This flash game asks you to name as many as you can in 12 minutes. I only got 31 and thought I was doing well. You don't have to guess in order, and correctly spelled answers (or in some cases, their abbreviations) will automatically appear in the list. I'm putting this to you guys not only as a throw-down-the-gauntlet challenge, but also if the quiz creator missed any, or improperly listed one or more, you'll pick it all apart. Because after getting fewer than 50 percent, I need to feel better about myself, and the only way to do that is to question this quiz's credibility. (Kidding.) So you have at least one hint, let's see what you can do with the rest.

Can You Name the Video Game Systems (Released in the U.S.)? [Sporcle]

Tennis for Two was created by Drs. William A. Higinbotham and Robert Dvorak at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y. on Oct. 18, 1958. The lab, also the scene of six Nobel-winning discoveries, is currently honoring the achievement. It can be played with a replica controller on a simulation of its original oscilloscope screen, all of five inches. Future versions of the game allowed it to be played in alternate gravities, such as the Moon's or Jupiter's.

The New York Times went there and spoke to one of the developers' son, Robert Dvorak, Jr., putting together another chapter on the very early days of video gaming.

Higinbotham got the idea reading the instructions for one of the computers at the lab. It could simulate the trajectories of bullets, missiles, or bouncing balls — why not create a tennis game? It was conceived as an attraction for a laboratory open house to be held later. Of course, when word spread of the new game, a long line snaked out the door waiting to play it. Next time you're outside a game store waiting in line for a new AAA-release, remember you're a part of a phenomenon now half-a-century old.

Dvorak's son, who is now 57, fondly recalls playing the game. He's an electrical engineer now. And he's still a gamer.

“Games are great,” Robert Dvorak Jr. said. “You a learn a lot about strategy, you interact with people, you use tools and creativity. I’m a gamer, period.”

Brookhaven Honors a Pioneer Video Game [New York Times, and NYT photo]

IBM and Palace Museum Announce Opening of The Forbidden City Virtual World Celebrating 600 Years of Chinese Culture

"The Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time" Recreates Historical Treasure as a Fully Immersive 3D-Internet Experience

BEIJING, Oct 10, 2008 — Today, some 600 years after construction began on the 178-acre site that would become the center of unrivalled imperial power known as China's Forbidden City, the Palace Museum and IBM will open the walled fortress — and hundreds of years of history and culture — to the world.

Three years in the making, IBM has meticulously built a virtual recreation of the architecture and artifacts of the former palace grounds, enabling online visitors to get a first-hand view into imperial China as embodied in the intricate design, history and storied culture of this newly accessible Forbidden City.

"The Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time" ( www.beyondspaceandtime.org) is a first-of-a-kind, fully immersive, three-dimensional virtual world that recreates a visceral sense of space and time of this Chinese cultural treasure — as it was centuries ago during the height of the Ming and Qing dynasties — for most anyone with access to the Internet.

"The rich cultural heritage of China's imperial past, embodied in the Forbidden City for over five centuries, is now brought to life and accessible to all through a virtual world created by IBM and the Palace Museum," said Henry Chow, Chairman, Greater China Group, IBM. "This initiative takes the online experience to a new level of innovation with rich content, educational storytelling, community and social networking features that represent the next generation of 3D-Internet applications.

"What makes me proud is that IBM now has opened the door to a cultural treasure and rich heritage to everyone, everywhere which in the past was only available to relatively few."

Originally, the Forbidden City was constructed to embody the idea of the emperor as the center of the universe with a series of dramatic courtyards and gates, buildings and landings underscoring a design built to reinforce security and power. This huge palace complex was completed in 1420, about twelve years after construction began, and contains hundreds of exquisite buildings and historic artifacts, and on October 10th, celebrates its 83rd anniversary as a museum and one of China's major cultural attractions.

Now, using virtual world technology, visitors can experience the awe inspired by this vast and amazing space. Rather than experiencing its wonders in isolation, the virtual Forbidden City allows you to see and interact with other users and a range of helpful automated characters. As you explore the virtual Forbidden City, you can choose to simply observe the buzz of activity, or you can take tours and participate in activities that provide insights into important aspects of Qing culture.

Visitors to the virtual Forbidden City will be able to take tours that correspond to major historical topics and stories from the Forbidden City, such as Dragons of the Forbidden City, the Supreme Golden Halls of the Forbidden City, the Imperial Garden, and the Symbolic Animals in the Forbidden City.

"'The Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time' is a program that combines China's world-class cultural heritage with state-of-the-art information technology. Three years in the making, the Palace Museum worked closely with IBM in jointly engineering the program. Both parties have been deeply touched by the profound and dazzling ancient Chinese culture," said Zheng Xinmiao, the Director-General of The Palace Museum. "Meanwhile, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to IBM for its full investment and devotion and its strategy of applying innovative technology to social and cultural promotion. This program is only a start, which, as we believe, will have an unlimited future to explore China's traditional culture."

