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Some workdays at the Strong really stand out. The best days bring the National Museum of Play new and interesting toys for the collections. Recently, the museum received a donation of about 40 vintage toys (with a promise of more to come!) manufactured in the 20th century by the American toy giant Louis Marx & Company. These toys are a significant addition to the collections even though the museum already had more than 200 Marx toys. So, you ask, “If […]

Continue Reading about X Marx the Big Spot in the Toy Industry Published on:
November 23, 2010

As a child, how often did your parents remind you that how you play a game is more important than winning? I’m betting pretty often. And while that sentiment is true, let’s face it—we wanted to win. It’s human nature. But in the video game world, just beating the game isn’t always the goal. Instead, many gamers chase after that most elusive of prizes: The High Score.
The first video game to track a player’s high score was Sea Wolf, a […]

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November 19, 2010

In 1960, to celebrate the firm’s 100th anniversary, Milton Bradley Company hired designer Reuben Klamer to create a new game. Looking for inspiration, Klamer turned to the company archives where he encountered one of Milton Bradley’s first games, The Checkered Game of Life. It had been the company’s first best-selling success back in 1860 when its namesake, Milton Bradley, owned the firm. A printer and something of an entrepreneur, Bradley produced a “pocket” version of The Checkered Game of Life […]

Continue Reading about The Game of Life: A 2010 National Toy Hall of Fame Inductee Published on:
November 16, 2010

What games would you include if you had to present the history of video games in 4 minutes? That’s the challenge ICHEG exhibit designers faced when determining what to put in a montage of video game clips from the past 50 years. Each clip lasts about 10 seconds, and starting next week the video is on display in ICHEG’s eGameRevolution show at the Strong.
The CHEGheads had to decide whether to pick the most famous games or the most infamous; the […]

Continue Reading about Video Game History in 4 Minutes Published on:
November 12, 2010

Playing cards are truly ancient game-playing devices. Their earliest origins are traced to ninth-century China, where people marked leaves with symbols and spots for game play. Most scholars believe that similar handmade playthings also appeared in Egypt and India. In Europe, the first handmade cards showed up during the 1300s, but printed decks arrived in Germany with the development of printing itself in the mid-1400s. The decks we recognize today came directly from England with the first colonists. After the […]

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November 9, 2010

The Strong, ICHEG’s parent organization, just acquired the only complete run of Playthings magazine, a great resource for anyone interested in the history of electronic games. Started in 1903, Playthings appeared monthly and for more than a century served as the main publication for the toy and game industry. The magazine highlighted toy trends, publicized new releases, noted what was hot and what was not, and featured in-depth articles on products, companies, organizations, and leaders in the toy industry.
I’ve noted […]

Continue Reading about Playthings Magazine Documents the History of Electronic Games Published on:
November 4, 2010

Excitement is building around the Strong as we lead up to this year’s induction of new toys into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The toys in this year’s slate of 12 nominees demonstrate all the qualities necessary to earn a place of honor with other classics. Each finalist has the longevity, recognition factor, and play value that let them rise above the more than 300 other toys nominated by the public this year. I can’t wait to be part […]

Continue Reading about Classic Contenders Published on:
November 2, 2010

Roger Ebert once said “video games can never be art.” He compared video games to competitive sports, because all these activities involve a winner and a loser. In contrast, Psychology Today blogger David Lundberg Kenrick explored aesthetic philosopher Dennis Dutton’s theory of art and applied it to how people view video games. Dutton says art appreciation is linked to several evolutionary factors including depictions of environmental cues, solving adaptive problems, and expression of sexually selected traits. According to Kenrick, all […]

Continue Reading about Video Game Art Published on:
October 29, 2010

Playing with words and images can be funny: joke-telling, trickery, and satire allow us to be subversive without the repercussions that may accompany more malicious behavior. At seven or eight years old, my best friend and I produced a fake weekly newspaper. We pasted school portraits alongside our bylines and painstakingly crafted gossip columns, “horror-scopes,” quizzes, and bizarre feature stories about our classmates. No matter that the publication went defunct after a couple of issues or that its circulation was […]

Continue Reading about Funny Papers: Spoofing the News Published on:
October 26, 2010