[game_preservation] History of Women in Games

[Devin Monnens]

I'm syndicating this from the WIG SIG mailing list as I think this history
concerns us directly. I don't have much to give in the way of response, but
I would say that developers were thinking about this as early as the late
70s with Pac-Man, Cutie Q, and Bee-52. They're not targeted specifically at
girls though, and I don't recall any software made prior to 1983 that was.


Message: 2
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:29:56 -0700
From: Gandalf The White <gandalf at digital.net>
Subject: [women_in_games] Question about the history of games for
       females
To: <women_dev at igda.org>
Message-ID: <C8AB0DD4.1F132%gandalf at digital.net<C8AB0DD4.1F132%25gandalf at digital.net>

>

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Greetings and Salutations:

I joined this mailing list to see what information was around / watch the
discussions.

I have delurked to ask one such question.  Is there a "history" of games /
software for women / girls?

I am curious where a piece of software that I programmed fits into the
equation.  I programmed "Jenny Of The Prairie" in 1983 for a company named
Rhiannon on the Apple IIe.  It is an adventure games for girls that was
later ported to IBM PC, Atari and Commodore.  I believe that it was one of
the first games specifically targeted for girls, but I am not sure.

Thank you for your responses, I appreciate your time.

Ken

---------------------------------------------------------------
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From: "Judy L. Tyrer" <jltyrer at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [women_in_games] Question about the history of games for
       females
To: Ken Hollis <gandalf at digital.net>, women in games list
       <women_dev at igda.org>
Message-ID:
       <AANLkTimiESM_kv4evXyPu5-=-VuC4aA+yQthRmTeEODT at mail.gmail.com<VuC4aA%2ByQthRmTeEODT at mail.gmail.com>

>

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Don't forget Purple Moon.  I loved that series and was sorry it died.
American Girl also had some software for creating plays with the
American Girl characters - it would be called a game today.  Not sure
what it was called back then.

Judy

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 1:45 AM, Ken Hollis <gandalf at digital.net> wrote:

> Greetings and Salutations:

>

>>>From: Gandalf The White <gandalf at digital.net>

>>>>I have delurked to ask one such question. ?Is there a "history" of games

/

>>>software for women / girls?

>

>>From: Asatte <sylia1 at gmail.com>

>>>I just had to respond, Gandalf the White was the coolest thing to see in

my

>>>mailbox all week!

>

> From: Janette Ramsey <cowgirlchev83 at yahoo.com>

>>I have to agree that was really cool to see in my in-box as well

>

> Being an "experienced" tech type, I have used this e-mail since 1993 ... I

am glad that it brightened your day :-).

>

> Just to assure you that I am not asking for someone else to do the

research, I have looked into this for myself. ?As far as I can tell about
the only other software aimed directly towards women / girls was released a
year later "The House That Jill Built" or "Where in the World is Carmen
Sandiego?" (1985)

>

> Does anybody recall any other software?

>

> --> What was your favorite software to "play" (run) when you were younger?

<--

>

> These are a few articles I found in the search engines:

> http://www.bing.com/search?q=%22Jenny+Of+The+Prairie%22

> http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Jenny+Of+The+Prairie%22

>

> Women in computing, 1985, with Elizabeth Stott, one of the founders of

Rhiannon:

> http://www.archive.org/details/WomeninC1985

>

> Even at CES 1985 "Jenny" seems to be the only software specifically aimed

a girls:

> http://books.google.com/books?id=DiUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT74

>

>

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906EFDC1338F935A25751C1A962948260

>

>

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue52/300_1_THE_LATEST_IN_LEARNING_NEW_TRENDS_IN_EDUCATIONAL_COMPUTING.php

>

> An interesting 1986 "Feminist Collections" magazine:

> http://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/21746/FC_7.3_Spr1986.pdf

>

> Thank you for your time

>

> Ken


-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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