[game_preservation] launch of NZ game history work

[Melanie Swalwell]

Hello all,

and thanks for your kind words, Andreas.  I thought this work of mine might be of interest to the SIG.  To summarise briefly: not many people (locally or otherwise) know that New Zealand had an early games industry.  The chance to work with the Vectors webjournal team at University of Southern California gave me the opportunity to experiment with the way I presented my research into this "golden age".  Now, having discovered quite a significant degree of local game creation and development, I am trying to publicise this history in the hope that people might start to conserve and archive this material.  I have colleagues here at VUW in IP law and computer science who are keen to work with me on this - but so far, nobody wants to fund our work, and institutions have been slow to come on board and support us.

Please do stop by when you get a chance and have a play.  Feedback and comments are welcomed.

regards,

Melanie

Dr Melanie Swalwell
Media Studies Programme
School of English, Film, Theatre, and Media Studies
Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand

ph:  +64 4 463 7446
fax: +64 4 463 5091 
melanie.swalwell at vuw.ac.nz


-----Original Message-----
From: game_preservation-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:game_preservation-bounces at igda.org]On Behalf Of Andreas Lange
Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2006 4:10 AM
To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] launch of NZ game history work


Dear Melanie,
thanks very much for the hint and of course for this very interesting
work. Besides your very valuable work researching New Zeelands game
history, I also look with great interest at the form you developed to
make your results available. Specially for me as an exhibition maker it
is of great interest to look at new forms how knowledge can be 
transfered. "Cast-Offs from the Golden Age" looks very promising to me. 
I wish you good luck for the official opening

Best, Andreas


Andreas Lange
DiGA e.V. - The Digital Game Archive
www.digitalgamearchive.org
phone: +49 (0)30 55155773
fax: +49 (0)30 55155772


Melanie Swalwell schrieb:

> Greetings all,

> 

> This is to let you know about a new multimedia work I've recently

> completed, in collaboration with Erik Loyer.

> 

> It will be launched in New Zealand later this week, as per the press

> release pasted below.

> 

> I hope you will stop by soon and have a play, and contribute to the

> ongoing research by adding your reflections on the content to the

> project database.  Please forward this to others who might be

> interested.

> 

> Regards,

> 

> Melanie

> 

> -- MEDIA RELEASE

> 

> 21 June 2006 

> _________________________________________________________________

> 

> Preserving New Zealand's video game history

> 

> Computer games have commonly been thought of as entirely disposable

> objects, but a Victoria University researcher says that they are in

> fact an important part of New Zealand's visual cultural history.

> 

> Dr Melanie Swalwell, a Lecturer in the School of English, Film,

> Theatre, & Media Studies, has published her research findings in a

> unique form in the online journal Vectors: Journal of Culture and

> Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular.

> 

> Part game and part exploration, the piece, entitled Cast-Offs from

> the Golden Age, invites players to re-enact Dr Swalwell's research by

> clicking on figures and following the "avenues of inquiry" those

> figures lead them down. They can then hear excerpts from interviews,

> see photographs taken during the course of her research, and access

> historic advertising, news stories and photographs from the "Golden

> Age" of New Zealand videogaming.

> 

> Her research project, which includes the production of games in New

> Zealand, will be launched this week. Locally, the work will be

> launched by Associate Professor David Crabbe and Mario Wynands,

> President of the New Zealand Game Developers' Association, but the

> event will also feature the designer and programmer of the work Erik

> Loyer and journal editor Steve Anderson speaking via video link from

> the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, where Vectors is

> based.

> 

> "The history of digital games reveals an enormous amount about

> people's reception of, and attitudes towards, computing technology.

> Tracing the history of early videogames gives us a history of New

> Zealand's entry into the digital age, because it was through playing

> games that many people became familiar with digital technology," says

> Dr Swalwell.

> 

> During her research, she discovered that New Zealand produced a

> surprising quantity of arcade, console, and computer games.

> 

> "Due in part to strict import licensing restrictions which made it

> difficult to import videogames in the early years, people designed

> and built their own systems, locally. Consoles like the Sportronic,

> the Fountain Programmable Video System, and the entirely New

> Zealand-made arcade game "Malzak", are unique internationally. These

> were home-grown creations, New Zealand's answer to Atari, if you

> like.

> 

> "These items deserve to be recognised as historically significant

> artefacts, but very little has been kept. If nothing is done to

> preserve these scarce items, this part of New Zealand's history is at

> risk of being lost."

> 

> Together with Victoria colleagues from the Schools of Mathematics,

> Statistics & Computer Science and Accounting & Commercial Law, Dr

> Swalwell plans to pursue the legal, technical and historical issues

> surrounding computer games produced in New Zealand further, focusing

> on how these artefacts can be preserved for future generations.

> 

> Dr Swalwell's research project will be launched on Friday 23 June.

> The event will be held at 3.30pm in the Videoconferencing suite, Room

> 106 of the Rankine Brown Building at Kelburn Campus.

> 

> Cast-Offs from the Golden Age can be accessed at

> http://tinyurl.com/hp4nl

> 

> For further information, please contact Dr Swalwell on (04) 463 7446

> or email Melanie.Swalwell at vuw.ac.nz

> 

>> From

>> http://www.vuw.ac.nz/home/about_victoria/news_article.asp?ArticleID=1042150505

>> 

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