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As a curator, I’m enthusiastic about every item I acquire for the museum’s collections, but certain acquisitions are definitely more newsworthy than others. I recently had the chance to appear on regional cable TV news, talking about the museum’s latest Monopoly set. The story involves Strong’s acquisition of this historic version of Monopoly—older even than the “tie-box Monopoly” the museum owns from 1933. The Heap Folk Art Monopoly, as it’s known, predates Monopoly “inventor” Charles Darrow’s published version by some […]

Continue Reading about The Story behind Strong’s Folk Art Monopoly Game Published on:
August 13, 2010

Recently, a couple of things have prompted me to think more about the history of video games in Europe. First, I’ve been reading Tristan Donovan’s excellent new book: Replay: The History of Video Games. One of the key contributions of the book is its attention to the often neglected history of European gaming, such as the importance of the Sinclair Spectrum for game development in Great Britain. Second, we at ICHEG have been in touch with a number of groups […]

Continue Reading about Saving Video Games in Europe Published on:
July 30, 2010

The summer of 1979 will live on in my childhood memories. At the ripe old age of nine, my neighborhood pals and I were already masters of summer vacation fun. We made numerous trips to the community pool; played innumerable backyard games of tag, hide-and-seek, and red light, green light; and spent countless hours dashing through our lawn sprinklers. We took every opportunity to play outside, where we would remain from dawn until dusk. Mom would call us in when […]

Continue Reading about My Space Published on:
July 27, 2010

Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for—the top five most iconic video game villains of all time.

Donkey Kong from Wikipedia

#5: Donkey Kong: King of video game gorillas!
Donkey Kong is known as one of the first games to have the semblance of a plot—rescue the Lady from the evil ape! Though the original Donkey Kong may not have had much of a personality, you can’t ignore the thrill of battle as you navigate the hero Jumpman through the treacherous levels of […]

Continue Reading about Video Game Villains Countdown 5: The Most Evil of Them All Published on:
July 23, 2010

Welcome back to our countdown of the all-time top 25 villains. Below we have a nice combination of villains from both classic games and exciting newer ones, along with one of my personal favorites coming in at number six!
#10: Space Invaders Aliens: “Just…one…more…quarter…”

Space Invaders from CafePress

Space Invaders’ place in video game history is solid and unquestioned. As one of the first shooting games, Space Invaders is credited with making video games more attractive to the general public. In addition, the […]

Continue Reading about Top 25 Video Game Villains 4: Mind Games Published on:
July 22, 2010

This edition of our video game villain countdown will take us more than halfway through our list and will, I hope, bring back some wonderful memories for you.

Dracula from Gamexeon

#15: Dracula: Evil is seductive.
You’ve heard of this guy, right? Prince of Darkness, Vlad the Impaler, put Transylvania on the map, probably inspired the Count from Sesame Street, etc. This notoriety alone makes him worth mentioning, but the Dracula of the Castlevania series is memorable because he proved to be one […]

Continue Reading about Top 25 Video Game Villains 3: Is Your Favorite Listed? Published on:
July 21, 2010

Here are our next five classic favorites, as we continue counting down the Top 25 video game villains.

Cyberdemon from Giantbomb

#20: Cyberdemon: Demon to the nth degree
The video game series Doom is famous for putting first-person shooters on the map. It proved so popular, in fact, that it inspired a number of extremely similar games colloquially known as “Doom Clones.” What good is a shooting game without something big and ugly to shoot at? As we saw with Diablo, demons are […]

Continue Reading about Top 25 Video Game Villains 2: Monsters, Machines and Many Arms! Published on:
July 20, 2010

Who’s the baddest of them all? Find out one opinion here. This and each of our next four ICHEG blogs are dedicated to those nefarious antagonists we love to hate—video game villains! For five consecutive postings we will cite five villains, leading up to the biggest baddie of all time. As with all lists of this nature, everyone has individual ideas and personal favorites. I used the following criteria when compiling the list:

Icon status: How recognizable is the character to […]

Continue Reading about Top 25 Video Game Villains 1: Evil Beginnings Published on:
July 19, 2010

As a kid, my summers included family camping trips, excursions to the amusement park, and Fourth of July fireworks. But those were the landmark events that punctuated the extended freedom of June, July, and August. On a day-to-day basis, my activities centered on the fun we created ourselves. And the location for those activities tended to be the small patch of sun, shade, and lawn in our suburban backyard.
 When I was a toddler, my dad built a sandbox in one […]

Continue Reading about Backyard Adventures Published on:
July 13, 2010