Research Outputs
Books and Special Issues
Ndalianis, Angela and Helen Stuckey eds., Special Issue 1990s Hollywood and Games: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into Media Technologies. (Forthcoming August 2026)
Swalwell, Melanie, Helen Stuckey, and Stephanie Harkin (eds.). Special Issue Videogame Magazines, Fans, and Game History, IEEE Annals of History of Computing. (Forthcoming July 2027)
Swalwell, Melanie (ed.) Game History and the Local, London, New York: Palgrave, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66422-0
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Moya, Cynde, Melanie Swalwell. “Building Better Environments: A Baker’s Dozen of Methodologies for Configuring and Selecting Emulation Environments in EAASI,” Preservation, Digital Technology and Culture. (Forthcoming)
Ndalianis, Angela. “Revisiting Phantasmagoria and the 1990’s Promise of the ‘Interactive Movie.’” Special Issue 1990s Hollywood and Games: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into Media Technologies. (Forthcoming August 2026)
Ndalianis, Angela, and Helen Stuckey. “Cinematic Convergence and the 1990s: Games, Hollywood, and the Formation of a Digital Media Ecology.” Special Issue 1990s Hollywood and Games: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into Media Technologies. (Forthcoming August 2026)
Stuckey, Helen, and Stephanie Harkin. “Cultural Policy, Multimedia, and The Dame was Loaded (1996): A microhistory on FMV movie games beyond the narrative of failure.” Special Issue 1990s Hollywood and Games: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into Media Technologies. (Forthcoming August 2026)
Stuckey, Helen, and Stephanie Harkin. “Brilliant Digital: a 1990s Australian videogames studio that brought Xena, KISS, and Popeye together in the Multipath Movies experimental streaming service.” Internet Histories, Vol. 9, Issue 3 (2025): 274–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2025.2450177
Stuckey, Helen. “Melbourne House: the House of Hits: 1980s Melbourne and the early history of Australian videogame design,” RMIT Design Archives Journal, Vol. 13, No.1 (2020). https://www.rmit.edu.au/library/borrowing-and-collections/rmit-design-archives/journal
Stuckey, Helen. “Beyond the Amiga: In conversation with John Passfield on Flight of the Amazon Queen”, ROMchip: A journal of game histories, Vol 5 No.2 December (2022). https://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal/article/view/164
Book Chapters
Borthwick, Michael, Melanie Swalwell. “Bon Voyage: A global tour of local user groups with the Sorcerer of Exidy,” in Game History and the Local, ed. Melanie Swalwell. London, New York: Palgrave, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66422-0
Ndalianis, Angela, Melanie Swalwell, and Helen Stuckey. “The Popular Memory Archive: Born Digital Heritage and the Preservation of Videogame Culture from the 1980s,” in Utilità e danno della storia, eds. Massimo Bulgarelli, Agostino De Rosa, Carmelo Marabello, Venice: Mimesis Edizioni Università Iuav di Venezia, 2019, pp.180-197. ISBN: 978-88-5753-774-0 https://doi.org/10.7413/1234-1234002
Stuckey, Helen, Nick Richardson, Melanie Swalwell, Denise de Vries. “What Retrogamers can teach the Museum,” Commodore 64 – Past, Present, and Future of a Home Computer, Stefan Höltgen & Jens Schröter, eds. (Forthcoming)
Swalwell, Melanie. “1980er Jahre Home Coding. Die Kunst des Amateur-Programmierens” (Torsten Roeder, trans.), .D64 – Scientific Explorations of Computer Game History within the Digital Humanities (A C64 Disk Book), eds. Melanie Fritsch, Stefan Höltgen, Torsten Roeder. Weimar: Poly.Play, 2024. http://dhspiele.de/erste-publikation-der-ag-spiele-erschienen/
Swalwell, Melanie. “Hobbyist Computing in 1980s New Zealand: Games and the Popular Reception of Microcomputers” (reprint), From Yesterday to Tomorrow, ed. Janet Toland, ITP, 2021. https://history.itp.nz/part-2/swalwell.html
Swalwell, Melanie. “Introduction: Game History and the Local,” in Game History and the Local, ed. Melanie Swalwell. London, New York: Palgrave, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66422-0
Swalwell, Melanie. “Heterodoxy in Game History: Toward more ‘connected histories’,” in Game History and the Local, ed. Melanie Swalwell. London, New York: Palgrave, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66422-0
Peer Reviewed Conference Papers
de Vries, Denise. “Optimizing Memory for Legacy DOS Systems.” iPRES 2022 Glasgow, Scotland 12-16 September 2022. https://osf.io/p9yr6/files/3w9s2
Moya, Cynde, Melanie Swalwell, Helen Stuckey, and Denise de Vries. “Preserving and Emulating Australian Made Videogames of the 1990s.” Paper presented at DiGRA 2023 Conference: Limits and Margins of Games. 20 June 2023. https://doi.org/10.26503/dl.v2023i2.2037
Stuckey, Helen, Cynde Moya, Melanie Swalwell, and Denise de Vries. “Preserving and Emulating Australian Made Videogames of the 1990s,” DiGRAA, Melbourne, Australia. 11-14 January 2024.
