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I remember the roar of the crowd as I confidently gripped the ball and took aim—the way the noises faded as I focused on my target—and the broad smile on Bozo the Clown’s face during my successful run on the Grand Prize Game.
 Though I am competitive, I’m not well coordinated or graceful. You probably wouldn’t have guessed that my greatest victory was even vaguely athletic. After all, I was the pitiful child who crossed the finish line dead last in […]

Continue Reading about I’m NOT a Bozo: My 15 Minutes of Fame on Children’s Television Published on:
March 16, 2010

Cataloging a large collection of video games and related materials involves a ton of research and leads to game development stories that often are as fascinating as the games themselves. ICHEG’s recent acquisition of a group of games and game systems from Japan brought Super Mario Brothers’ history to the forefront. Mario, the Italian-American plumber designed by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, is one of the most iconic video game characters of all time. Mario began his career in 1981 as the […]

Continue Reading about Super Mario Brothers: Doki Doki in Disguise Published on:
March 12, 2010

The CHEGheads are heading to San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event. The conference, which attracts more than 17,000 attendees, is a forum for industry professionals to exchange ideas on the future of electronic gaming. This is a special opportunity to meet with game designers, producers, programmers, and others who are the creative force behind games currently in the ICHEG collection and others we will collect in the future.
We are looking […]

Continue Reading about CHEGheads Head to GDC Published on:
March 10, 2010

Over the past year and a half, I’ve had the privilege of cataloging more than 10,000 electronic games for ICHEG. As a gamer, I’ve found this a great way to learn about the various genres and mechanics that make up the history of electronic games.
 One of my favorite games is Final Fantasy XI (ファイナルファンタジーXI, or FFXI,), a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) published by Square Enix. Like World of Warcraft and EverQuest, FFXI is composed of multiple online servers […]

Continue Reading about A Final Fantasy and International Gaming Revolution Published on:
March 8, 2010

A few days ago a researcher in our ICHEG lab sparked a rich conversation about her favorite childhood gaming platform, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Like so many gamers in the late 80s, she spent endless hours assuming the role of Mario and squashing Goombas in the Mushroom Kingdom. Her memories of Super Mario Bros. and NES brought up the system’s groundbreaking predecessor. 
Several years before the phenomenally successful NES launched in the United States in 1985, the Nintendo Family Computer—known […]

Continue Reading about First There Was Famicom Published on:
March 5, 2010

At Strong National Museum of Play, home of NCHEG, we recently installed an exhibit that allows the public to experience one of my all-time favorite games, Crayon Physics Deluxe. It derives from the original Crayon Physics, which a co-worker got me hooked on a few years ago. The museum is a natural home for the game because of the whimsical nature of the graphics and musical soundtrack, and because (Crayola) crayons were inducted into our National Toy Hall of Fame in […]

Continue Reading about Let’s Get Physical! NCHEG Home Plays Finnish Game Published on:
March 4, 2010

Tetris is a great example of how simple ideas often inspire the best video games. In my recent conversation with Alexey Pajitnov, he recounted how a simple wooden puzzle game inspired him to create Tetris.
Pajitnov was working at the computer center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1984 when the thought came to him that Pentominoes would make a great computer game. Pentominoes are a mathematical puzzle in which players need to place 12 different shapes made of 5 […]

Continue Reading about Russian-born Tetris Illustrates Good Design Published on:
March 3, 2010

Over the last few weeks my e-mail  filled up with friends and other electronic games enthusiasts bringing to my attention a couple of eBay  auctions. Amused at first, I quickly saw a collectors’ chain reaction happening.
These auctions centered on the rare and elusive Stadium Events video games by Bandai, a Japanese toy making company founded in 1900. The first e-mail I received referred to an auction on eBay for an “Old Nintendo NES system and five games” that sold for […]

Continue Reading about Japanese Jewels Excite E-Bidders Published on:
March 2, 2010

One of our most exciting recent acquisitions came from the family of Ruth Rosenfeld. Ruth was an avid miniaturist and world traveler, both factors that obviously influenced her fascinating collection of dollhouses, miniature rooms, and small (and some large) souvenirs from all over the world.
Ruth Rosenfeld began collecting small things and assembling dollhouses and miniature rooms in the mid-1970s. For her first project, she created a general store furnished with floor-to-ceiling shelves stocked with merchandise. In Ruth’s 30 years of […]

Continue Reading about A Big Collection of Little Things Published on:
March 2, 2010