BY: Robert King, 2024 Valentine-Cosman Research Fellow
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: What can drive cars, write essays, diagnose diseases, and is bad at jokes? Answer: Artificial Intelligence. (With apologies for the crummy riddle.)
Ever since AI’s astonishing advances in recent years, news of its accomplishments has been accompanied by a sour note: it can’t do humor. A 2023 study gives the statistics. When asked to generate over a thousand “original” jokes, ChatGPT returned the same 25 jokes in some […]

Continue Reading about Filling in the Blanks: A Media Archaeology of Computational Humor Published on:
April 3, 2026

By: Zari Smith, 2025 Valentine-Cosman Research Fellow
During the summer of 2025, I had the opportunity to visit The Strong National Museum of Play for a research fellowship. For two weeks, I had access to the collections and the rich archives that the museum owns in addition to the museum exhibits available for the general public.
I decided to apply for a fellowship from The Strong in order to find source materials that could assist me in writing my master’s thesis. My […]

Continue Reading about Exploring Japanese Games and their Paratexts Published on:
March 24, 2026

By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
In a well-publicized 1997 showdown, world chess champion Gary Kasparov competed against Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer built by IBM. Deep Blue won. Kasparov vehemently complained that the computer hadn’t been programmed so much to play chess as it had to specifically compete against him, but it was a huge victory for IBM.
Still, IBM acknowledged that success in a game like chess wasn’t such an extraordinary achievement. Eric […]

Continue Reading about The Computer that Took on Jeopardy! Published on:
February 26, 2026

By: Alexander Parry, 2025 Strong Research Fellow
In December 2021, TIME journalist Emily Barone published an editorial about the conflict between her and her children over plastic toys. Barone explained her misgivings about the sea of “eco-terrible plastic junk” available to kids and wondered how to reconcile her environmentalism with the shelf appeal of colorful, heavily-advertised, and often battery-powered toys. These cheap and flimsy items, Barone observed, were nearly impossible to recycle, contributing to air and water pollution and to the […]

Continue Reading about Problems with Plastic Toys Published on:
February 20, 2026

By: Hana Hanifah, 2025 Valentine-Cosman Research Fellow
In recent years, the momentum for accessibility in games has gained significant traction. Many custom configurations, such as captions, remappable controls, and adaptable hardware, are becoming the norm as more people, especially those with disabilities, play and engage in games. The Xbox Adaptive Controller and the PS5’s Access Controller have been rightly praised and documented in the mainstream media. However, several decades before they emerged, there was an innovation that quietly went to the […]

Continue Reading about Nintendo’s Forgotten Accessibility Pioneer: The 1989 Handsfree Controller Published on:
February 5, 2026

By: Eva Maria Rey Pinto, 2025 Valentine-Cosman Research Fellow
Ever wonder how America’s sweetheart snuck into every corner of the Americas? In 1974, Mattel’s founders, Ruth and Elliot Handler, resigned after financial scandals and IRS investigations. This sparked a crisis lasting through the 1980s. New leadership pivoted by licensing Barbie to global toy companies, reducing production costs while maintaining profits through local production and distribution, preserving the brand’s success. Given its geographic proximity, the Latin American market held strategic interest for […]

Continue Reading about Exporting the Dreamhouse: Barbie in South America Published on:
January 2, 2026

By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
When the production staff of a game show needs some guidance about what to do, they turn to the bible.
Among many papers recently donated to the National Archives of Game Show History is the bible for The $25,000 Pyramid, as aired on CBS from 1982-88. Not to sound irreverent, but somehow, “bible” is the industry accepted name for an important document that television viewers never see or hear about. […]

Continue Reading about The $25,000 Pyramid Game Show “Bible” Published on:
December 30, 2025

By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
This month’s column isn’t so much for game show lovers as it is for the people who shop for them. Because of their love of game shows, fans of the genre have impossibly high expectations when it comes to “fabulous merchandise,” and that makes holiday shopping difficult. So, for those of you who have a game show fan on your gift-buying list, here’s a handy little guide to […]

Continue Reading about Game Show Gifts Published on:
December 1, 2025

By Justin Schofield, Valentine-Cosman Research Fellow at The Strong National Museum of Play
Growing up, my brother and I played a computer game called Just Grandma and Me, a virtual book that reads to you and allows you to interact with the illustrations. I used to scramble off the bus to boot it up after school, and my brother and I listened to it together countless times.
At the time, I didn’t think of Just Grandma and Me as educational nor did […]

Continue Reading about Family Ties: A Short Story of Brøderbund Published on:
November 25, 2025