Posts by Val Waldron

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.

Here is our list of most popular games in the archive for the month of August. The Arcade Legends Cabinet continued to be popular amongst the younger kids and new students that were coming in to check out the CVGA. Smash also made it on the list as people were taking advantage of our Smash-all-week Summer policy. And the first Black Ops made it back on the list.

Here is our list of most popular games in the archive for July. The Last of Us quickly climbed towards the top, and it's nice to see that Final Fantasy is still making an appearance. We've had lots of junior high and high school visitors, and their favorite games to play are reflected here as well.

It's that time again! Hard to imagine that we need to start hiring for the Fall already, but the Summer goes by quickly. Feel free to share the job posting below. Our deadline for applying for the Fall semester will be on August 15th.

Today we hosted a dance-off in which a professor-who-will-remain-nameless challenged her students to compete with her using the video game Dance Central 2.

Here is our list of most popular games in the archive from June. Smash is back on the list now that it's open to play anytime for the Spring/Summer semesters, and Final Fantasy IX makes an appearance due to the efforts of one student trying to get through it this Summer. Our Arcade Legends Cabinet is also getting a lot of attention, probably due to the number of tours and class sessions taking place in the archive last month.

Yesterday, the archive hosted an English 298 class entitled "The Games We Play." Students played a number of our games that were puzzle-oriented (most of them also included utopian/dystopian themes), and then presented what they learned as they discussed how their game incorporates the concepts of work and play.

Here is our list of the most popular games for the month of May. A Wii U game makes the list, with one very enthusiastic player putting P3P for the PSP on the list as well. Our arcade cabinet has also seen more play over the past few weeks.

Here are the top games played in the archive during the month of April. As classes and exams are ending, it appears that Smash has been popular enough to make it back on the list. Banjo Kazooie has also been surprisingly popular over the past month or so.

A little last minute, but here's an interesting event going on in the building today: Join us for an informal show-n-tell and open discussion around Motion Capture in feature films and video games with Marc Morisseau, an alumni of U-M and the UM3DLab. Marc is currently working for Just Cause Entertainment and played a large role in the Motion Capture for Avatar 1, Resident Evil 6, Star Trek 2, and several yet to be announced feature films. It should be an exciting discussion as Marc talks about some of his recent projects and challenges that accompany large productions.