Presentations
de Vries, Denise, and Helen Stuckey. “Preserving Australian video game history of the 1990s.” Open Preservation Foundation, Webinar, 28 October 2021. https://openpreservation.org/events/preserving-australian-video-game-history-of-the-1990s/
de Vries, Denise. “Optimizing Memory for Legacy DOS Systems.” Conference presentation, iPres 2022, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7n7kmBjrTA&list=PLUuwS7iraKCzeZNkAgvZtgU6nqmoiZOd6&index=9
de Vries, Denise. “Evaluation of Emulation-as-a-Service for 1990’s Videogames.” Conference presentation. Born Digital Cultural Heritage, ACMI, 29 Nov–1 December 2023. https://vimeo.com/901372589?fl=pl&fe=cm
Moya, Cynde, with Jessica Meyerson, Ron Nakao, Ethan Gates, Kris Kasianovitz. “Emulation in Action.” 2020 Virtual DLF Forum. Online conference presentation, 9-10 November 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgI4mxbxAwM&list=PLl7V7chP13lCi43EQzsWq7Lb6Z2PgKll9&index=47
Moya, Cynde. “Play Gumboots Australia on Emulation-as-a-Service Infrastructure.” Ad-Hoc session, iPres, Champaign, IL, 21 September 2023.
Moya, Cynde and Candice Cranmer, “Embedding EaaSI at ACMI to access legacy works.” Conference presentation. National Digital Forum, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand, 21 November 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsO7HotG4s0
Ndalianis, Angela (Chair), Gleb Albert, Maria Garda, David Murphy, Helen Stuckey. “Game History: the 1990s.” Conference panel presentation. Born Digital Heritage 2022. Online, 16-18 February 2022. https://vimeo.com/678645588?fl=pl&fe=cm
Perani, Letícia, Melanie Swalwell. “Chains of relations for building new game history narratives: a case study of the operations of Taito Corp. in Brazil”, The Hispanic and Latin American Video Gaming Experience: Imagery, Industry & Audience. Online conference, 25-26 February 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIYQ0F72OV0
Stuckey, Helen, Seb Chan, Nick Richardson, Candice Cranmer, Denise de Vries, and Cynde Moya. “Play it Again: preserving Australia’s Videogame History”, PAX online, 13 October 2020.
Swalwell, Melanie. “AusEAASI: From Game Preservation to Software Preservation.” Keynote presentation. Videogame Preservation: Practices and Approaches, an Online Symposium, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, 12 March 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuSH8QYlqUs
Swalwell, Melanie. Emulation panel discussion. Online meeting. AusPreserves, 19 August, 2020. https://australasiapreserves.blogspot.com/2020/08/august-meetup-emulation.html
Swalwell, Melanie. “Heterodox histories of homebrew (and other practices),” Keynote conference presentation, Replaying Japan, RMIT University, Melbourne, 1-3 September, 2025. https://sites.google.com/view/replaying-japan-2025/keynotes?authuser=0
Swalwell, Melanie (Chair), Adam Bell, Elliott Bledsoe, Seb Chan, Euan Cochrane & Rowena Loo “Software Strategies.” Conference panel presentation. Born Digital Heritage Conference 2022. Online 16-18 February 2022. https://vimeo.com/678645588?fl=pl&fe=cm
Swalwell, Melanie (Chair), Kevin Driscoll, Stephanie Harkin, and James Hodges. “Researchers and Emulation.” Conference panel presentation. Born Digital Heritage Conference 2022. Online 16-18 February 2022. https://vimeo.com/678645588?fl=pl&fe=cm
Swalwell, Melanie, Kimberlee Weatherall and Stuart Buchanan. Moderated by Matt Millikan. “Presenting the new canon in 2050.” Conference panel discussion, Future of Arts, Culture & Technology, ACMI, Melbourne, 14-15 February, 2024. https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/presenting-new-canon-fact-2024-symposium/
Swalwell, Melanie. “Incrementalism in the preservation of complex digital artefacts,” Keynote presentation, DH Days, Lausanne, 23 June, 2022. https://youtu.be/ktDPnHS20Js?t=18692
Swalwell, Melanie, “Homebrew Gaming and the Everyday Reception of Micro-computers,” Finnish Museum of Games 5th anniversary talk. Online, 31 January 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLk3-Lt_3Bg&t=4392s
Swalwell, Melanie. “Hardware Hacking in 1980s Microcomputer Culture.” Presentation and workshop: The Circulation of Computer Knowledge Beyond Schooling, 1980–2000. Switzerland/online, 17 September 2021.
