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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

The National Toy Hall of Fame hasn’t embraced cuddly toys in a couple of years. Of course I was thrilled to see The Strong honor the rubber duck recently (have you seen my wedding cake?). But it’s the soft, snuggly playthings—the blanket, the teddy bear, Raggedy Ann and Andy—that give me warm fuzzies. These are the toys that comforted us as kids.
Children can’t resist touchable toys. Peanuts fans rarely see Linus without his security blanket against his cheek. Taggies blankets […]

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November 26, 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

Bet I can make you smile with just two words: rubber duck.
You did, didn’t you? You can’t help but smile. This will make you smile too. On November 7, the rubber duck—along with the game of chess—joined 51 other classic toys inducted in the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong. How did such a simple toy become the object of such high honors? It is an interesting tail, I mean tale.
Rubber toys first appeared in the late 1800s, […]

Continue Reading about Rubber Duck: You Make Bath Time Lots of Fun Published on:
November 12, 2013

Do you play chess? A World Chess Federation affiliate recently stated that the worldwide number of chess players equals the number of regular Facebook members and, in the United States, more people play chess than tennis and golf combined. Few sports foster such loyalty and global admiration.

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November 8, 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

Hello, autumn. As pumpkins, parsnips, and apples signal the harvest, I’m gathering artifacts from The Strong’s collections related to a time when farmers were called away to war and civilians rescued the food supply.
World War I sent many of Europe’s male food growers to the front, leaving farms shorthanded at best. The war efforts commandeered rail lines essential for food distribution and disrupted trade between conflicting countries. Food shortages forced severe rationing, leaving Europe in dire straits. One month before […]

Continue Reading about War Gardens: Winning the Food Fight on Home Soil Published on:
October 28, 2013