History and Games This Week
Welcome to the week in history and games, a short collection of links to stories and news that we hope you find interesting.
A lot of meta intra-industry history today! I will start with something fun. Andrew Reinhard is looking for people to help fund the preservation of the first video game archaeological excavation, the site of the infamous Atari dump in 1983. Andrew wants to take a collection of data already gathered but lingering in a "gray zone" of private ownership and archive this information with tDAR, the Digital Archaeological Record. This is a worthy cause in preserving the history of the medium. Please have a look and consider contributing!
The last few days have given us plenty of examples of how often and how enthusiastically the video games industry is willing to engage with its own history, at least in the form of revisiting old games. Legendary game developers/publishers Blizzard held their annual convention Blizzcon this past weekend, delayed from the autumn of 2020 and held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. News centered on the announcement of a remastered Diablo 2, at least among the many video game fans my age that I know. Our own Bob Whitaker is pretty excited.
The opening ceremony of the virtual conference ended with a special guest. Blizzcon has had some fantastic musical guests over the years, brought in to close the show; I have particularly fond memories of seeing Tenacious D rock out with guest drummer Dave Grohl. For this year, Blizzard invited Metallica to pop in and play some classic metal. This Metallica duly did, though viewers on Twitch were treated to something a little different. The history of rights to digitally broadcast intellectual property is fascinating, ongoing, and confusing.
Guardian video games editor and all around awesome games person Keza McDonald decided to risk the wrath of the Internet by ranking all the Legend of Zelda games. One could argue the top five picks itself perhaps; mostly I'm shocked these games have been around for thirty five years.
Nintendo noticed the anniversary too.
Zelda games aren't the only enormously influential franchise celebrating an anniversary. Pokemon games have now been around for twenty five years! Jay Castello reflects on the importance of community in the game series' lasting appeal.
Rob Houghton, of the University of Winchester, is giving a talk this coming Friday on the Crusades in computer strategy games. I think this will be absolutely fascinating. And registration is free!
Thanks for joining us this week. Have a little moment of joy) before you go.