Visitors to the virtual Forbidden City may also engage in activities in which their avatars take an active role in the culture of the period. For example, avatars can take part in activities such as archery, cricket fighting, and playing the ancient game of Weiqi, the "board game of surrounding" now popularized as GO. Visitors may also view and inspect artifacts and scenes such as "The Emperor Having Dinner" and "Court Painting."

The recreation of the Forbidden City represents how 3D technology can be used to educate and provide cultural experiences on a large scale. At the Forbidden City in Beijing, local visitors can also use a kiosk to interact with the virtual world. It is the first virtual world to be built using SOA architecture and includes open source components such as Linux.

IBM's BladeCenters with Linux Blade Servers are at the heart of this virtual world — supporting robustness with the capability to enable thousands of concurrent users and the scalability comparable to that of massive multiplayer online games. IBM built the application using WebSphere Application Server, Tivoli, ESB (Message Broker), DB2 Viper, and IBM BladeCenters. The virtual world runs on Linux, Windows and Mac operating environments.

IBM has dedicated more than a decade to creating successful cultural heritage projects, including the Vatican Library, the Pieta, Hermitage Museum, Eternal Egypt, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

There’s always been a minor niggle at the back of my mind when I played the Nintendo DS. “They’ve got it backwards,” I thought, “The A button should be on the left and B on the right. That’s how it’s always been… I think.” A speedy investigation showed that my memory was a little foggy, and that the answer was significantly more interesting than that. Therefore, I present to you a brief history of gamepad button mapping.

It's a short and sweet look at how our controllers have evolved (or not) over the years — including issues of localization. Some questions are still unanswered (like where the 'A' and 'B' designations originated from, though it would appear that the NES was the first), but an interesting little wrap-up nonetheless.

A Brief History of A & B [The Quixotic Engineer via GameSetWatch]

“This product was just left years ago and nobody knew it was in stock,” said Vijay Chandrabota, the purchasing manager for Geekay Games in Dubai. “For me, it was dead stock. I didn’t even know that this Virtual Boy existed until we found it.”

It sounds like the plot for an Indiana Jones movie, doesn't it? A crate found in a dusty warehouse, with ancient horrors lurking within. Gives me shivers. I'm surprised no faces were melted in the course of the discovery. Of course as a collector I'd still maim any one of you for a chance at have a Virtual Boy in a sealed box, but it had better be one damn tight seal.

Nintendo’s ‘worst’ console wins some new admirers [The National Newspaper]

... there's something we can call "polyheroism" in the Iliad. It's pretty much like a five-man group in WoW, or a six-man fellowship in LOTRO: Achilles is the DPS guy, Ajax is the tank, Odysseus is the rogue, etc. To enact a story about the meaning of excellence, you need to be able to compare heroes. Everyone loved Achilles, just like everyone loves a good, well specced champion. But some people like Odysseus better than Diomedes, just as some people would rather have a burglar in their party than a second DPS class.

I'm not saying that RPG classes have the depth of epic characters (though you'd be surprised by how little depth epic characters actually have). I'm saying that one important function of characters in the Iliad and in MMOGs is to get us to think about how different versions of excellence relate to one another.

Gear isn't quite the fundamental, all-pervasive mechanic in the Iliad as it is in MMOGs. But in its own way, it's actually much more important in epic tradition.

I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that the epic tradition is still going strong, but it's always fun to see Homer juxtaposed with more modern, interactive counterparts. Everyone loves a good, epic tale — so much the better if you're in it, I guess.

Achilles' Phat Lewtz [The Escapist]

Working through the collections provides some rather weird challenges to the discipline of library science. An entire segment of the collection is devoted to items termed as realia, basically commercial products tied to video game concepts or characters. They don't fit on shelves very well, and the exact means of how to preserve these detritus of commercial culture are fraught with an internal debate about their validity to humanity. I think everything should be remembered or recorded fastidiously, but then again I get a thrill out of looking at old Nintendo marketing crud, and I work in a library. That said, these items make my inner child awaken anew and crave some tasty morsels of the past.

I hope we can expect to see more of this sort of stuff — it's fun seeing what librarians at Stanford have decided to add to the collection. Though I would be curious to learn the acquisition backstory — was the cereal just hanging out in someone's personal collection? Two decade old overstock at Ralston Purina?

Errant Nintendo Licensing: Parties, Cereal, and School [How They Got Game]

Historical strategy specialists Slitherine — who, confusingly, have nothing to do with that other best selling children's book series — have signed a deal with Scholastic books to create a series of games based on the books and bring them to the PC, Nintendo Wii and DS.

