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August 05, 2008
SIG Monthly Update: August 2008
So the month of August rolls around. This is late coming due to posting a ton of new blog links from me missing a week of content, but I wanted to try out the monthly progress reports/articles posted links. Helps me at least keep myself on track! :)
Preservation SIG Updates
If anyone remembers, the Memorials project was launched more officially in June. This has lead to a total of exactly no one emailing Devin about it as far as I'm aware (boo!) however, we're working on it ourselves (yay!). Contributions welcome, there's a lot of Biographies to do. People who died in July added to the project are Randy Pausch (Professor), and Melissa Batten (Xbox 360 Developer). Both are rather sad cases - Randy for his inevitable death from cancer, and Melissa because of it being a murder-suicide by her husband.
I have been working on plans to update the SIG's information lists - which are now outdated, and in fact were always incomplete. Starting afresh is the Contributions page, where museums and archives will be listed who can accept material. I personally am working on emailing who I can, and in am in contact in person with the UK National Museum of Computing (which I visited recently). Contributions to this section or knowledge of any computer museums welcome - I have only two USA museums to contact at the moment, there must be more! :)
Finally, as an aside project, I am gearing up my uploading efforts at the Internet Archive, despite my internet connection here being absolutely terrible for uploads. I'm uploading more Kikizo and Fileshack material in bits and pieces, and also the online gamer show Pure Pwnage, which is easier since Wikipedia provides a nice description of the content :) - Henry and his Standford groupies are doing some work in the Virtual Worlds section too!
I might also be onto getting some older E3 videos/documentary stuff up from someone who might be interested, we'll see - the E3 of yesteryear isn't going to come back so soon, so it'll be interesting to put that material up. There will also be some effort if I run out of everything else to start uploading trailers and promo material. I'll link to anything interesting, and try and root out some strange stuff for the collection.
August Preservation SIG Work
I have no idea how Henry is doing for workload - so I don't expect the whitepaper will get started yet. I personally will try and finish in as much as I can the contributions section before tackling the projects & resources pages. Not much else to note that's of any interest, maybe you guys are up to something good this month?
I'm also currently reading "The A-Zof Cool Computer Games" - giving me the thought to review it's contents for an updated "Resources" section. You might well be asked for book lists, reviews or anything else in the future once I get some templates up. I am sure many of you have shelves of the annuals of time, it might be time to dust them off for a little while if I can't find them online to index on our site! :)
Preservation SIG Blog Updates / Links
Note: Have I missed anything? Then email it in. I really should get a "Preservation newsdesk" email setup, there's a lot more I simply don't know about which I keep missing. This is everything from July (the August stuff is really from July or the very start of August).
10 things everyone should know about Space InvadersInterview with Benoît Sokal
Discworld Game Remakes
The First Video Game Sequel with modding?
Henry Lowood on Machinima and the History of Digital Games
The Importance Of History In The Excellence Of Video Games
Stanford Workshop: “Preserving Knowledge in Virtual Worlds”
GOG from CD-Projekt to Offer Classic Games
SomethingAwful Game Articles
Defender...in a Favicon
The Good and Bad of Sport Videogames
Making Tennis For Two On Modern Hardware
Journal Starting "Historical Studies of Digital Entertainment Media"
The World of Western RPGs
Word Play: The Evolution of Game Journalism
The History of Video Games: The First Video Game?...
A History of Gaming Platforms: Atari 8-Bit Computers
Simon Turns 30: The History of the Toy and Gaming's First Grudge
Game Mag Weaseling: Where to begin?
Introducing the Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection Blog
"Lost Server Connection": The Last Minutes of a Virtual World
Simon did suggest pictures - I must start doing this, despite the fact this version of Movable Type is rubbish for it (ie; there's no way to upload pictures ;) ). The new IGDA site is not going to be here quick - it's being redone, although I'm not sure I can divulge in what software, and there is no timeline.
Final Thoughts
The Vintage Game Club started up last month, with Grim Fandango. Mine keeps crashing, I'll have to tinker with it more, but the intro sure has me in the mood for more despite the agonising cries of "illogical puzzles". They're not doing a "Game a month" but instead seeing what works, and who knows what will be done in the future? Might be worth keeping an eye out on.
This is also a trial. I'll stick this on the wiki, and all comments are welcome on format/content.
Thanks all,
Andrew Armstrong
IGDA Game Preservation SIG Site/Blog editor
Posted by AndrewArmstrong at August 5, 2008 03:49 PM