Library Blogs

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.

Since February 2008, the University Library has offered a service called "MTagger" as a way to allow site visitors to save resources for future use. Usage patterns over the four years that MTagger was part of our web site show a clear preference for "favoriting" items rather than tagging them. In fall 2011, the library launched "Search Tools Favorites," a way for authenticated library web site users to save databases and online journals.

We recently got a donation that included an Amiga 3000 computer, as well as an Amiga 500. After some love and care from our fearless restorer of old games and equipment, Doug, they are now in working order. Here are a few titles that are now available to play on the Amigas.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Japanese release of the first Final Fantasy game, we have a display commemorating some of the popular cast and themes that have presented themselves throughout the series.

The FAQ for the CVGA has been updated on our libguide, and includes our policies regarding the game soundtracks that we have available for use within the archive. We will also list it here.