The books lean heavily towards British and European history (well, we have so much more of it) with titles like The Rotten Romans and The Terrible Tudors but former colonies haven't been forgotten with titles such as Revolting Revolutionaries and Westward Wow.

SLITHERINE ANNOUNCES HISTORY WITH ALL THE NASTY BITS LEFT IN [Slitherine]

This four-year period — from 1977 to 1981 — contains some of the most exciting developments the company ever saw in its history: the rise of the 2600, the development of some of the company's most enduringly popular games (Centipede, Asteroids) and the development and release of its first home computing platforms.

This comprehensive look back, filled with quotes from the original creators and other primary sources, offers a detailed peek into the company that popularized video gaming as the '70s turned into the '80s, and created the first viable market for home consoles.

If you've got the time, it's definitely worth a read — it's pretty comprehensive and some of the 'insider' insight is pretty interesting.

Atari: The Golden Years — A History, 1978-1981 [Gamasutra]

Sadly, when I first found this the other week I decided not to take a picture of the On-Line Systems anniversary party page. It featured people from the early eighties (a theme of this blog if you haven't noticed) enjoying what looked like a California themed ho-down, and men who look like Ewoks wearing aviator sunglasses (though Ewoks didn't yet exist, so I guess they are proto-Ewoks). I'm upset that I didn't take a picture of it, because I think it allows you to see (as these other pages do) the small and familial nature of a company that would balloon into one of PC gaming's most prominent companies.

A post on 'Sid Meier's First(?) Game and an Early Look at MicroProse', about a game no one — including Meier — seems to remember, is also worth a look.

The Beginnings of Sierra Part 1 [How They Got Game]

The How They Got Game project is pleased to announce that we will be starting up a new journal, with the title Historical Studies of Digital Entertainment Media. The new journal will be edited by Matteo Bittanti and Henry Lowood (me). We have been working with a group of authors for the first issue, which we hope will be published Winter 2009. The theme for this first issue will be "Digital Games: Historical and Preservation Studies." We hope soon to be able to announce the members of the editorial board.

Did we mention that the journal will be published exclusively on-line? We will be using the Open Journal System of the Public Knowledge Project, which has a good track record as a publishing system for refereed academic and scholarly publications. We intend that authors will retain all rights to their contributions.

Of course, ideas are welcome for future issues and contributions to the journal.

The trend towards open access academic journals is pretty cool; I don't think JSTOR is ever going to go entirely by the wayside, but there's increasing acceptance of online-only and open access publishing (a definite positive for academics vying for tenure in a publish-or-perish world). I'll be keeping tabs on this one as it develops — Eludamos is pretty interesting, but this journal sounds tailor made for some of my interests. Huzzah!

Historical Studies of Digital Entertainment Media [How They Got Game via GameSetWatch]

Rob Zacny has a thought provoking piece up at the Escapist: on the whole, we're the worst genre when it comes to preserving our history, even the great classics acknowledged as 'great.' In a society — never mind technical area — where progress and marching forward is the name of the game, it's not exactly surprising, but a problem nonetheless. And not just for the history buffs among us:

Gamers are used to this problem by now, but that doesn't make it any more tolerable. Imagine if nobody could listen to a Duke Ellington record, or watch a Hitchcock movie, or read a Yeats poem. Not only would that rob us of our cultural inheritance, it would eliminate the influence that these artists have on contemporary culture. The same principles should apply to games. As gamers, we need to recognize that some games are more than disposable diversions, and that their relevance endures even as the technology that created and supported them falls into obsolescence.

Preserving and promoting classic games is vital to the health of the entire industry. In gaming, as much as any art form, "merit" is not always self-evident. Anyone with a passionate interest in game development should have a sense of what has already been achieved, and that cannot be developed if gamers are only playing "the latest and greatest" titles.

Zacny suggests a concerted effort at rereleases, a 'classics revival' of sorts. I'm personally quite excited by the fact that several institutions are making a concerted effort at planning for and undertaking archiving of games and consoles — I hope, much like my beloved books that were out of print by the middle of the 19th century but were lovingly reprinted in the 20th, we see a trickle down effect from that. A more concerted effort on the part of publishers would be fabulous, but that will require an audience hungry to purchase this stuff.

