On the 19th and 20th June, 2014, the Play It Again team welcomed a fabulously diverse group of scholars and practitioners to Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image for the Born Digital and Cultural Heritage conference. In attendance were Humanities and Computer Science researchers, lawyers, archivists, conservators, librarians, game and net.art preservationists, game developers, and a bunch of interesting others besides. Lively and convivial, with wonderful keynotes from Henry Lowood and Anne Laforet, the event saw many productive lines of inquiry opened up and intersections explored.
What was the games computer in your house? Did your household spend up big, or opt for a ‘little’ computer? Was the purchase a big deal occasioning much research, or did it just arrive? Did it plug into a (the?) TV or separate monitor? What are your abiding memories of using it? Please tell us your story, better still if you have pictures!
The Microbee was an Australian computer designed, built, and marketed by Applied Technology, in Gosford, N.S.W. Originally released in February 1982, it was intended for the schools market but also had a wide and deep following amongst home users. A considerable amount of software was published locally for the Microbee, through Honeysoft. Many titles were games.
In the long 1980s decade, some hardly souls in both New Zealand and Australia built their own computers.
New Zealand Microcomputer Club legend, Selwyn Arrow, recalls building his first computer (or part thereof):
It was either Christmas 77 or 78, more likely 1978…A copy of Byte magazine arrived…I read it twice, including all the ads. It just opened up a whole new world…
Were you a user group sort of person? What did your user group do? How did you find out about it?
What was your local arcade like? Tell us about it. Were the machines new, with their own artwork? Or were they generic cabinets, converted from other games?
How does one identify local themes and scenes in digital games history? Figuring out what is local will usually require knowledge of the non-local, won’t it? Well, in 1980s New Zealand there were some unique conditions which meant that games production developed at least partly along its own trajectory. New Zealand had a system of import licensing — first introduced in 1938 — that lasted up until the mid 1980s. The system made it unlawful to import any goods without a license from the Customs Department. According to the late historian Michael King, the system was deeply unpopular.
This month, we are discussing local scenes and themes, on both sides of the Tasman. To kick things off, I figured the New Zealanders might enjoy a laugh at some cringeworthy Australiana…
For the next few weeks the The Popular Memory Archive will focus on Australia’s Videogame Pioneers, looking at the stories of some of Australia’s earliest game designers. How they got started, how they went about inventing an industry and making the games they...
Welcome to our blog. A part of the Play It Again project, this is a space where we’ll be hosting monthly blog discussions on themes related to 1980s games, game history in Australia and New Zealand, preservation, cultural heritage, intellectual property, and more besides.
Collector of New Zealand digital games, Michael Davidson, has been busy packing up his collection for the exhibition he is helping to mount at Digital Nationz this weekend in Auckland. Alongside the chance to play the next generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft,...
