certain game systems and titles were almost
impossible to ind in working order, outside of
private collections.
Today if a researcher needs to hook up and play
a 1977 Telematch Panoramic Pong console from
Argentina, the Learning Games Initiative can
make that happen.
Or if a graduate student wants to squeeze of
a few harmless shots from a 1972 Magavox
Odyssey rile, the irst weapon interface ever
sold for a home video game system, the archive
has one already locked and loaded.
The collection prides itself on being open to
all game researchers, no matter their ages or
institutional ailiations.
Most requests come from university scholars
and professional researchers, but Ruggill says
they’ve also worked on educational projects
with elementary school classes and met with
clubs for senior citizens “who are interested
in better understanding what their grandkids
are doing.”
Roughly one ifth of the collection is housed
in a few cluttered rooms on the top loor of an
outdated, three-story building at the eastern
edge of the UA campus.
The rest is kept in storage and in small satellite
archives at partner institutions in Indiana,
Illinois, Massachusetts, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming,
Australia and Germany.
“Periodically, there are talks at the university
level of getting a space that’s the right size
for the collection and opening a museum,”
McAllister says. “It never quite manages to make
the top priority list.”