Excellence Never Goes out of Date [The Escapist]

We historians are a little protective of our respective domains — but a constant (and well-deserved) criticism we lob at each other in general is that through various means, we deliberately make ourselves inaccessible to the average, interest layperson. Over at Terra Nova, Nate Combs takes up the question of historical video games, referencing a great 2006 New York article by Niall Ferguson (Harvard professor and historian) on the 'state of play.' The answer? Pretty damn bad, at least when looking on from the Ivory Tower:

So why do I hate Medal of Honor? The trouble is—and the same could be said of nearly all its competitors—it’s profoundly unhistorical. It’s what’s known in the games trade as a first-person shooter (FPS) game. As a player, you take on the role of Lieutenant Mike Powell of the U.S. Army Rangers. You see the battlefield—a Normandy beach, for instance—from his vantage point. As Lieutenant Powell, you do pretty much what you feel like—which is to bag as many Germans as you can. In reality, an officer’s principal concern on Omaha Beach was somehow to maintain the cohesion of his unit in the face of a lethal storm of steel.

He does go on to have some slightly more positive things to say, but Combs' takes up the issue — the boardgames that generally do a better job of 'playing with history' frequently provide a lot more 'meat' for the historical stew:

Where I think these board games triumphed was in their ability to communicate history as a coherent model: history as a system of rules. History as an interlocking LEGO set of measured hypotheticals and realities. Players moved the pieces around to see what happens. If it was only an amateur's recollection, it was a rich one.

(This historian would offer that when you actually see history as a system of rules, you wind up with modernization theory, but for the purposes of play — it's useful. Let's just stay away from a Reischauer's Making of Modern Japan when thinking up new titles)

So where's the difference between board games and console or PC games?

... historical simulation games were never big business, not in the way mass entertainment console gaming (for example) is. Another way of saying this is, perhaps, to say that these games were largely developed for and by amateurs.

One could only suppose that if more video game product were developed by amateurs that we might see more history, more playing with history, and - to cite Niall Ferguson's claim - a greater appreciation in society of the lessons of history.

Considering the relative popularity of ahistorical FPS that use the trappings and 'hardware' of historical settings, I can't imagine 'real' history will ever be big business — but maybe someday. A historian can dream.

Playing with history [Terra Nova]; How to Win a War [New York]

It's a huge talk. I can't digest it all into bullet points for you. But he delves into the origin of the 3D GTA titles, more or less saying that Take Two's 1999 acquisition of DMA (which became Rockstar, and now Rockstar North) was to answer an internal dispute of whether Grand Theft Auto could be done in 3D. We know the answer to that.

Fritz asks Houser if, at any point, the creators doubted that the level of detail put into GTA III would even matter, much less become the baseline expectation of the sandbox genre as we know it. Houser answers with a visionary's conviction:

I remember when we were talking about 60 or 80 different speaking parts, I remember it was such a big production issue, but the thing we never spoke about was, "Are people going to care about it?" Our attitude always was, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing. If they don't' like it..."

I agree wholeheartedly. Some first person games, I feel like I'm looking into a shoebox diorama of the world where I'm playing. Admittedly, a well rendered, often fun diorama. But it makes me wonder again why they ever did the first-person free-look in GTA III and Vice City (I will never stop complaining about that.)

There's tons more in the full interview.

Dan Houser's very extended interview about everything "Grand Theft Auto IV" and Rockstar [Variety]

Historical scope - I want to expose students to the historical arc of RPGs, reflecting their origins and evolution. I realize I could spend weeks on mimesis, Tolkien, PnP Dungeons and Dragons, etc., but I'm keen to get them playing and studying electronic games as soon as possible.

Breadth - It's important that I provide students with a wide range of RPG games encompassing a variety of gameplay and design variations. The syllabus needn't be a "greatest hits" collection. A classic like Chrono Trigger may or may not make the list depending on how many other Square-developed SNES JRPG titles make the list ....

Impact - I want to assign games that have made a notable impact or illustrate important transitions in the evolution of the medium

RPG syllabus - the big list [The Brainy Gamer]

... The genre has fallen from all commercial grace, and its overall popularity is a miniscule fraction of what it once was. Barely twenty years ago, at least one IF game sold one-million copies at price points of thirty dollars or more; today, the active community of IF players is reduced to a bare handful of thousands, despite the fact that its games' creators now give their work away for free. On the other hand, though, those remnants of IF's once prodigious fanbase who remain have largely shed the lure of retro-gaming nostalgia that has afflicted similar revivalist efforts in other genres and produced work of often amazing originality and quality. While there is plenty of detritus about, the top ten-percent or so of hobbyist IF of the past decade easily dwarfs that of the commercial era in terms of design, sophistication, and literary quality. That a relatively small group of amateurs has been capable of surpassing the work of well-funded companies not just once or twice but on a regular basis is remarkable. That they have taken IF in directions those companies never dreamed of is inspiring.

Let's Tell a Story Together [Jimmy Maher]

1971 - Gary Gygax and Jeff Peren create Chainmail, a fantasy miniatures game implementing rules from standard medieval gaming, adding elves, giants, halflings, and other elements borrowed from sources such as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

1972 - Dave Arneson visits Gygax in order to demonstrate the game that would become Dungeons & Dragons.

