This week on The Digital Antiquarian: "Planescape:Torment, Part 1: From the Tabletop..." www.filfre.net/2026/05/plan...

Our latest reading of Kent Vol. 2 is now up! Join us for more errors, laughs, and surprise cameos. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhnw...

All the Adventures reaches the 3rd game of the Canadian who moved to England, Marc Leduc. We're looking for alien life that's been detected on Venus. The previous game was good, but is the natural desire of authors to make later games difficult going to be a problem? bluerenga.blog/2026/05/20/e...

I began doing this last May with a public collection of articles, videos, podcasts and websites on game history: felipepepe.medium.com/my-little-ga... It's also useful if content dies, so that you have the URLs to easily find them on Internet Archive (I also backed them locally, just in case...)

Sixty years ago, the first duet between a musician and a computer. Read my latest research on a forgotten chapter in the history of computers and video games. www.andreacontato.com/duet

This is the last full week of Save the Games 2026 early bird tickets, ending (hopefully!) at the end of the day on Monday, May 25! We're trying to get a rough count for events happening on July 29 and 30. I appreciate the many of you who have already purchased! www.museumofplay.org/save-the-gam...

We're currently on a hunt with @katewillaert.bsky.social to identify the earliest 3D, pre-rendered cutscenes in home games. Our current contender is the famous fly-over of the Cryo Interactive Dune. Do you know of earlier ones? youtu.be/QL8hQm91P7Q?...

Beep – 1985-01-01 – Number 1 – Volume 1 – Issue 1 has been scanned in 600DPI. The first issue of one of the earliest magazines covering the Famicom. Enjoy! www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/2026/05/b...

This is the author of the Retro365 blog, you should follow him so maybe he’ll start posting here again.

Easy repost, great analysis

Walter Forbes turned a phone-in shopping club into CUC International, spent $1.7B on software companies, then merged with HFS to form Cendant. How was this company always just barely beating estimates? 🎙️ TCW258: www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW... #VideoGameHistory #CorporateScandal #Cendant

The time approaches! Join us for a celebration of Dave Nutting and a discussion about running a game museum in the heart of historical pinball land. twitch.tv/rap_sheet

Had a follow-up interview with the one and only Seamus Blackley! Eclectic conversation that I'm hoping will deeply inform my next book.

Tonight at 9PM CST, you can see myself and Jonathan Kinkley talk about Chicago Gamespace live! www.twitch.tv/rap_sheet

The cadre of game history returns with Kent Vol. 2! Today we tackle XBox. Tomorrow: The world? www.twitch.tv/play_history Excuse our mentions about how we had lunch with Ed Fries.

Watch this if you haven't yet, it's a remarkable essay.

The issue is, what does this actually mean? Is this production date? First date shipped? The date it passed burn-in? That's the issue with assigning firm dates to games like this. I know people want a DAY to put in the history books but it's not that simple.

The VOD is up - the first VOD on my new Extras channel! Sub there for future livestream material (including tonight's). www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR_o...

The streams will continue until Kent improves. Join us again for Ultimate History Vol. 2, tomorrow at 7PM CST. www.twitch.tv/play_history Who will Peter Moore tell to f off this time?

Rock-Ola's 1937 World Series machine, created by Harry Williams as a continuation of the EM pitch-and-bat baseball game. I previously did a thread all about the creation of this vital genre: bsky.app/profile/ourl...

UK folks: Before you head to bed, here's some footage of a cancelled Palace Software game you never knew existed. US folks: I dug so deep while researching the "Cauldron II" episode of MetroidMania it's going to need supplementary articles. This is one of two. www.acriticalhit.com/stuntman-198...

Some behind the scenes filming of the first true LaserDisc arcade game: Sega's Astron Belt, as spotted by tweakbod. There's a lot of interesting history wrapped up in this game. I could only scratch the surface for my book, but I'd love to know more.

I'll be happy to see anybody who can make it there! My presentation is all about video game history field work. I should probably get to writing that shouldn't I...

