[game_preservation] Monthly update coming...soon

[Devin Monnens]

Actually, what I meant was that as far as I'm concerned the story behind
Spacewar! has been told already so I often expect very little from history
pieces beyond the Leonard Herman article (which was in Supercade). I feel
most histories tend to simply be chronicles of how something was made or
ultimately a list of works (Steve Kent's book is more interesting in the
origins chapters not from what is being said but who is saying it and more
importantly *how *they're saying it). Because gamers often have no memory or
recollection of the past (as in 'anything they haven't played'), it's very
common for information to suddenly appear and be presented as 'brand new!!!'
when people have actually known about it for years (often without regard for
those sources). Nostalgia articles, if they're good, capitalize on the
memories of gamers by revisiting them and hopefully providing something new
(though often in the way of valorizing the game).

I tend to think more in-depth history is about asking questions and giving
us new ways of interpreting the past. So I would see a comparison of
Spacewar! and Pong as doing something new rather than just retelling old
stories.

Then again, my interests have made me somewhat pessimistic and eccentric.
I'm afraid that has turned me into something of a salty critic.

-Devin

On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 2:50 PM, Henry Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:


>  Ouch, that hurt, Devin!  I just completed an article for IEEE Annals in

> the History of Computing on the relationship between Spacewar! and Pong.

> Actually, there isn't much out there on Spacewar!  A helpful piece in Edge

> recently was the piece by Leonard Herman (though, look hard for the

> attibution) on Ted Dabney.

>

> Henry

>

> Devin Monnens wrote:

>

> Edge has a Making of Spacewar article? Is that original or is it just a

> republication of the one in Supercade? That article has been around in

> various forms for awhile, and of course there's the old Stone article. I

> can't imagine there would be anything new to say about Spacewar in a gaming

> mag that hasn't been said already... That said, I still think there's more

> to say about Spacewar, but it ultimately involves more research (hence my

> interest in game software on mainframe computers :)

>

> -Devin

>

> On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 9:55 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:

>

>> Yeah, some of those articles and others - such as Edge's "Making

>> of...Spacewar!" need to get added to the magical database I'm creating, heh

>> (well, that I'm still designing). I don't want to post much more in the way

>> of "articles on old games" on the blog as I proposed before, unless someone

>> is able to help find them :)

>>

>> Actually, it is worth discussing the games/articles on the mailing list

>> though. I should post up some of the more interesting ones.

>>

>> Andrew

>>

>> Devin Monnens wrote:

>>

>>  Well, it's end of the semester here, so things are kind of crazy. I did

>> notice though there was an article on Rogue on Gamasutra:

>>

>>

>> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4013/the_history_of_rogue_have__you_.php

>>

>> -Devin

>>

>> On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 2:39 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:

>>

>>> The IGDA wiki is down, thus I've not been able to do the monthly roundup.

>>> Sorry about this!

>>>

>>> Remember though, there's plenty to discuss with the projects. We're kind

>>> of understaffed, it appears, since most don't have any active interest right

>>> now, or in fact any disinterest even. It seems I'll have to go out and find

>>> new members for some of them or start them myself.

>>>

>>> Andrew

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> game_preservation mailing list

>>> game_preservation at igda.org

>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>>

>>

>>

>>

>> --

>> Devin Monnens

>> www.deserthat.com

>>

>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>

>> ------------------------------

>>

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>>

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>>

>

>

> --

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

> ------------------------------

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing listgame_preservation at igda.orghttp://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>

>

> --

> Henry Lowood

> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>      Film & Media Collections

> HRG, Green Library

> 557 Escondido Mall, Stanford University Libraries

> Stanford CA 94305-6004 USAhttp://www.stanford.edu/~lowood <http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood>lowood at stanford.edu; 650-723-4602

>

>

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>

>



-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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