Library Blogs

We held a party and Smash tournament on Saturday to celebrate our fifth anniversary of being open, as well as to highlight International Games Day @ Your Library. Both were well-attended, and the cupcakes predictably disappeared pretty quickly. As promised, we'll post the winners of the Smash tournament here for official bragging rights. Congratulations to our top five winners, who won Amazon gift cards, and thanks to everyone who attended!

Inside an Intellivision game consoleGet a real inside look at the gaming systems housed in the Computer & Video Game Archive in "CVGA Disassembled," a new online exhibit created to help celebrate the CVGA's 5th Anniversary this week.We've opened up some of our favorite game consoles of yesteryear to show off the guts and inside circuitry, as well as loving shots of the exteriors. In addition, visitors to the exhibit will learn about the history of these gaming systems as they step through the different generations of video games.The exhibit is curated by CVGA manager Val Waldron, and was created with the assistance of current and former Learning & Teaching University Library Associates Alex Purcell, Adam Jazairi, and Maria Seiferle-Valencia."CVGA Disassembled" can be viewed online as part of the MLibrary Online Exhibits at http://www.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/cvga-disassembled

It's the CVGA 5th Anniversary Week! We have many fun, celebratory and hopefully illuminating events and activities scheduled:Monday (today!): We kick off our week-long Classic Games Tournament. Show your mastery of classic video games by playing Dr. Mario, Sonic Blast, Double Dragon, Asteroids, and Paperboy. Prizes!Tuesday: Join us at 4pm in the Hatcher Library Gallery for a panel discussion with U-M faculty in "Game On! Video Game Research & Teaching at the University of Michigan."Wednesday: Our director Dave Carter will join AADL's Eli Neiberger in an appearance on the Comics Are Great podcast with host Jerzy Drozd in a talk about the intersection of comics & gaming.Thursday: We debut our new online exhibition "CVGA Disassembled"Saturday: Our big 5th Anniversary Bash! Join us at the CVGA from 1-5pm for food and fun and our Smash Tournament.

Here is our most popular games list for the month of October. Soccer games dominate the board, with first-person shooters coming in a close second. People are also putting our new games to good use - FIFA 14 and Grand Theft Auto V. And Mariokart makes the list once more.

Our new bulletin board display features the Ouya console - a game console powered by an Android OS that was built to bring games that were formally playable only on phones onto your television.We had an opportunity to check out several free games that were installed on our Ouya, and chose to showcase some of them here. My personal favorite is EVAC, which I like to describe as a souped-up game of Pacman, with a guy trash talking you the whole way through. It gives the old game a fresh feel.

Our student worker Mike Lynch explores the human search for feelings in all aspects of life - and specifically, in video games.

Two events coming up this week that you won't want to miss:
The Digital Media Commons Presents Leap Motion Launch Event: The future of Human Computer Interaction?
Character Animation.

Here is the list of most popular games played in the archive during the month of September. A lot of old favorites top the list, along with a few new games, including Madden NFL 25 and NCAA Football 14.

Today we were saddened to learn that former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi had passed away at the age of 85.Working at Nintendo since 1949, he led the company during their most critical times - reinventing themselves as an electronics entertainment business during a time when such things were first being developed. He spearheaded the development of the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, GameBoy, and GameCube, and his name is widely recognized throughout the history of video games.

As we get started on yet another school year, we in the CVGA welcome you all, both new and returning students!We resume our regular Fall semester hours as of today:Monday: Noon - 9pmTues - Friday: 10am - 9pmSaturday: 1pm - 9pmSunday: Closed(But note: This Friday—the 6th—we will not open until 1pm.)Stop by and visit; we're in room B474 in the basement of the Duderstadt Center. We've added many new games over the summer and even a few new systems, including an Apple ][!To learn more about the CVGA, please visit our Library Guide at http://guides.lib.umich.edu/cvgaThis fall marks the 5th anniversary of the CVGA. We are in the process of planning several events to commemorate the occasion, mostly in November. Stay tuned to this space for more details, as well as our Twitter and Facebook accounts. (Follow us! Friend us! It's fun!)