Swalwell, Melanie. Invited presentation, Platform studies and history of video games seminar series, Switzerland/online, 2 September 2021.
Awards
Play it Again. finalist: Digital Repository of Ireland Research and Innovation Award, DPC, Sept 2024.
Denise de Vries: Digital Preservation Coalition Fellowship Award 2022. https://www.dpconline.org/news/dpa2022-winners
Helen Stuckey: Digital Games Research Association Australia & New Zealand (DiGRAA) Dr April Tyack’s Distinguished Scholars Award 2026.
“Radical Utopia: An Archaeology of a Creative City.” Winner 2023 Australian Museums and Galleries Association Victoria small project award, curated by Harriet Edquist and Helen Stuckey with Melanie Swalwell. https://research-repository.rmit.edu.au/articles/event/RADICAL_UTOPIA_An_Archaeology_of_a_Creative_City/27402681
Press/Media
Bell, Adam. “Now you can play some of your favourite games again,” AARNET. 29 June 2020. https://www.aarnet.edu.au/now-you-can-play-some-of-your-favourite-video-games-again
Cranmer, Candice “Making legacy videogames and interactive artworks playable with EAASI via ACMI’s website”, Medium. 2 May 2022 https://labs.acmi.net.au/making-legacy-videogames-and-artworks-playable-with-eaasi-via-acmis-website-43c686dfe947
Cruz, Mar. “Play it Again II”, ACMI Stories and Ideas. 8 September 2021. https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/play-it-again-2/
Chantiri, Emily. “The race to save Australia’s digital heritage: Conserving the history of computing for future generations”, ACS Information Age, 11 March 2024, https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2024/the-race-to-save-australia-s-digital-heritage.html
Innes, Ruby. “New Aussie-Made Games Preservation Exhibition At ACMI Looks Fkin’ Tight”, Kotaku, 16 February 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220216014259/https://www.kotaku.com.au/2022/02/games-preservation-exhibition-at-acmi/
Lei, Celina. Predictions for the Arts Canon in 2050, ArtsHub, 22 February 2024. https://www.artshub.com.au/news/features/predictions-for-the-arts-canon-in-2050-2704487/
Lemon, Barbara. “The Emulation Game” (Scripturient column), Information Professional, Winter 2025, pp. 26-27. https://www.cilip.org.uk/page/InfoPro2025
Moya, Cynde and Denise de Vries. “Using Emulation-as-a-Service (EaaS) to preserve Australian Media Arts and Videogames of the 90s.” Virtual conference presentation, #WeMissiPRES, Digital Preservation Coalition, 22-24 September 2020. digipres.org/publications/ipres/ipres-2020/
NT Sundays. Denise de Vries discussed CD-ROMS history, care and preservation with David Graham. Aired 10 January 2026 on 105.7 ABC Darwin.
