[SIGCIS-Members] Company archives of 1980s-1990s computer game companies?

[Brian Berg]

Al Alcorn, co-founder of Atari, informs me that the Stanford University
Libraries has a collection of documents of Silicon Valley game
companies.  Leslie
Berlin <https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/berlin.html> or Henry Lowood
<https://people.stanford.edu/lowood/> may be good contacts re: this.
_________________________
Brian A. Berg / bberg at StanfordAlumni.org
Berg Software Design
14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA
Voice: 408.741.5010 / Cell: 408.568.2505
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IEEE Milestone
<http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones>
Coordinator for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/>
IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV
<http://www.CaliforniaConsultants.org> Board Director
IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee
<http://www.SiliconValleyHistory.com/> Chair



On Sat, Sep 8, 2018 at 9:53 PM Gleb J. Albert <gleb.albert at uzh.ch> wrote:

>
> Dear colleagues and list members,
>
> This is a question that has kept me busy for quite some time, yet I am
> afraid I might have missed some crucial bit of information, and this is
> why I would like to address it to you.
>
> Are there any preservation institutions (archives, museums etc., apart
> from The Strong Museum / National Museum of Play in Rochester/NY) that
> host either company archives of computer game companies or personal
> papers of people involved in the production and marketing of home
> computer games in the 1980s and early 1990s?
>
> As I already mentioned on this list back in February, I am doing a
> post-doc research project on the transnational history of
> (non-commercial, low scale) home computer games piracy before the mass
> availability of the Internet, and, of course, the perspective of the
> back-then games industry is crucial in this question. Of course, the
> industry back then was extremely volatile - when companies went
> bankrupt, the last thing they thought about was preserving their
> archives (in the case of Psygnosis, for example, as far as I know
> everything was simply dumped). And those very few 1980s companies which
> are still active are very seclusive about their archives (which is
> sort-of understandable, given the retromania of today and their possible
> hopes of reviving/porting old titles).
>
> Nevertheless, the papers of Broderbund, Sierra On-Line, and a couple of
> other companies luckily ended up at The Strong - and to my knowledge,
> this is the only public institution that hosts materials like these. But
> maybe I missed some essential info? Are there any other holdings I am
> not aware of, particularly concerning the European games industry?
>
> I would be very thankful for any hints (as well as for contacts to
> former game studio and/or publisher/distributor folks who still might
> have kept their business papers).
>
> Best wishes,
> Gleb
>
> --
> Dr. Gleb J. Albert
> Historisches Seminar, Universität Zürich
> Forschergruppe "Medien und Mimesis"
>
> Universität Zürich
> Historisches Seminar
> Culmannstr. 1
> CH-8006 Zürich
> Switzerland
>
> Tel. +41-446346187
> <http://uzh.academia.edu/GlebJAlbert>
> <http://www.fg-mimesis.de>
>
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