Posted by Shannon Symonds on 05/15/2012
Recently, ICHEG added the controversial arcade game Death Race to its collections.
Released by Exidy in 1976, Death Race became the first arcade game to spur a national controversy over violence in video games. A player of the game navigated a white car across the black screen as white stick figures, which developers called “gremlins,” ran back and forth. The driver attempted to run over the gremlins, which let out high-pitched screams and turned into tomb stones complete with crosses. With each kill, a player gained a certain number of points. Though the game featured minimal graphics, protestors soon claimed the title promoted excessive violence. Exidy responded that, despite the gremlins’ humanoid shape, they weren’t meant to represent people, but several flaws exist in this explanation.
Posted by Jon-Paul C. Dyson on 05/03/2012
Nearly 600,000 guests come to The Strong annually, and many consider a visit to the arcade in eGameRevolution the highlight of their trip. Some visitors favor new games—slashing fruit on the giant touch-screen version of Fruit Ninja, munching opponents in the four-person Pac-Man Battle Royale, or playing the only Sega Giant Tetris game in North…
Posted by Michelle Parnett on 04/26/2012
PBS recently launched the Idea Channel, a bi-weekly series that examines the evolving relationship between modern technology and art. In the episode “Super Mario Brothers as Surrealist Art?”, host Mike Rungetta advocated for the game’s place in the canon of great surrealists.
Posted by Shannon Symonds on 04/20/2012
Players disagree about what constitutes cheating. In her book, Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames, Mia Consalvo defines cheating as an action that “breaks the magic circle,” meaning players leave the imaginary world to reach outside for answers. This “magic circle” concept originated in Dutch historian Johan Huizinga’s book Homo Ludens, in which he explains how…
Posted by Jon-Paul C. Dyson on 04/04/2012
Recently, Minecraft fever struck my house. All four of my children now play the game and one Saturday morning my kids showed me the houses, sheep farms, mines, and other creations they built in the game using blocks they mined or harvested from stone, ore, wood, or other materials. The buildings were creative, beautiful, and…
Posted by Shannon Symonds on 03/22/2012
With more than 10 million subscribers and a Guinness World Record for most popular MMORPG, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (WoW) ushered in a new generation of online gaming. Last year, Blizzard auctioned approximately 2,000 original WoW server blades (stripped-down server computer) to benefit St. Jude’s Research Hospital, and ICHEG was pleased to add one to…
Posted by Michelle Parnett on 03/09/2012
Here is a list of cliché complaints that you likely hear on a daily basis: I was so worried about such and such, I couldn’t sleep. I got so bored running on the treadmill, I just wanted to slide off the back of it at full speed. I should not have ordered that ______ (fill…
Posted by Jon-Paul C. Dyson on 02/27/2012
Temple Run, an iPhone game, was recently the rage at my son’s school, so he downloaded it to my phone. It’s a basic survival game in which the player, an explorer, flees with the idol from a jungle temple. The game rewards quick decisions as the player tries to stay on the path and jump…
Posted by Michelle Parnett on 02/03/2012
From Man Ray and Elizabeth Lee Miller to Picasso and Marie-Therese Walter, the story of an artist and his muse proves just as striking as the artwork itself. Today, video games both inspire art and serve as a muse. Three different video game projects recently caught my fancy. A few years ago, I went to…
Posted by Shannon Symonds on 01/13/2012
When I heard about Bioware’s 2011 release of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic (SW:TOR), nostalgia consumed me and I immediately added it to my wish list. This holiday season, the game proved the shiniest toy under my tree. SW:TOR puts the player in the center of conflict between the…