O’Halloran, Brent. “Saving Aussie Media,” Sky News broadcast, 9 May 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o5AqZ4MmXY
Santomartino, Mark. Vintage games exhibited at ACMI & playable on mobile devices, Channel 9 News Melbourne, 19 March 2022. https://twitter.com/9NewsMelb/status/1505083166528319495?s=20&t=IfGDJIvt6b0khn3azTj4sQ
“Shaping Research Software: An interview with Professor Melanie Swalwell”. Australian Research Data Commons, 30 May 2025. https://ardc.edu.au/article/shaping-research-software-an-interview-with-professor-melanie-swalwell/
Swalwell, Melanie. “How The Commodore 64 Revolutionized Gaming.” Innovation Heroes, hosted by Ed McNamara. Podcast,15 December 2022. podbean.com/ew/pb-pci2j-133b3b2
Swalwell, Melanie. Expert comment on Atari 2600 console, ABC Drive with Raf Epstein, 774 ABC Melbourne, 19 July 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/programs/drive/drive/13970466 (2:18:54-2:25:30)
Swalwell, Melanie. “Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality”, AUTOCODE (Australian Computer Museum Society Podcast) hosted by Riley Tipton Perry. Season 2, episode 6. Podcast, 3 July 2022. https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/autocode/episodes/Melanie-Swalwell—Homebrew-Gaming-and-the-Beginnings-of-Vernacular-Digitality-e1l9q2s
Swinburne University of Technology, “Play It Again – the games from your childhood are making a comeback.” Media release. 18 February 2022. https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/02/the-games-from-your-childhood-are-making-a-comeback/
Williams, Leah J. “How museums collect video games and their history,” Games Hub, 17 February, 2022. https://www.gameshub.com/news/features/museums-video-games-collection-preservation-13213/
Events and Exhibitions
Born Digital Cultural Heritage 2022. Conference, online, Melbourne. 16-18 February 2022. https://playitagainproject.com/conference/conference_program/
Edquist, Harriet and Helen Stuckey with Melanie Swalwell, “Radical Utopia: An Archaeology of a Creative City.” Exhibition, RMIT Gallery, 21 February-27 May 2023. (Included a section of Melbourne House Games).
Winner 2023 Australian Museums and Galleries Association Victoria small project award. https://research-repository.rmit.edu.au/articles/event/RADICAL_UTOPIA_An_Archaeology_of_a_Creative_City/27402681
Hoffman, Arieh, Dr Emma Witkowski, James Halprin, Ross Symons “Play it Again: Howzat! A Brief History of Australian Cricket Games.” Panel discussion, ACMI, 19 Feb 2022. https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/play-it-again-preserving-australias-videogames-from-the-1990s/howzat-brief-history-australian-cricket-games/
Ndalianis, Angela. David Giles, Christian McCrea, Dan Golding “Play it Again: Hollywood and Videogames in the 1990s.” Panel discussion, ACMI, 17 Feb 2022. https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/play-it-again-preserving-australias-videogames-from-the-1990s/hollywood-videogames-1990s/
Passfield, John, Richard Moss, Terry Burdak and Arieh Offman (Curated by Helen Stuckey). “Play it Again: Shareware Downunder Panel” PAX Australia, October 2022. https://lifeandtimes.games/episodes/files/pax-panel-shareware-downunder
Stuckey, Helen, and John Passfield. “Play it Again: in Conversation with John Passfield.” Public talk, ACMI, 17 Feb 2022. https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/play-it-again-preserving-australias-videogames-from-the-1990s/in-conversation-john-passfield-flight-of-the-amazon-queen/
Stuckey, Helen, Pauli Kidd, Mark Morrison, Justin Halliday “Play it Again: Worldbuilding in Australian Games”, Panel discussion, ACMI, 7 June 2025. https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/acmi-rmit-audience-lab/worldbuilding-australian-games/
Swalwell, Melanie, Cynde Moya, “Side by Side”, exhibition of 2 1990s games and 5 1990s media artworks running on original hardware and in Emulation as a Service Infrastructure (EaaSI), Swinburne University of Technology, 10 February, 2023.
Swalwell, Melanie, Cynde Moya, “Side by Side”, exhibition of 4 games running on original hardware and in Emulation as a Service (EaaS), ACMI, 16-19 February 2022.
Swalwell, Melanie, Helen Stuckey, Cynde Moya, “Collector’s Cabinet”, Story of the Moving Image, ACMI, installed 15 February 2022.
Swalwell, Melanie, Helen Stuckey, Cynde Moya, Six emulated Australian digital games of the 1990s curated as part of the “Story of the Moving Image” exhibition, ACMI, installed 15 February 2022.
Swalwell, Melanie, Helen Stuckey, Jini Maxwell, “5 Constellations” curated by Play it Again for ACMI web, ACMI, 2022
Stuckey, Helen, Melanie Swalwell, Denise de Vries and Angela Ndalianis, “Popular Memory Archive” online exhibition and blog curated by Play it Again.