1973 - Gygax and Don Kaye found Tactical Studies Rules - TSR.

1974 - TSR publishes the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

1976 - Willie Crowther, an early D&D player, creates a text-based game called Crowther's Colossal Cave, which would eventually morph into Adventure, which was a direct influence on the creators of the ultimate text-based game, Zork.

1977 - Young Richard Garriott attends a sumer computer camp, where he earns the nickname Lord British and is exposed to Dungeons & Dragons for the first time. Soon he would be hosting popular D&D weekends at his parents house.

1978 - Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle create the first MUD - Multi-User Dungeon. It is the precursor to the modern MMO.

1980 - Richard Garriott releases one of the first computer role-playing games, Akalabeth: World of Doom. This year also sees the release of Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game, the first computer game using the D&D license. as well as Garriott's Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness - a game that influences the RPG genre to this day.

1982 - The first Dungeons & Dragons console game is released for the Intellivision, simply titled Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Dragonstomper is released for the Atari 2600, widely considered to be the first console RPG. Dragonstomper included gathering experience points and gold, random battles, and multiple ways to solve problems in the game.

1985 - TSR lets developers know that the AD&D license is up for grabs, with big names like Electronic Arts, Origin, and Sierra being beaten out by SSI (Strategic Simulations, Inc.). SSI would go on to create 30 AD&D games.

1988 - SSI releases Pool of Radiance, the first in the Gold Box series of D&D games, which allowed you to import your characters into subsequent games to continue your adventure.

1991 - The first graphical MMORPG is released via America Online - Neverwinter Nights. Based on the Dungeons & Dragons setting The Forgotten Realms, the concept of clans and PVP in online role-playing started here.

1996 - Ultima Online is released, its popularity paving the way for the enormous glut of MMORPG games we're experiencing today.

1998 - A small company called BioWare gets put on the map when it releases the Forgotten Realms game Baldur's Gate - incidentally the first computer game I ever reviewed on a professional basis.

2002 - BioWare releases a new version of Neverwinter Nights, featuring the ability for players to create their own modules and run them via the internet, effectively bringing the tabletop experience online.

2006 - Gary Gygax lends his voice as the Dungeon Master to Turbine for certain quests in Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, bringing the whole thing full circle.

While certainly not a complete listing, you can easily see how the creation of Dungeons & Dragons influenced the video game industry. Every time you gain hit points, or generate your numeric attributes, or choose what type of elf you want to be in the latest fantasy MMO, you're dealing with concepts that spawned from that weekend in 1972. Even when you play a game that isn't an RPG, there's a good chance that someone involved in the creation of that game wouldn't be here today if the works of Gary Gygax hadn't inspired them to dream up their own fantastical worlds. He will be missed, but more importantly - he will forever be remembered.

Portions of this article were referenced from Brad King and John Borland's excellent 2003 book Dungeons and Dreamers. The book explores gaming from those early days in Wisconsin up to today's massive online communities, and is a must read for anyone interested in the roots of gaming.

These virtual worlds are actualized in user experiences that are sometimes unique, often social, and always necessary for understanding these worlds. Just as an archived book is of limited use if researchers cannot open its cover and read it, an archived world will be of limited use if researchers cannot visit it. Unless we also develop solutions for preserving user experiences, future generations will have no way to understand how these experiences became such an important part of our culture.

I'll be curious to see how libraries and archives deal with the unique challenges of preserving games in a meaningful sense. I also wonder what sort of access policies will be in place: the trend for print media is certainly to get as much of it digitized or online as humanly possible. This has the dual benefit of making materials more accessible, but also keeping the originals safe; in the face of preservation and access issues, how much do the physical trappings matter?

Save game now [The Brainy Gamer]

IGN.com Kicks Off 10-Year Anniversary With The Launch Of IGN Retro And Week-Long Editorial Retrospective

Leading Videogame Site Introduces New Channel and Daily Features Highlighting the Past Decade in Gaming

BRISBANE, CA — January 14, 2008 — IGN.com (http://www.ign.com), the Web's leading videogame and entertainment information destination, today announced the unveiling of its latest channel, IGN Retro, covering games and systems from the distant and not so distant past as IGN.com kick-offs a year-long celebration for its 10th anniversary. In addition, IGN will present a week-long retrospective of the past 10 years in gaming that will explore IGN.com's history, from the games and franchises over the past decade to the editors who reviewed them.

The launch of IGN Retro (http://www.retro.ign.com) represents IGN's first site dedicated to classic videogames. IGN Retro will cover gaming systems from the distant past - including the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, and NES - as well as more recent platforms that aren't seeing active release schedules any longer such as the Dreamcast, GameCube and original Xbox systems.

