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Play it again: What Institutions are collecting

This entry is part 10 of 10 in the series Play It Again

What institutions are collecting post updated in 2023 to repair links etc after Play It Again moved to a new domain name. Originally posted with permission.

Various institutions involved

This month on the Popular Memory Archive they ponder different aspects of game history collected by different institutions. Shane Farrow kicks things off with a brief account of recent activity collecting New Zealand computer games and aspects of games culture at The Film Archive.

The New Zealand Film Archive is aware of the ‘institutional gap’ for several years with regard to the lack of representation of video games and early computer games within national cultural collections.

In 2005, the NZFA held an exhibition called C:/ DOS / RUN – Remembering the 80′s Computer, attracting record crowds. , quickly realizing there was a lot of public interest in the local history of computers and gaming software.

Thus far, NZFA has collected a variety of game and computer material from several different collectors. This includes a “Malzak” arcade cabinet and a sizable collection of Atari computer modules and accessories. Software items include floppy disks that come in 8”, 5 1/4”, 3 1/2” and 3” sizes. Also 8-bit data cassettes of various lengths and the very common ROM Cartridges that existed before many of the other formats. ROM cartridges are even still used in some hand-held games today. Other oddities are essentially dedicated game devices like the Sportronic Light Gun and console, and a Grandstand pocket arcade.

They collect the following:
  • Software (source code, 8-bit cassettes, floppies, cartridges) written by New Zealanders
  • Hardware (1980s computers, consoles, hand-helds, gaming systems, arcade games…)
  • Documentation (Original brochures, promo’s, packaging, 1980s computer magazines…)
  • Your 80’s gaming memories
  • Are you a key retro games collector or a writer of 80s games? You may be an oral history candidate.

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DMZ celebrated the Play It Again launch in 2013.

80s IMB computer

Series Navigation<< Play it again: Abandonware
Nalini
Nalinihttps://www.darkmatterzine.com
Nalini is an award-winning writer and artist as well as managing editor of Dark Matter Zine.

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