Other
50 legacy video games collected and preserved by ACMI. https://www.acmi.net.au/works/119644–play-it-again-ii-games-collection/
Borthwick, Michael. “Sorcererdagen & Weekend Live-Ins: A cross-cultural investigation of the social history and reception of the Exidy Sorcerer microcomputer in Australia and the Netherlands.” Integrated PhD – Master of Research Thesis. 2022. https://doi.org/10.25916/sut.26297071
de Vries, Denise, “Media transfer, Accessibility, Emulators and Metadata,” Digital Preservation Graduate Diploma in Information Management (Archives and Records Management). (Class guest lecture, University of South Australia, Adelaide 26 August 2020).
de Vries, Denise, “Resourcing, Media transfer, Digital Forensics, Accessibility, Emulators and Comparison of Emulators,” Digital Preservation Graduate Diploma in Information Management (Archives and Records Management). (Class guest lecture, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 31 July 2021).
de Vries, Denise, “Digital Stewardship, Media transfer, Accessibility, Emulators, Emulation-as-a-Service, Emulation-as-a-Service Infrastructure,” Digital Preservation Graduate Diploma in Information Management (Archives and Records Management). (Class guest lecture, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 9 August 2022)
de Vries, Denise, “Digital Forensics, Emulator Requirements, Emulators, Emulation-as-a-Service, Emulation-as-a-Service Infrastructure,” Digital Preservation Graduate Diploma in Information Management (Archives and Records Management). (Class guest lecture, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 6 August 2023).
Swalwell, Melanie. Jury Member, Digital Preservation Coalition’s “Bit List”, 2021.
Stuckey, Helen. World Vidogame Hall of Fame International Selection Advisory Committee Member, (Strong Museum of Play, Rochester NY).
Project Interviews
Fawkner, Steve. “Interview with Steve Fawkner (Designer Warlords series, SSG).” By Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI. Single channel video, ACMI collection (2022).
Feldstein, Jack. “Interview with Jack Feldstein (Screen Writer, Brilliant Digital).” By Helen Stuckey. Zoom recording, ACMI collection (2023).
Giles, David, and Mark Morrison. “Interview with David Giles (Producer, The Dame was Loaded) and Mark Morrison (Designer/Writer, The Dame was Loaded).” By Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI. Single channel video, ACMI collection (2022).
Giles, David and Justin Halliday. “Interview with David Giles and Justin Halliday (Producers, Beam Software/Melbourne House).” By Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI. Single channel video, ACMI collection, (2022).
Halliday, Justin. Interview with Justin Halliday (Shadowrun, Beam Software) by Helen Stuckey, Zoom recording, ACMI collection, September 2021
Harrison, Richard. “Interview with Richard Harrison (Founder/Engine Designer, Ratbag).” By Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI. Single channel video, ACMI collection (2022)
Keating, Roger, and Gregor Whiley. “Interview with Roger Keating (Founder/Designer, SSG) and Gregor Whiley (Producer, SSG).” By Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI, single channel video, ACMI collection (2022).
Keating, Roger and Gregor Whiley. “Interview with Roger Keating and Gregor Whiley (SSG) using EAASI to play their games.” By Helen Stuckey. Single channel video, ACMI collection (2022).
Kidd, Pauli. “Interview with Pauli Kidd (Designer Shadowrun, Beam Software).” By Helen Stuckey. Zoom recording, ACMI collection (2021).
Lane, Greg. “Interview with Greg Lane (Dark Reign, Director of Auran and Engine designer).” By Helen Stuckey. Zoom recording, ACMI collection (2024).
Lane, Jon. “Interview with Jo Lane (Cinematographer The Dame was Loaded, Vixen Films).” By Helen Stuckey, Zoom recording, ACMI collection (2024).
Magpie Tactics “Interview with Magpie Tactics (Dark Reign Discord).” By Helen Stuckey. Transcript, ACMI collection (2025).
Migrom, Alfred. “Interview with Alfred Milgrom (Executive Chairman, Beam Software/ Laser Beam/ Melbourne House) by Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI, single channel video. ACMI collection (2022).
Morrison, Mark. “Interview with Mark Morrison (Designer, Beam Software).” By Helen Stuckey. Zoom recording, ACMI collection (2021).
Niere, Andrew. “Interview with Andrew Niere (Designer Riding Star, IR Gurus) by Helen Stuckey. Zoom recording, ACMI collection (2023).
Parker, Marshall. “Interview with Marshall Parker (Audio Director, Beam Software/Melbourne House).” By Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI. Single channel video, ACMI collection (2023).
Passfield, John. “Interview with John Passfield (Founder, Interactive Binary Illusions).” By Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI. Single channel video, ACMI collection (2022).
Siegle, Greg. “Interview with Greg Siegle (Founder/CEO, Ratbag).” By Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI. Single channel video, ACMI collection (2022).
Theodore, David. “Interview with David Theodore (Engine and tools designer, Torus).” By Helen Stuckey. Single channel video, ACMI collection (2023).
Walker, Robin. “Interview with Robin Walker (Team Fortress Software).” By Helen Stuckey. Director: Field Carr, ACMI. Single channel video, ACMI collection (2024).