The Game Libratory is a new game library / laboratory whose mission is to provide researchers with access to game hardware and software.
The initial collection is proudly donated and managed by Daniel Rehn, Derek Lomas, and Jeremy Douglass, with support from the Software Studies Initiative and with facilities generously provided by the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) at Calit2, UC San Diego.
The collection centers on a wide variety of historical video game consoles (Atari VCS, NES, SEGA Genesis, PlayStation, etc.), however the eventual goal is to also include access to a wide variety of platforms and devices, both historical (e.g. emulated DOS PC computing) and contemporary (e.g. low cost, aftermarket, and edu-tainment console products).
Research opportunities using Game Libratory resources include:
- the excerpting of game events for academic papers and presentations (e.g. screenshots, video clips, and save-states)
- recording of live playsessions (for studies in cognitive science, ethnography, human-computer interfaces etc., or for remixable art assets to be used in performances)
- comparative studies across many games and game systems (e.g. “Mini-gaming from Cosmic Ark to Wario Ware”, “Zelda 1986-2006”, “Out of This World: 5 adaptations” etc.)
Video games are marked by rapidly changing game media, the changing custom controller interfaces for which they are designed, and the proprietary game platforms into which those custom media readers and controller interfaces are integrated. This creates access problems for the games researcher or scholar above and beyond the problems of platform obsolescence already pervasive in general software studies of personal computing.
By not only providing access to games hardware and physical media but also encouraging practical research into managing the complex layer between game devices and game experiences, the Game Libratory seeks to develop a general model of robust games scholarship and encourage high-quality study in an area of study whose discourses and historical awarenesses are too often Balkanized by accessibility issues.
