Video Games Archive

Recently The Strong acquired a colossal collection of materials related to Atari’s coin-operated video game and pinball divisions.
The task of processing and preserving such a collection is multi-faceted, and in the coming months, The Strong’s curators, conservators, catalogers, and archivist will continue to evaluate, stabilize, conserve, and archive the collection. When archivist Julia Rossi and I inventoried a portion the collection, I was struck by the Atari coin-op game advertising mock-ups and proofs—materials used to draft, edit, and demonstrate how […]

Continue Reading about Inside the Atari Coin-Op Divisions Collection: What’s in an Ad? Published on:
July 7, 2014

Some video games make us want to throw our controllers against the wall and swear never to play again. But somehow we always seem to find ourselves plopped back on the couch, controller clutched tightly in our hands, determined that this time will be different.
Frustration and challenge are part of the appeal of a good game and that fits with much of what we know about what makes good play. More than 50 years ago, Benjamin Spock (the pediatrician, not […]

Continue Reading about Difficulty in Video Gaming Published on:
June 27, 2014

Statistics sit at the heart of baseball. A hitter’s batting average predicts his success at the plate, a pitcher’s Earned Run Average measures his overall effectiveness, and a fielder’s rate of errors correlates strongly with his likelihood of making a play. Since computers prove effective tools for measuring probabilities and statistics, it is not surprising that some of the earliest applications of computers for game play involved baseball simulation. John Burgeson has donated the oldest-known computer baseball simulation, a game […]

Continue Reading about The Oldest-Known Computer Baseball Simulation Published on:
June 20, 2014

My reading list seems to grow longer each year. It seems impossible to read all of the intriguing titles available; the Library of Congress alone has approximately 838 miles of bookshelves.

Continue Reading about Explore Your Reading List with These Video Games Published on:
June 16, 2014

When I give guests a tour through The Strong, I always plan to spend a few extra minutes in the museum’s Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden where approximately 800 butterflies fly around. I’ve noticed that if you move quickly through the space you miss many butterflies that are resting or feeding. But when you stay still, your perception sharpens and you notice more butterflies and moths perched on leaves, on branches, or on fruit. In general, the principle holds true that […]

Continue Reading about A Case for Slow Play in Video Games Published on:
May 13, 2014

ICHEG has acquired a massive collection of materials chronicling the history of Atari’s pioneering video arcade and pinball machine divisions from 1972 to 1999. The collection represents the largest and most comprehensive assemblage of archival records and other documentary items related to Atari’s coin-operated games anywhere in the world.
I first encountered Atari’s video arcade games at a local arcade where my brother and I spent many hours playing classic vector graphic space shooters like Asteroids (1979) and Star Wars (1983). […]

Continue Reading about ICHEG Preserves Atari Coin-Op Divisions Collection Published on:
April 22, 2014

Three times a year The Strong accepts research fellowship applications from academic scholars, independent researchers, and students at the Masters or PhD level interested in conducting research at The Strong.

Continue Reading about Strong Fellowships Promote Play Scholarship Published on:
March 25, 2014

Brøderbund founder Doug Carlston has given ICHEG nearly 1,500 copies of Brøderbund’s software (in pristine condition), representing virtually every product the company released, and an extensive archive of business records that document the growth of both the company and the personal computer software industry.

Continue Reading about Preserving the Brøderbund Story Published on:
March 4, 2014

Recently I had the pleasure of attending the 17th Annual D.I.C.E Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Each year, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences celebrates the best interactive games and with its Pioneer Award honors a person whose “career-spanning work has helped shape and define the interactive entertainment industry.” This year the Academy added Eugene Jarvis to a distinguished list of previous honorees, including game designers such as David Crane (Pitfall!), Ed Logg […]

Continue Reading about Honoring Gaming Innovator Eugene Jarvis Published on:
February 20, 2014