Library Blogs

Today we had an impressive assortment of incoming freshmen check out the archive in a big tour, about 60 people in total. It's wonderful to see so many new students taking an interest, but we just had to take pictures since we haven't had that big of a crowd in quite some time.

A piece appeared in UM's Michigan Today about Sid Meier's Game Design Boot Camp, which took place earlier this Summer. In it, we discover what gave him the idea for the boot camp, which companies were involved, and a bit about how it was structured. We also learn that not only was Sid Meier's son Ryan involved (a UM graduate), but also his mother, who attended the event as well.

Here is our list of the top 10 games played in the archive for the month of May. A couple of RPG classics made the list, with a Disney game even making an appearance towards the bottom of the list.

To go along with our recent redesign of the archive bulletin board, we've updated our featured game section to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Street Fighter series. So far, all of the series that we've featured are celebrating 25th anniversaries, so we'll see how long we can keep it up.

We have redesigned our bulletin board to include a couple of new feature sections, including "Staff Picks" and "Featured Board Game." Our staff picks for this round are Final Fantasy X (PS2), Star Wars Tie Fighter (DOS), and Chronocross (PS), all of which are available to play in the archive. The board game we chose to feature first is Forbidden Island, a fun cooperative game that is easy and quick to set up, teach new players, and play through in a limited amount of time.

The CVGA was featured today in an AnnArbor.com article entitled "U-M computer and video game archive has lofty goal: Collect every game ever made." In it, our founder Dave Carter describes our purpose and goals for the archive.The article also got a mention on FARK.com, complete with lively and colorful comments about the games that we should have in our collection.

Here is our list of top 10 games played in the archive for the month of April. A tie between a lot of popular games, with the board game Dominion remaining a contender and New Super Mario Bros. Wii making a surprise appearance.

In February, we released the first part of the advanced search interface for HathiTrust full-text search. Today we released the second phase of advanced search. You can now combine up to four different fields connected by the "AND" or "OR" operators, and any limits set are retained if you click on the "Revise this advanced search" on the search results page.

Last week, we managed to add five display cases to the (previously empty-looking) wall just outside the archive room, which are large enough to hold some of the larger video game posters in our collection. They will also give us the chance to showcase some of the neat video game ephemera that we don't often get to show off, including a t-shirt for Dragon's Lair, signed by its creators, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman.(Thanks to Britain for donating the shirt, and to Shannon for coming up with the great blurb.)

Here's our list of the most popular games played in the CVGA over the course of the past month. FIFA dominates the board, with Rayman making a strong appearance and Dominion becoming ever more popular.