[game_preservation] The Videogame Archivist

[Martin Goldberg]

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 4:32 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org> wrote:

> Ahh, but aren't all videogames also computer games? :D (do we even have a

> proper answer?)


Yes, the technical answer is no. ;)


The Odyssey, dedicated consoles like PONG, and video coin-op machines
of the early 70's - they're all state machines based on discrete
logic.  They have no CPU, are not programmable, and certainly do not
follow any of the standards of Von Neumann Architecture to qualify as
a "computer".

If you want to go by the idea of "computer" being simply a
computational device (ala pre-general purpose computers when
"computer" referred to an actual person, usually a woman, doing the
caclulations manually on a computational assistance device or
glorified calculator) you could stretch it to that.  But I wouldn't
call that accurate either.  Ralph for instance has stated on more than
one occasion when I questioned him on this exact subject, he in no way
considers the Odyssey a "computer".

With this in mind, you're left with Henry's "digital games" being the
most accurate.  That is as long as you don't get in to an argument on
"digital" and "analog".  Some electrical engineers still consider
devices that use digital logic and components to be analog if they're
being driven by an RC or "analog pulse" vs. a crystal driven digital
one.  Hybrid systems.  Given the fact that most pre-digital IC driven
mainframe and mini computers used this pulse method (because that's
what was available), according to these people it also means they're
actually analog computers as well.

I don't subscribe to that, as a lot of other people in the computer
sciences don't.  But it still brings up the constant conundrum we're
in - chooising descriptives that describe the context we're trying to
convey but still remain technically accurate.


Marty