As a fan of the hit television series Man vs. Wild on Discovery Channel, I was thrilled by my chance encounter with the show’s celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls at E3. On screen, Bear inevitably finds himself in harrowing situations that test his expert survival skills. Publisher Crave Entertainment is betting gamers will want to walk in Bear’s shoes in their upcoming video game adaptation of the show. From Bear, to Wonder Woman, to Mickey Mouse, countless faces from other media […]

Continue Reading about Traditional Influences on Digital Media Published on:
July 9, 2010

The CHEGheads are headed to E3 Expo 2010. Both a trade show and a celebration of gaming, the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is one of the most talked about industry events of the year. With the opening only a few days away, the E3 excitement is building on the blogosphere as gamers anxiously await news on “what’s next” in the gaming world.
Los Angeles from OSU Fisher College
 

Alternate interfaces for gaming consoles will […]

Continue Reading about CHEGheads Going to Gaming Paradise . . . E3 Published on:
June 11, 2010

Tactical Language & Culture Training System from Mike Elgan

Two American soldiers stand guard on a street corner in a remote village as a Black Hawk helicopter circles overhead. Onlookers, many of them armed, gather. Additional soldiers arrive, and the situation deteriorates rapidly. Something must be done—quickly. You hold your breath and step forward to address the man who appears in charge.  
Now, you might be speculating that I’m describing a scene from the hit game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. […]

Continue Reading about Serious Gaming is Serious Business Published on:
April 16, 2010

The CHEGheads are heading to San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event. The conference, which attracts more than 17,000 attendees, is a forum for industry professionals to exchange ideas on the future of electronic gaming. This is a special opportunity to meet with game designers, producers, programmers, and others who are the creative force behind games currently in the ICHEG collection and others we will collect in the future.
We are looking […]

Continue Reading about CHEGheads Head to GDC Published on:
March 10, 2010

A few days ago a researcher in our ICHEG lab sparked a rich conversation about her favorite childhood gaming platform, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Like so many gamers in the late 80s, she spent endless hours assuming the role of Mario and squashing Goombas in the Mushroom Kingdom. Her memories of Super Mario Bros. and NES brought up the system’s groundbreaking predecessor. 
Several years before the phenomenally successful NES launched in the United States in 1985, the Nintendo Family Computer—known […]

Continue Reading about First There Was Famicom Published on:
March 5, 2010

Aside from gaming, my other passion is baseball—wherever I can find it and in whatever form. Since my youth I have struggled to fill the void between the final game of the World Series and the return of baseball on opening day each spring. To get through the offseason months I have developed a large number of coping mechanisms, including reading individual player and team histories, replaying great games from past seasons, and taking a yearly winter trip to the […]

Continue Reading about Electronic Yakyuu (Baseball) Published on:
March 1, 2010

The CHEGheads have found and acquired a rare and unique Nintendo World Championships 1990 gray cartridge!
Collectors, in general, love that which is rare. Sports memorabilia aficionados covet the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card, comic book fanatics seek out Superman’s first appearance in Action Comics #1, and stamp collectors covet a chance to lay their eyes on an Inverted Jenny. Few collectors witness, much less acquire, such uncommon gems.
Those of us who prize electronic games have our treasured pieces as well. […]

Continue Reading about CHEGheads Find World Championship Cartridge Published on:
February 16, 2010

My fellow CHEGhead Marc Check began his last blog talking about some of the great Pac-Man artifacts in the NCHEG collection and how this character evokes in him a sense of early 80’s nostalgia. Like Marc, I too, caught Pac-Man Fever when it struck in epidemic proportion in 1981. My heart still holds a special place for Pac-Man and his family. Yes, family. Such a global phenomenon was bound to inspire spin-offs, and in this case it included a wife […]

Continue Reading about I Have Pac-Man Fever Again Published on:
January 22, 2010

During the 1950s, space adventures loomed large in American pop culture as authors, comic book illustrators, and movie directors entertained the public with a steady diet of space epics. Bizarre aliens, laser beams, and spacecraft of all shapes and sizes mesmerized children and adults alike.
In the early 1960s, President Kennedy fueled public interest in such adventures, when he announced his vision of sending astronauts to the moon and John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth.

What does this […]

Continue Reading about Fly You to the Moon? Published on:
November 30, 2009