the field, the problem was compounded for me.  
For those […]

Continue Reading about Researching Collectible Card Game History at The Strong Published on:
August 13, 2025

Across time, it feels like “Don’t play with your food!” has been a persistent parental refrain. However, the need to keep reciting that dictum demonstrates that kids (and at least a few adults) perpetually find ways to turn mealtime into playtime. Some research has even suggested that playing with food can help babies and toddlers develop healthy eating habits. No wonder that, over the years, manufacturers have found ways to take that playful inclination and turn it into products that […]

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August 13, 2025

The Commodore VIC-20 first debuted at the Computer Electronics Show held in June of 1980. It began to be sold for North American households the following year and from the get-go was a hit–an inexpensive computer that could display color graphics. The other major competitors of the time were the Atari 400, TRS-80, and Apple II. It’s easy to forget now, but in the early ’80s, Apple was still the newcomer, whereas Commodore—under the leadership of the aggressive and visionary […]

Continue Reading about A Brief History of the Commodore VIC-20 Published on:
August 2, 2025

By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
If you were watching Jeopardy! on June 23, you saw a game that ended with a strange coincidence. The Final Jeopardy! clue:
In 1896, the Vassar-educated wife of this man wrote, ‘Thousands of dollars may be paid for a copy of Shakespeare’
Contestant Emily Croke was the only one who wrote the correct question: “Who is Folger?”
After being declared the winner, Croke revealed to host Ken Jennings, “That was my […]

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July 28, 2025

Back in 2010, The Strong opened eGameRevolution, the museum’s first permanent exhibit to focus on the history of video games. For more than a decade, that exhibit informed and delighted millions of museum guests. We recognized early on that the exhibit’s arcade was a hit with guests who loved playing and learning more about coin-operated video games. So, when the museum opened its ESL Digital Worlds: High Score and Level Up exhibits as part of its 90,000-sq. ft. expansion in […]

Continue Reading about Infinity Arcade Exhibit Explores the History and Impact of Coin-Operated Games Published on:
July 28, 2025

Within the last few years, tabletop roleplay games (TTRPGS) have seen a boost in popularity. And while Dungeons & Dragons has become the name synonymous with the game genre in the United States, many other games deserve attention. One game has exerted a great deal of influence over how we play these games today, and has expanded into board games, card games, and video games over the decades. I am talking about Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu TTRPG. Using the Cthulhu […]

Continue Reading about The Great Old One: Call of Cthulhu’s Rise and Influence in Games. Published on:
July 20, 2025

Escape rooms are a massive commercial industry. In 2024, the Escape Room Industry Report counted approximately 2,000 facilities in the United States alone. They’re also massive physically—these in-person experiences are room-scale. As The Strong begins an initiative to preserve escape room materials, we’re starting small. Many creators have attempted to capture the magic of the escape room in a packaged product. These games show that escape rooms, and games based on them, do not fit neatly into a box.
As I […]

Continue Reading about We Have Escape Rooms at Home Published on:
July 10, 2025

By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
After its founding on April 1, 1976, Apple Computer Company had one of the fastest rises ever for an upstart company. Their first computer was named, simply, Apple I, but in June 1977, the company changed the world with the Apple II. With an external shell for containing the components, a built-in keyboard, game paddles, cassettes for saving data, and glorious full-color graphics, the Apple II was credited […]

Continue Reading about Apple II Powered Game Show Published on:
June 30, 2025

How to Win at Checkers, How to Beat Grandad at Checkers, Play Winning Checkers. These are the titles of just a few of the books from Alfred C. Darrow’s checkers library, which recently found a new home at The Strong Museum. The literature covers every aspect of playing a winning game, even How to Lose at Checkers, as it turned out. In my survey of Mr. Darrow’s vast collection, I discovered that I knew nothing about how to win—or lose—at […]

Continue Reading about Losing at Checkers: A Learning Experience Published on:
June 29, 2025