Video Games Archive

Novelists have collaborated with video game designers to create interactive fiction for decades. In 1984, author Douglas Adams and computer game developer Steve Meretzky paired-up to turn the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy series into an interactive fiction video game. Cyberdreams later worked with author Harlan Ellison to turn his short-story, “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” into a point-and-click adventure game. Writer Tom Clancy created his own game studio, Red Storm Entertainment, and has produced popular series like […]

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January 14, 2014

As Acquisitions Cataloger, I get to see every object ICHEG acquires. The CHEGheads have already written about some of our most influential new items of 2013, such as our collection of nearly 7,000 Japanese video games; a Fix-It Felix, Jr. arcade machine commissioned directly from Disney to promote their animated feature film Wreck-It Ralph; and Hercules Pinball, the largest commercial pinball machine ever created. Here are some of my other favorite acquisitions of this year. 5. Jet Force Gemini Signed […]

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December 19, 2013

When Joel Billings launched Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) in 1979, he was fresh out of college and committed to the proposition that players would find wargaming fun and easier on a computer. The company’s first product, Computer Bismarck (1980), became the first computer wargame to gain commercial success.

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December 16, 2013

Few of us think of the Fairchild Channel F (1976) when playing our new disc-based video game consoles. Fewer of us think of its creator, one of the first African American video game designers, Gerald “Jerry” Lawson (1940-2011). Nevertheless, the seeds for today’s systems were planted during the middle 1970s by Lawson and the team of engineers who created the first cartridge-based video game system. Although the more powerful and better marketed Atari 2600 (1977) quickly eclipsed Lawson’s creation, the […]

Continue Reading about Collection Documents the Career of Video Game Pioneer Jerry Lawson Published on:
December 2, 2013

Today, electronic games are being integrated into our lives in ways that often have nothing to do with a video screen. In previous blogs CHEGheads noted that fantasy football might be considered an electronic game and Der Gute Fabrik’s brilliant Johan Sebastian Joust is undoubtedly an electronic game, even if it doesn’t have a video screen. With players’ and game designers’ increased interest in gamification and augmented reality games (ARGs) video gaming will increasingly expand beyond play on screens.
Consider exercise. […]

Continue Reading about No Screen Necessary Published on:
November 22, 2013

Understanding a music compilation requires more than listening to the sounds. NPR music critic and correspondent Ann Powers explained that “music is not a thing, but things are important to music. You can’t really understand 1920s blues without learning to shimmy and slow drag. It’s incredibly enriching to discover the stuff an artist kept around, the notes that hold answers in their margins, the lucky charms and ritual objects of an artistic life.” This idea applies to video game soundtracks, […]

Continue Reading about Video Games: Making the Music Published on:
November 14, 2013

Video game historians hoping to trace the intellectual and cultural influences of some games may find themselves crossing oceans to do so. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Japanese video games spread to North America and across the globe, exporting Japanese culture and energizing the slumping home console industry. ICHEG’s recent acquisition of a collection of nearly 7,000 Japanese video games helps preserve and document that history. As part of The Strong’s comprehensive collection of tens of thousands of other electronic, board, […]

Continue Reading about Wizardry, Dragon Quest, and the Japanese Role-Playing Video Game Published on:
November 7, 2013

In 1994, Nintendo released the second installment of the Mother trilogy, Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu (Gyiyg Strikes Back) for the Super Famicom. The game first appeared in the Japanese market and players enjoyed designer Shigesato Itoi’s use of satire to depict Western culture. Mother 2 also became one of the most popular games of the role-playing genre.

Continue Reading about Mother 2: A Parody, a Satire, a Cult Video Game Classic Published on:
October 28, 2013

ICHEG has acquired a collection of nearly 7,000 Japanese video games produced for 22 game systems made by Nintendo, NEC, Sega, and Pioneer. Assembled by André and Sylvio Hodos—collectors who began playing Japanese games as teenagers in France—and who then set out to amass full-sets of the systems included in this collection, these beautifully-preserved games will be a tremendous resource for anyone interested in the history of video games, their impact on the way we play, and the global rise […]

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October 7, 2013