"Having been with IGN.com since its inception, I am very proud of what the site has accomplished so far and very excited for the next 10 years," said Peer Schneider, Senior Vice President and Publisher, IGN Entertainment. "IGN.com has become the leader in providing users with the latest in videogame news and exclusives, and as the videogame industry continues to evolve, IGN.com will continue to be on the forefront of the industry."

In addition to the IGN Retro, starting today through Friday, January 18 on IGN.com, the site will feature variety of different editorial topics highlighting the evolution of videogames and IGN.com's role in covering the industry for the past 10 years. Editorial features include:

* Monday, January 14: "Press X: Ten Years in Gaming"

Examining the impact of the last 10 years in videogames

* Tuesday, January 15: "The Many Faces of IGN: Where Are They Now?"

An update on many of IGN.com's past editors

* Wednesday, January 16: "Classic IGN Video Moments "

A collection of cool and funny videos from throughout the years

* Thursday, January 17: "IGN.com Turns 10 Podcast"

Editors, past and present, come together to talk about the anniversary

* Friday, January 18: "IGN Video Documentary: The First 10 Years"

A three-part look at the decade of IGN.com with past and present editors

"As we hit the 10-year mark, it is important to take a look back at the moments in history that helped define IGN.com as an industry leader," said Roy Bahat, General Manager of IGN Entertainment. "It is with great pride that we celebrate this company milestone with the millions of IGN.com users who have been with us since the beginning."

January 12th, 1998 marks the official start of IGN as a branded Web site, and is the day N64.com officially changed its name to IGN64.com. Ten years later, IGN.com is a leading Internet media and services provider focused on the videogame and entertainment enthusiast markets. It is the Web's number one videogame information destination and attracts one of the largest concentrated audiences of young males on the Internet.

Discovery's Rise of the Videogame Web Page [Discovery Channel]

She's crazy about cross-stitching and old school Mario, so it didn't take much to get her to put the two together. We just picked out some pictures from Google image search, gridded them in paint, and picked out the colors. The Mario's span from Super Mario Bros. on NES thru Super Mario RPG. We didn't keep track but it took her well over 100 hours to complete.

Dang, a hundred hours, now that's some dedication to your craft. Cross-stitch just naturally lends itself to 8-bit art and this is a fine example of what you can do if you put your mind and fingers to work. Now, if only I could find the time in my day to pull something like this off. Sadly there is no time in my day, only Zuul.

"This is a wonderful exhibit not only for video game lovers, but for anyone who wants to know how science, technology, and art come together to form an industry," said Dr. Peter Raad, Executive Director of The Guildhall at SMU.

New Exhibit Focuses On History Of Video Games

Fall exhibit hosted by Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Economic Adventure Gallery

BOSTON, Mass. - October 29, 2007 - The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Economic Adventure Gallery is hosting an engaging, interactive exhibit on the history of video games this fall. "Video Games Evolve: A Brief History from Spacewar! to MMORPGs" examines the video-game industry's roots, which are firmly planted in New England. The exhibit, which is free, runs though January.

"This is a wonderful exhibit not only for video game lovers, but for anyone who wants to know how science, technology, and art come together to form an industry," said Dr. Peter Raad, Executive Director of The Guildhall at SMU.

The gaming revolution began across the Charles River at MIT, where the first non-commercial interactive video game, "Spacewar!", was born in 1962. About a decade later, Magnavox released the first commercial video-game console, "Odyssey," which was created by New Hampshire resident Ralph Baer. In addition to enjoying a "Spacewar!" simulation, visitors can examine an enlarged reproduction of Baer's prototype notes, as well as an early Odyssey console.

If guests are interested in a more hands-on experience, they can play classic 1980 arcade games like "Donkey Kong," "Ms. Pac Man," "Frogger" or "Space Invaders." In addition to being able to play these games for free, visitors can admire the sleek fiberglass console of "Computer Space," an early 1970s arcade game.

The exhibit also offers a look at the evolution of the home-gaming console, a timeline of video-game history, and an in-depth look at the motion-capture process (a key animation tool in modern video-game production). The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, a leading education center for digital-game development, loaned several three-dimensional sculptures of creatures that were used to develop animations.

In addition to examining the past, the exhibit also offers an enticing look at modern-day games, including "Star Wars Galaxies," the "Immune Attack" educational game, the virtual reality of "Second Life," and massive, multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like "World of Warcraft."

The exhibit is part of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Economic Adventure, an interactive educational designed to teach middle- and high-school students how New England's improved living standards are reliant upon innovation, which leads to advances in productivity. The exhibit is open from Monday through Friday, from 1:00-4:00pm.

Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President of Merchandising for GameStop Corp commented that, "With consumer demand for Halo 3 and related products, we expect it to be the biggest video game title generator in GameStop's history."

