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Some folks have reported visions of sugarplums recently—I’ve worked so closely with museum artifacts that I’m hearing their voices. Call me the Toy Whisperer or just plain loopy, but I listen when the museum’s toys and games talk about their New Year’s resolutions. The artifacts have some ambitious goals for 2012, but this doesn’t surprise me at all—they were busy last year, too.
 Mobo Bronco has committed to proving he’s a big-boy horse by sleeping without his night light as often […]

Continue Reading about New Year’s Resolutions from the Artifacts Published on:
January 3, 2012

Recently, a museum guest asked me to tell her about the most interesting question I’d received as director of the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play. The answer was easy—I take great satisfaction in uncovering some elusive fragment of information that helps a researcher resolve an issue or solve a puzzle. As more information becomes available on the Internet and researchers become increasingly adept at finding their own answers, the questions that reach me have become more challenging and […]

Continue Reading about Playing in Time Published on:
December 27, 2011

We do! Recently, news reports cited as wasteful spending a $113,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games to preserve video games. We disagree. We believe video games not only are the most dynamic, exciting, and innovative form of media today but also an important form of play and a driver of cultural change.
Games sharpen people’s ability to solve problems and overcome challenges. Games teach people […]

Continue Reading about Do You Think Video Games Are Worth Saving? Published on:
December 22, 2011

The more than 140 arcade cabinets ICHEG owns are key components of our tens of thousands of video games and related artifacts. Our arcade cabinets range from early pioneers like Computer Space and Pong to rare titles like a stand-up Discs of Tron and the only copy of Sega’s giant Tetris in North America. Still, one game remained on my wish list until only recently: Dragon’s Lair. Now we own an original, working version!
I remember when Cinematronics debuted Dragon’s Lair […]

Continue Reading about Entering the Dragon’s Lair (into ICHEG’s Collections) Published on:
December 21, 2011

I was eight years old in 1968 and, like many of my friends, I played with toy cars. That year, Mattel introduced toy autos called Hot Wheels. Unlike the toy cars before them, Hot Wheels rolled really fast either downhill or with a touch of a finger. Accessories such as track sets and collector cases included speedy images of the cars in motion. Naturally, kids found these appealing and the tiny 1/64 scale replicas fascinated adults as well.
What made the […]

Continue Reading about Hot Wheels: A 2011 National Toy Hall of Fame Inductee Published on:
December 20, 2011

The holiday season is once again upon us. With seasonal songs filling the airwaves and retailers decorated with all that sparkles, I am amazed at how the holidays have managed to find their way back again so soon—this time more expensive than ever.
For more than 125 years, advertising has played a key role in the holiday season and in building consumer demand. As far back as the 1920s and 1930s, toy companies recognized the importance of marketing the “must-have” toy […]

Continue Reading about Edible to Elaborate: Holiday Gifts Then and Now Published on:
December 13, 2011

Last month, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered aired a piece titled “Why Do We Hate The Sound of Fingernails On a Chalkboard?” Musicologist Michael Oehler reported that this sound produces a frequency that reaches the most sensitive spot of the human ear and creates an amplified “open ear gain.” He further explained that some of our reaction is also emotional. When Oehler played the sound for a group of volunteers, those who thought they heard music “perceived the sound […]

Continue Reading about Do You Hear What I Hear in This Video Game? Published on:
December 12, 2011

Getting behind the wheel can be stressful. Congestion, construction, and detours are no day at the beach . . . especially when all we want to do is make it to the beach. Most of us enjoy a good road trip, but with so many obstacles taking the air out of our tires, who can blame us for just wanting to get from Point A to Point B? What happened to the days when simply riding in an automobile was […]

Continue Reading about The Open Road Published on:
December 6, 2011

Numerous organizations annually honor top video games. Spike TV will soon announce its “Game of the Year” prize during the network’s Video Game Awards show. Every gamer I’ve spoken to agrees that 2011 proved an amazing year for games, both in terms of increased graphical capabilities and storyline developments. The Spike TV VGA Advisory Council, made up of video game journalists from Game Informer Magazine, Kotaku, Joystiq, and Wired, among others, choose the top five contenders.
First on this council’s list […]

Continue Reading about Five Games Contending for Spike TV’s Top Prize Published on:
December 2, 2011