[game_preservation] History of Women in Games
Jose P. Zagal
jzagal at cdm.depaul.edu
Thu Sep 9 17:21:01 EDT 2010
There might be some in terms of licensed games. I seem to recall there
was a Strawberry Shortcake game for the Atari 2600. (1982? 1983?)
Jose
On 9/9/2010 2:59 PM, Devin Monnens wrote:
> 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 <mailto:gandalf at digital.net>>
> Subject: [women_in_games] Question about the history of games for
> females
> To: <women_dev at igda.org <mailto:women_dev at igda.org>>
> Message-ID: <C8AB0DD4.1F132%gandalf at digital.net
> <mailto:C8AB0DD4.1F132%25gandalf at digital.net>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> 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
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards for they are subtle and
> quick to anger.
> Ken Hollis - Gandalf The White - gandalf at digital.net
> <mailto:gandalf at digital.net> - O- TINLC
> WWW Page - http://digital.net/~gandalf/
> Trace E-Mail forgery - http://digital.net/~gandalf/spamfaq.html
> Trolls crossposts - http://digital.net/~gandalf/trollfaq.html
> Woodworking For Geeks - http://digital.net/~gandalf/woodmain.htm
>
>
> From: "Judy L. Tyrer" <jltyrer at gmail.com <mailto:jltyrer at gmail.com>>
> Subject: Re: [women_in_games] Question about the history of games for
> females
> To: Ken Hollis <gandalf at digital.net <mailto:gandalf at digital.net>>, women
> in games list
> <women_dev at igda.org <mailto:women_dev at igda.org>>
> Message-ID:
> <AANLkTimiESM_kv4evXyPu5-=-VuC4aA+yQthRmTeEODT at mail.gmail.com
> <mailto:VuC4aA%2ByQthRmTeEODT at mail.gmail.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> 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
> <mailto:gandalf at digital.net>> wrote:
>> Greetings and Salutations:
>>
>> >>From: Gandalf The White <gandalf at digital.net
> <mailto: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 <mailto: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
> <mailto: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.bing.com/search?q=%22Jenny+Of+The+Prairie%22>
>> http://www.google.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://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 <http://www.deserthat.com>
>
> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
>
>
>
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--
José P. Zagal
Assistant Professor
College of Computing and Digital Media
DePaul University
http://www.ludoliteracy.com/
http://facsrv.cs.depaul.edu/~jzagal
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