Xbox 360 Exclusive "Halo 3" Registers Biggest Day in US Entertainment History with $170 Million in Sales

Microsoft today announced that the Xbox 360 exclusive game "Halo 3" has officially become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360 title beat previous records set by blockbuster theatrical releases like "Spider-man 3" and novels such as "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

"Halo 3" is the conclusion to the epic trilogy and picks up where "Halo 2" left off, answering questions around the fates of the beloved protagonist Master Chief and his artificial intelligence sidekick Cortana as they struggle to save humankind from destruction at the hands of the alien coalition known as the Covenant. In addition to the rich storyline, "Halo 3" continues the franchise's grand tradition of delivering innovative online multiplayer experiences via Xbox LIVE, the world's largest social network on TV.

"Halo 3 has become a pop-culture phenomenon," said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. "Not only is "Halo 3" setting sales records, it's also redefining entertainment.

Within the first 20 hours alone, we've seen more than a million Xbox LIVE members come online to play Halo 3 - that makes September 25 the most active Xbox LIVE gaming day in history."

Retailers have also expressed their excitement about the launch of "Halo 3."

Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President of Merchandising for GameStop Corp commented that, "With consumer demand for Halo 3 and related products, we expect it to be the biggest video game title generator in GameStop's history."

"The initial demand we've seen for 'Halo 3' has been astounding, and the game is on track to become the number one gaming title of all time. 'Halo 3' is a genuine entertainment phenomenon and our customers have responded very enthusiastically to the release," said Jill Hamburger, vice president of movies and games at Best Buy.

Developed by Bungie Studios, the "Halo" franchise is exclusive to the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and optimized for the Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network. The more than 7 million Xbox LIVE users will get a continually evolving gaming experience with "Halo 3." Its online multiplayer and cooperative gameplay for Xbox LIVE Gold users, the much-talked-about Saved Films feature that enables players to capture and save their favorite moments on their hard drives, and Forge, an innovative map editor that enables infinite customization options are just some of the new features to experience.

More than 10,000 retailers hosted Midnight Madness events to celebrate the launch of this third installment in the billion-dollar franchise. In New York, Seattle, Miami and Los Angeles, Microsoft and retail partners hosted marquee launch events that featured contests and appearances by local celebrities and professional athletes who are fanatical about the "Halo" franchise, including Ludacris and Zac Efron and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

More than 1.7 million copies of "Halo 3" were preordered in the United States before a single store opened its doors at midnight, Sept. 25, making this the fasting pre-selling game in history, surpassing the previous record-setting pre-sales of "Halo 2." Well beyond just a U.S. phenomenon, the launch of "Halo 3" was a worldwide celebration that released in 37 countries and available in 17 languages.

GC ART Draws in Visitors With Four Exhibitions on Digital Games

Following the successful launch of the GC ART exhibition area last year, GC 2007 (Games Convention) repeats its display of computer and console art once again. The exhibitions "public_play", "Telespiele 1972-2007", "Machinima" and "Digital Beauty - 3D Character Design" will be on view in Hall 5 from 23 to 26 August, providing visitors with a look at different aspects of digital games. Numerous workshops offer interested visitors the opportunity to try their own hands at creating minor artwork.

public_play

In conjunction with the Computerspiele Museum Berlin, GC ART presents the exhibition "public_play". Spread over 500 square metres, exhibits from international artists are displayed on the theme of "digital play and public spaces". The backdrop to this is various sights from around Leipzig, recreated with the aid of large-format projections and sound stages.

This 21st century playground will include works by the Leipzig artists Matthias Henning and André Greif. In their work "Gamblers" four computers play ludo against one another - a sociable gathering in which computers take the roles of the players. A further highlight of the exhibition is skipping over digitally-stretched ropes. The digital and the real combine in Pong, the first computer game from 1972. The Atari classic is set up in a manner that enables it to be played directly on a dress.

Telespiele 1972-2007

In the exhibition "Telespiele 1972-2007" the GC takes its visitors on a tour of the past. The 35-year history of digital games is attractively presented on a space of 200 square metres. Content ranges from the first "Pong machine" to the mass phenomenon that was the Commodore 64 and on to the current next generation consoles. However, it is not only hardware that is on show. Games, games magazines, manuals and numerous rarities never before seen in Europe are also on display here.

One section of the exhibition is dedicated to the computer history of the GDR. Items on display include the curious Z1013 computer construction kit, the popular KC series, the PC 1715 office computer, the educational computer A5105 personally promoted by Margot Honecker, Minister for National Education in the German Democratic Republic from 1963 until 1989, and the BBS 01, East Germany's sole games console.

The collection was established by journalist and author René Meyer, who is presenting the exhibits to a wider audience for the first time with the support of the Leipziger Messe.

