[game_preservation] History of Women in Games

[Jose P. Zagal]

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.

>

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation


-- 
José P. Zagal
Assistant Professor
College of Computing and Digital Media
DePaul University

http://www.ludoliteracy.com/

http://facsrv.cs.depaul.edu/~jzagal