The game canon is a list of
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s to be considered for preservation by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called the creation of this list "an assertion that digital games have a cultural significance and a historical significance".
Game canon is modeled on the efforts of the
National Film Preservation Board
The United States National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) is the board selecting films for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. It was established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. The National Film Regi ...
, which produces an annual list of films that are subsequently added to the
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
, which is managed by the Library of Congress. The game canon committee comprises
Henry Lowood
The game canon is a list of video games to be considered for preservation by the Library of Congress. ''The New York Times'' called the creation of this list "an assertion that digital games have a cultural significance and a historical significa ...
, game designers
Warren Spector
Warren Evan Spector (born October 2, 1955) is an American role-playing and video game designer, director, writer, producer and production designer. He is known for creating immersive sim games, which give players a wide variety of choices in how ...
and
Steve Meretzky
Steven Eric Meretzky (born May 1, 1957)
''Infocom''. Retrieved July 11, 2011. , Matteo Bittanti, and
Joystiq
''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''W ...
journalist Christopher Grant.
History
The game canon project was started by Henry Lowood, curator of the ''History of Science and Technology Collections'' at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
. He started to preserve video games and video-game artifacts in 1998, and in the years following, he has noted that video games are something worthy of preserving.
Henry Lowood
The game canon is a list of video games to be considered for preservation by the Library of Congress. ''The New York Times'' called the creation of this list "an assertion that digital games have a cultural significance and a historical significa ...
submitted the proposal to the Library of Congress in September 2006, and during the 2007
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...
, he announced the game canon.
In September 2012 the Library of Congress had already 3,000 games from many platforms and also around 1,500 strategy guides.
List of games considered
The initial list consists of 10 video games that are each considered representing the beginning of a genre that is still vital in the video game industry.
* ''
Spacewar!
''Spacewar!'' is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Mas ...
''
* ''
Star Raiders
''Star Raiders'' is a first-person space combat simulator for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. It was written by Doug Neubauer, an Atari employee, and released as a cartridge by Atari in March 1980. The game is considered the platform's kille ...
''
* ''
Zork
''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and ...
''
* ''
Tetris
''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the approp ...
''
* ''
SimCity
''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, ''SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and were followed by several sequels and many other spin-off "''Sim' ...
''
* ''
Super Mario Bros. 3''
* ''
Civilization I/II''
* ''
Doom
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* L ...
''
*
''Warcraft'' series
* ''
Sensible World of Soccer
''Sensible World of Soccer'' was designed and developed by Sensible Software as the 1994 sequel to their 1992 game ''Sensible Soccer'' which combined a 2D football game with a comprehensive manager mode. The game includes contemporary season data ...
''
See also
*
Video games as art
The concept of video games as a form of art is a commonly debated topic within the entertainment industry. Though video games have been afforded legal protection as creative works by the Supreme Court of the United States, the philosophical ...
References
{{reflist
External links
News reportfrom the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''
News reportfrom
Joystiq
''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''W ...
Video game culture
History of video games
Library of Congress