Recently for The Strong’s American Journal of Play, I reviewed Garry Fine’s new book on the sociology of chess, and I particularly enjoyed his discussion on the role of computers in chess.
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Installing Ralph Baer’s Desk at The Strong
Museums have long memorialized genius. While art museums preserve great paintings and sculptures, history museums collect and preserve a wide-ranging record of the ways individuals, groups, and companies have shaped our society. The Strong’s focus on the history and meaning of play has guided its efforts to preserve a comprehensive collection of artifacts that document the rich history of toys, dolls, games, puzzles, electronic games, and other playthings. Among these collections are those donated by Ralph Baer, who over the […]
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The 2016 Class for the World Video Game Hall of Fame
Anyone interested in the evolution of video games can learn a great deal by simply examining the history of the six newest inductees into The Strong’s World Video Game Hall of Fame: The Oregon Trail, Space Invaders, The Legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Sims, and Grand Theft Auto III.
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Light Up the Night with Mega Man Rock
I have a confession to make. It’s kind of embarrassing, but I’m hoping readers will understand.
I’m 34 years old, and just recently, I attended my first rock concert. Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering my profession, this concert consisted of a hard rock opera based on the 1980s video game series Mega Man.
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The Global Scope of the World Video Game Hall of Fame
Genius knows no boundaries.
That’s the inescapable conclusion I reach when I look at the 2016 finalists for The Strong’s World Video Game Hall of Fame. The nominated games are equally distributed across three continents (Asia, Europe, and North America) and reflect how the video game industry has developed around the world and how the most successful video games often tap into universal themes.
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Pinball Matters
As I stood outside The Strong’s new permanent Pinball Playfields exhibit, I couldn’t help but see and overhear our guests’ reactions to the flashing lights and distinct pops and thumps of the pinball machines. “Pinball! Yes!” I heard someone cheer. Another guest who noticed I worked at the museum stopped to tell me, “You’ve made my husband very happy.” As I watched smiling children, young families, and adults play in the exhibit, I heard another person ask a companion, “They […]
New Display Highlights the Worldwide Reach of Tetris
The Strong launched the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2015 to recognize individual electronic games of all types—arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile—that achieved iconic-status, longevity, influence, and geographical reach. Of the six games chosen for the inaugural class of 2015, perhaps no game has journeyed the globe more than the simple puzzle game Tetris. New materials from The Tetris Company now on display at The Strong demonstrate the game’s universal appeal.
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Atari Packaging Design Collection Documents the Art of Selling Video Games
The Strong has acquired a collection of more than 2,000 drawings, photographs, mock-ups, proofs, and other materials related to the design and production of Atari home and handheld game packaging and user manuals from 1976–1984. The Cort and Barbara Allen Atari Packaging Design Collection, 1976–1984, documents how the company’s artists, designers, and writers developed and created the distinctive packages and manuals for some of the earliest and most popular home video game titles of the later 20th century.
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ICHEG, the RPO, and Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy
As a child, I always enjoyed playing video games, but I never paid too much attention to the musical accompaniment in the background. It wasn’t until college that I first heard gaming music on its own. Prior to that, I simply enjoyed the music as background noise for games, or as musical cues that prompted me to “jump” or dodge an enemy. But then I met the man who eventually became my husband, and while we were dating, we burned […]
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