Henry,<div><br></div><div>I am focusing primarily on games prior to 1972. Simply put, while Spacewar was INCREDIBLY popular, there is surprisingly little documentation of other games you might otherwise expect to be developed based on Spacewar's design - aside from, of course, Spacewar mods. My primary focus of research is why this at least appears to be the case (lack of documentation? Or students just didn't make them?). The focus is primarily this period from 1962-1972, but it really goes up to about 1976 with the release of Colossal Cave Adventure (say, the first 15 years of the computer game; I initially picked 1972 to coincide with the launch of the Odyssey and Pong).</div>
<div><br></div><div>I hadn't considered Eliza and SHRDLU, but was looking primarily at games. I am interested in tracking the different memes that developed the videogame industry. There seems to be a direct correlation between what people played and what they developed later on (whether it was for computer systems or console systems).</div>
<div><br></div><div>BASIC I haven't really looked at. I wasn't aware of any BASIC games developed in this time period, but I know that many were made for the platform. It isn't so much important that a BASIC game could run on older hardware but whether it was developed before 1972 (or 1976 if I go up to CCA).</div>
<div><br></div><div>PLATO is another interesting meme, but most of their games are developed after 1972, so I have to wonder what their influences were (is there a book or paper about PLATO?). PARC was incredibly influential (just now surprised to see they developed the emoticon, too!) and so this is one strong influence thread on computer games (as opposed to console and arcade).</div>
<div><br></div><div>Another area that tends to get dismissed in game history is Chess AI (despite the fact that they are videogames in every sense of the word!). Eliza and SHRDLU certainly had strong influences on language parsers. I'm a little surprised they don't seem to be in use for modern CRPGs and that we still use text menus...</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Devin</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 10:17 AM, Henry Lowood <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lowood@stanford.edu">lowood@stanford.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Devin,<br>
<br>
Is that true? There is quite a bit on SHRDLU, for example, or the Game
of Life (I think the computer version was at MIT). Also, Eliza, if you
consider that a game. Was there a game in particular that you had in
mind? <br>
<br>
Also, for non-MIT games, the PLATO (Empire, Mines of Moria, etc.) games
and Adventure. Are you looking at non-academic games like Hunt the
Wumpus? There were a lot of BASIC games, and those are pretty well
documented. <br>
<br>
Henry<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
Devin Monnens wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">Henry,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I don't mind contacting them over telephone or e-mail. Do you
think any of them might be interested in talking to a game history
researcher about this? I'm trying to understand why there were so few
games aside from Spacewar mods documented from that time period.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-Devin<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 3:58 PM, Henry
Lowood <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lowood@stanford.edu" target="_blank">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">Devin,<br>
<br>
All the MIT people I know from that era probably live within ten miles
of Stanford these days. Another confirmation of how smart they are!<br>
<br>
Henry<br>
</font><br>
Devin Monnens wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<div>I am interested in doing research on mainframe
computer
games produced before 1975. I will be in Boston from November 6-9 on an
unrelated trip, but will be visiting MIT for their open house. I was
curious if anyone here knew someone at MIT who would have knowledge
about this period who I could meet with while there. Any other
resources would also be greatly appreciated!
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-Devin<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>
</div>
<pre><hr size="4" width="90%">
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</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>
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<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>
<pre><hr size="4" width="90%">
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div></div><div>-- <br>
<div><font face="Georgia">Henry Lowood, Ph.D.</font></div><div class="im">
<div><font face="Georgia">Curator for History of Science &
Technology Collections;</font></div>
<div><font face="Georgia"> Film & Media Collections</font></div>
<div><font face="Georgia">HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall</font></div>
<div><font face="Georgia">Stanford University Libraries</font></div>
<div><font face="Georgia">Stanford CA 94305-6004</font></div>
</div><div><font face="Georgia">650-723-4602; <a href="mailto:lowood@stanford.edu" target="_blank">lowood@stanford.edu</a>; <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood" target="_blank">http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood</a></font>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<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>
</div>