Actually, what I meant was that as far as I'm concerned the story behind Spacewar! has been told already so I often expect very little from history pieces beyond the Leonard Herman article (which was in Supercade). I feel most histories tend to simply be chronicles of how something was made or ultimately a list of works (Steve Kent's book is more interesting in the origins chapters not from what is being said but who is saying it and more importantly <i>how </i>they're saying it). Because gamers often have no memory or recollection of the past (as in 'anything they haven't played'), it's very common for information to suddenly appear and be presented as 'brand new!!!' when people have actually known about it for years (often without regard for those sources). Nostalgia articles, if they're good, capitalize on the memories of gamers by revisiting them and hopefully providing something new (though often in the way of valorizing the game). <br>
<br>I tend to think more in-depth history is about asking questions and giving us new ways of interpreting the past. So I would see a comparison of Spacewar! and Pong as doing something new rather than just retelling old stories.<br>
<br>Then again, my interests have made me somewhat pessimistic and eccentric. I'm afraid that has turned me into something of a salty critic.<br><br>-Devin<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 2:50 PM, Henry Lowood <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lowood@stanford.edu">lowood@stanford.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<font face="Georgia">Ouch, that hurt, Devin! I just completed an
article for IEEE Annals in the History of Computing on the relationship
between Spacewar! and Pong. Actually, there isn't much out there on
Spacewar! A helpful piece in Edge recently was the piece by Leonard
Herman (though, look hard for the attibution) on Ted Dabney.<br>
<br>
Henry<br>
</font><br>
Devin Monnens wrote:
<blockquote type="cite"><div><div></div><div class="h5">Edge has a Making of Spacewar article? Is that original or
is it just a republication of the one in Supercade? That article has
been around in various forms for awhile, and of course there's the old
Stone article. I can't imagine there would be anything new to say about
Spacewar in a gaming mag that hasn't been said already... That said, I
still think there's more to say about Spacewar, but it ultimately
involves more research (hence my interest in game software on mainframe
computers :)<br>
<br>
-Devin<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 9:55 AM, Andrew
Armstrong <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:andrew@aarmstrong.org" target="_blank">andrew@aarmstrong.org</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">Yeah, some of those articles
and others - such as Edge's "Making
of...Spacewar!" need to get added to the magical database I'm creating,
heh (well, that I'm still designing). I don't want to post much more in
the way of "articles on old games" on the blog as I proposed before,
unless someone is able to help find them :)<br>
<br>
Actually, it is worth discussing the games/articles on the mailing list
though. I should post up some of the more interesting ones.<br>
<br>
Andrew<br>
<br>
Devin Monnens wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<div>Well, it's end of the semester here, so things
are kind of
crazy. I did notice though there was an article on Rogue on Gamasutra:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4013/the_history_of_rogue_have__you_.php" target="_blank">http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4013/the_history_of_rogue_have__you_.php</a><br>
<br>
-Devin<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 2:39 AM, Andrew
Armstrong <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:andrew@aarmstrong.org" target="_blank">andrew@aarmstrong.org</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">The
IGDA wiki is down, thus I've not been able to do the monthly roundup.
Sorry about this!<br>
<br>
Remember though, there's plenty to discuss with the projects. We're
kind of understaffed, it appears, since most don't have any active
interest right now, or in fact any disinterest even. It seems I'll have
to go out and find new members for some of them or start them myself.<br>
<br>
Andrew<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
game_preservation mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org" target="_blank">game_preservation@igda.org</a><br>
<a href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation" target="_blank">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
Devin Monnens<br>
<a href="http://www.deserthat.com" target="_blank">www.deserthat.com</a><br>
<br>
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.<br>
</div>
</div>
<pre><hr size="4" width="90%"><div>
_______________________________________________
game_preservation mailing list
<a href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org" target="_blank">game_preservation@igda.org</a>
<a href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation" target="_blank">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</a>
</div></pre>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
game_preservation mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org" target="_blank">game_preservation@igda.org</a><br>
<a href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation" target="_blank">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</a><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
Devin Monnens<br>
<a href="http://www.deserthat.com" target="_blank">www.deserthat.com</a><br>
<br>
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.<br>
</div></div><pre><hr size="4" width="90%"><div class="im">
_______________________________________________
game_preservation mailing list
<a href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org" target="_blank">game_preservation@igda.org</a>
<a href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation" target="_blank">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</a>
</div></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
Henry Lowood
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;
Film & Media Collections
HRG, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall, Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004 USA
<a href="http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood" target="_blank">http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood</a>
<a href="mailto:lowood@stanford.edu" target="_blank">lowood@stanford.edu</a>; 650-723-4602
</pre>
</div>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
game_preservation mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org">game_preservation@igda.org</a><br>
<a href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation" target="_blank">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Devin Monnens<br><a href="http://www.deserthat.com">www.deserthat.com</a><br><br>The sleep of Reason produces monsters.<br>