[game_preservation] History of "game engine"

[Henry Lowood]

Alex, it is.  There's very little doubt on that point.  However, besides 
wanting to say something about the specific term,  it will be useful to 
survey the preceding technology to see where id fits in and why it had 
such a huge impact.   Henry


On 8/8/2012 2:34 AM, Alex Handy wrote:

> Well, wordwise, I bet id is the first.

> On Aug 7, 2012 8:49 PM, "Henry Lowood" <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:

>

>>   Hey Alex,

>> Infocom and LucasArts (SCUMM) were my first thoughts, and we have

>> Meretzky's papers here, so I can check out Infocom pretty easily.  I'm

>> skeptical, but I am keeping an open mind.  An important aspect for the

>> stuff I am looking at is the separation of the "engine" from assets.

>> Probably a lot will depend on how the data libraries were organized for the

>> Infocom and LucasArts projects, and it will take me a while to sort that

>> out. If anybody knows of good documentation, let me know.

>> Henry

>>

>> On 8/7/2012 2:20 PM, Alex Handy wrote:

>>

>> Text game engines. Infocom probably called it something different, but

>> that's what it was.

>>

>> Gold box dnd games, also.

>> On Aug 7, 2012 2:18 PM, "Henry Lowood" <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:

>>

>>> Hi all,

>>>

>>> I'm working on a project having to do with the history of the game engine

>>> (as concept, technology, etc.) and its various impacts on game design and

>>> other things.  So, here is a question for this group.  Does anybody want to

>>> make a claim that there was a relevant use of the term in game design

>>> BEFORE id Software began to use the term.  I've done some analysis with the

>>> Google database (n-grams, etc.) and I find no evidence of anything like

>>> that, plus John Romero believes that id coined the term as we use it today.

>>>    (And I agree.)

>>>

>>> Anyway, if you think you have or know of a counter-claim, please let me

>>> know and I'll check on it.  Source references welcome, of course.

>>>

>>> Henry

>>>

>>> --

>>> Henry Lowood

>>> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>>>    Film & Media Collections

>>> HSSG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall

>>> Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004

>>> 650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

>>>

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> game_preservation mailing list

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>>>

>> --

>> Henry Lowood

>> Curator, History of Science & Technology Collections;

>>     Film & Media Collections

>> HSSG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall

>> Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.eduhttp://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

>>

>>


-- 
Henry Lowood
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;
   Film & Media Collections
HSSG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood