[game_preservation] History of Videogames in an hour?

[Henry Lowood]

Devin,

I doubt that you will find an essay that covers this topic in 15-20 
pages, unless you are receptive to a thematic treatment, as opposed to 
comprehensive coverage (basically impossible in that format).   I've 
tried to this (i.e., a thematic treatment) once:

"A Brief Biography of Computer Games," in: Playing Computer Games: 
Motives, Responses, and Consequences, eds. Peter Vorderer and Jennings 
Bryant. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006): 25-41.

It's readable in an hour, and it might spur discussion, but it's 
anything but comprehensive or chronologically organized.

As for video, I still think a thematic treatment would be best.  I'm not 
sure what the many video chronologies give you (other than screenshots 
and captures) that a timeline does not, and I'm not a huge fan of 
timelines either.   Jason Scott's "Get Lamp" would be excellent.  Longer 
than an hour, and not comprehensive (just about text adventures), 
however, I think it would get a lot of discussion going.

Henry

On 7/30/2011 3:33 PM, Devin Monnens wrote:

> Hi guys,

>

> It's that time of year. Cleaning up my syllabus for the Fall 2011 

> semester. I still have that same old problem of finding a good article 

> or video that will cover the history of videogames pretty decently and 

> in a relatively short span of time. So far, I've yet to find anything 

> really condensed outside of Wikipedia, and I'd rather not use them.

>

> I may direct my students back to Dot Eaters. It's pretty detailed, but 

> doesn't cover as much history as I'd like. I'm staying away from 

> timelines because they don't seem to communicate that much. However, 

> Steve Kent has a 40-page timeline that seems pretty decent - just no 

> images or illustrations.

>

> I am also considering videos. There's some history of videogames 

> videos on YouTube, but most of them contain lots of cursing 

> (IrateGamer's seemed like a good start though).  This clip is a nice, 

> short timeline, though it doesn't show a lot of the significance of 

> the games and who made them.

>

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yn4JRsmyy4

>

> Any thoughts on a good, short history?

>

> -Devin

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

>

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-- 
Henry Lowood
Curator, History of Science&  Technology Collections;
    Film&  Media Collections
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu
http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

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