Machinima

The influence exerted by computer games on film production can be viewed by GC visitors on the Machinima stand. Together with the project group "Animation in new media" (www.animationsprojekt.de) the Leipziger Messe demonstrates that computer games are not solely dedicated to entertainment. As a tool for creative work, they offer the opportunity to develop new forms of expression in art.

Daily film shows at the Machinima Gallery offer an ideal opportunity to pass the time. Entertaining, artistically-sophisticated and critical Machinima films are shown, under the motto "New Trends in Machinima". They offer an insight into the wide range of themes, genres and production approaches of the Machinima scene, as well as clarifying the current trends.

Those wishing to learn more about Machinima or that possibly have the urge to make films of their own can obtain useful information from the Public Forum. Well-known Machinima producers and experts offer their opinions on themes such as "What is Machinima?", "Creative Gaming" and "Machinima production with MovieSandbox". In addition to practical help for beginners and those more advanced in the world of digital film making, they also provide a cultural classification for the Machinima phenomenon.

The third component of the exhibition this year is provided by the Machinima Laboratory. Here GC visitors can try the different types of Machinima film making out for themselves, as well as garnering tips from the experts.

The artificial word Machinima is composed from "machine", "cinema" and "animation" and refers to films created with the aid of games engines. The first Machinima were enabled with the aid of the programme LMPC (Little Movie Processing Centre) by the Leipzig physicist and programmer Uwe Girlich, who analysed the structure of the game engine Quake in 1996. LMPC allows users to create or alter film-like scenarios.

Digital Beauty - 3D Character Design

What creative minds can create with computers and specialised software is scarcely different to reality. The exhibition "Digital Beauty - 3D Character Design" displays 20 images created on the PC and poses the question to visitors: "virtual or real"?

Workshops are held each day of the GC for all those curious as to how it works, or who wish to try their hand at 3D character design. At the workshops Ronny Jesse, winner of the award "Animago 2006" in the category "Digital Beauties", explains how an own "character" is created in small stages. Participants are accompanied through the various stages on the PC.

2004: The Federal Trade Commission publishes an undercover investigation where they found that 69% of UNDER-17-year-olds were able to purchase games rated M without adult consent. And then the PTA attacked the FTC for their perversion of statistics.

2007: TDIG hits its 365th day on Kotaku and enters early retirement. Because shuffleboard is the ultimate game.

2003: Playmore Corporation changes their name to SNK Playmore Corporation. We know you don't care, but it might be on the quiz. Do you care now? Good. Because we were just making that quiz stuff up. We would never do that to you. OK, we would, but it would involve large heads of industry "giants."

2000: Square Co. releases Final Fantasy 9 for PS in Japan. The game sells less than the previous two FF titles, even though it receives rave reviews and overall positive reception. I think it's an issue with cover art that alters the mass appeal of FF titles, because the die hards buy the game no matter what, and obviously the reviews have little to do with the success.

2000: The 3DO Company releases Vegas Games Midnight Madness: Table Games for PC in the US. Why is it "midnight madness"? Because you are up late. Because you are cool. That's why.

2001: Sony confirms the rumors of a hard drive system for the PS2. They were quoted as saying something along the lines of, "Yes, we are releasing a hard drive. It's one of those peripherals console manufacturers will hype up and then never do anything with. Needless to say, we're very excited about the possibilities for disappointment."

1998: The Big Network launches—it's an online gaming site that offers multiple family gaming channels. And it's a really Big Deal.

1999: Hasbro Interactive releases Mechwarrior 3 for PC in the US. It's a fantastic mech battle simulator, not that any of us would know if it wasn't like the real thing.

2003: Blizzard releases WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne expansion for PC in the US. Releasing expansions for strategy titles is a tough balance, but Blizzard did a good job of releasing more units and expanding the singleplayer storyline.

2005: Atlus releases Trauma Center: Under the Knife for DS in Japan. I seriously just looked at this game and thought, "That was released only last year?" Then I remembered, it's 2007 and half-way to 2008. And I'm never going to med school to please my parents.

The new features are too numerous to list, but playing as a Necromancer and raising little skeletons from fallen corpses was one of many early highlights of the game. Its expansion, Lord of Destruction, was released a year later and brought the ninja class of fighter, which was equally innovative.

Diablo II, you owe us our lives back. Hit the comments and let us know your favorite moments.

2002: Codemasters releases Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing for PS2 in the US. It's not quite the same as my favorite NES boxing game. Maybe it's the more complicated controls, maybe it's the ear-biting. But something is amiss. Mark Wilson

Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you'd like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com

Still, was I the only one who expect Galaxies to be, not WoW big, but pretty freakin' big? Mark Wilson

Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you'd like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com