http://www.icheg.org/blog Explores the past, present, and future of electronic games. Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:21:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_1943" align="alignright" width="112" caption="Don Daglow"][/caption] Veteran game designer Don Daglow recently gave the International Center for the History of Electronic Games a collection of design documents, early drafts of code, play test reports, and other papers that document the development of his games, including Neverwinter Nights (1991), one of the ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/08/creating-mmorpgs-the-neverwinter-nights-story/ Space Invaders. Tetris. Mario Brothers. Sonic the Hedgehog. Final Fantasy VII. Halo. Whether you’ve played these games or not, you recognize them as some of the most influential titles ever released. They are killer applications—the type that lead  gamers to shell out big bucks for a brand new system just for ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/08/killer-video-game-apps/ As legendary game designers David Crane, Steven Cartright, and Garry Kitchen spoke at the recent Classic Gaming Expo, I couldn’t help but reminisce about some of my favorite Activision titles from the early 80s. As the first third-party developer in the video game industry, Activision released fascinating titles, such as ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/08/taking-video-games-outdoors/ Recently, a couple of things have prompted me to think more about the history of video games in Europe. First, I’ve been reading Tristan Donovan’s excellent new book: Replay: The History of Video Games. One of the key contributions of the book is its attention to the often neglected history ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/07/saving-video-games-in-europe/ Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for—the top five most iconic video game villains of all time. [caption id="attachment_1883" align="alignright" width="160" caption="Donkey Kong from Wikipedia"][/caption] #5: Donkey Kong: King of video game gorillas! Donkey Kong is known as one of the first games to have the semblance of a plot—rescue the Lady from ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/07/video-game-villains-countdown-5-the-most-evil-of-them-all/ Welcome back to our countdown of the all-time top 25 villains. Below we have a nice combination of villains from both classic games and exciting newer ones, along with one of my personal favorites coming in at number six! #10: Space Invaders Aliens: “Just…one…more…quarter…” [caption id="attachment_1844" align="alignleft" width="160" caption="Space Invaders from CafePress ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/07/top-25-video-game-villains-4-mind-games/ This edition of our video game villain countdown will take us more than halfway through our list and will, I hope, bring back some wonderful memories for you. [caption id="attachment_1828" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Dracula from Gamexeon"][/caption] #15: Dracula: Evil is seductive. You’ve heard of this guy, right? Prince of Darkness, Vlad the Impaler, put ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/07/top-25-video-game-villains-3-is-your-favorite-listed/ Here are our next five classic favorites, as we continue counting down the Top 25 video game villains. [caption id="attachment_1812" align="alignleft" width="160" caption="Cyberdemon from Giantbomb "][/caption] #20: Cyberdemon: Demon to the nth degree The video game series Doom is famous for putting first-person shooters on the map. It proved so popular, in fact, ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/07/top-25-video-game-villains-2-monsters-machines-and-many-arms/ Who’s the baddest of them all? Find out one opinion here. This and each of our next four ICHEG blogs are dedicated to those nefarious antagonists we love to hate—video game villains! For five consecutive postings we will cite five villains, leading up to the biggest baddie of all time. As ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/07/top-25-video-game-villains-1-evil-beginnings/ As a fan of the hit television series Man vs. Wild on Discovery Channel, I was thrilled by my chance encounter with the show’s celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls at E3. On screen, Bear inevitably finds himself in harrowing situations that test his expert survival skills. Publisher Crave Entertainment is betting ... http://www.icheg.org/blog/index.php/2010/07/traditional-influences-on-digital-media/