Wow. Digital Press was one of *the* big retro game forums in the 00s. Much quieter in recent years but still a good resource for old posts. Atariage really is the last one standing, huh.

Read about my weekend attending my first gaming convention ever, co-hosting a Metroidvania panel with Jeremy Parish, taking over Diamond Feit’s panel, and having lunch with ex-Xbox exec Ed Fries.

Normally I send my newsletter to $1+ patrons, but I decided to make this Special Report temporarily free: www.patreon.com/posts/con-di...

My nearly eight hour “multi-part” video about Digital Pictures, a leading force of FMV games in the 1990’s, premieres live in about a half hour. Featuring mountains of unreleased footage, interviews, internal documents, and canceled games. youtu.be/QM-I1G_UEr0?...

Ten years ago, when I was first getting into game history research, I uncovered a vexing mystery. Here's my attempt to walk you through that tale, using new evidence gathered in a decade (!) since I first discussed it with @theycreateworlds.bsky.social

FROGS And some other games. www.twitch.tv/play_history Join us for exploring Arcade 1978. With @quarterpast.bsky.social

It's a big night for us—we're about to establish that Space Invaders was released before Frogs! Party starts in under an hour—come along, bring snacks!

TOMORROW at 7PM CST, I return with @quarterpast.bsky.social for more dating of arcade games! www.twitch.tv/play_history The true salacious history content you need as we head into The Year of Space Invaders.

Today is an important day in #pinball history: 90 years ago, pinball operation was banned in the City of Chicago. The "Prohibition against Bagatelle or Pigeonhole Games" was maintained until 1977, even as the pinball companies continued to build their machines there.

I will be presenting at The Strong at the end of July for the Save the Games event! This will be my first time at the museum and meeting many people I've known for years online. Get a look at what I'm presenting (along with many others) here!

A final wrap-up from MGC: A reflection on Dave Nutting's legacy and the early arcade market. thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/w... How should we hand out dues to important figures in history and their actual relative importance?

A final wrap-up from MGC: A reflection on Dave Nutting's legacy and the early arcade market. thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/w... How should we hand out dues to important figures in history and their actual relative importance?

One last video from MGC 2026 is now up: Scott Adams talking with Paul Drury! www.youtube.com/watch?v=c54o... This video was unattended and the audio is a bit messed up I'm afraid but hopefully it's still useful to somebody!

April was very, very busy and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things for May. Will have an upcoming blogpost touching on MGC, a summary of the Donkey Kong court case, and hopefully some momentum on the next episode!

Video patrons: I have edited together a proper rendition of the presentation that @katewillaert.bsky.social and I delivered last weekend at MGC, complete with slides and video bits: www.patreon.com/posts/belate... Thanks to @playhistory.bsky.social for help with the source files for this!

Now the presentation that I was most excited for: Jamie Fenton at MGC 2026! www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCGe... Chicago Gamespace helped put this together as well as had a Dave Nutting-themed museum at the event. Jamie's awesome and Paul leads her through some of her best stories.

Mannequins and models were great eye-catchers for a novelty, especially when selling something like perfume. Mills Novelty's Perfume Lady line had both stand-up and life-sized models of many stripes to draw the eye - and fetch the coin.

Nine cartridges, a Sears rebrand, and clever sprite tricks that pushed a new console to its limits. The Atari VCS launch titles were modest, but their fingerprints are everywhere. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcws... #AtariVCS #Atari2600 #RetroGaming #VideoGameHistory

Today's Atari Archive focuses on Riddle of the Sphinx and Fire Fighter, a pair of August 1982 releases from Imagic that really exemplify two very different approaches to game design: an ambitious, puzzle-solving adventure game and a graphically impressive but very simple action title.

I really hope there are people out there who genuinely find FamiWiki to be useful whether that be for the known and popular things to the extremely niche stuff. It is also completely ad-free for your browsing pleasure.

The second panel from MGC 2026 is live! Eugene Jarvis and Ed Fries talk about their experiences in the business 25 years ago. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eciD... Stories about the new arcade, the Xbox, and gaming preservation!

The wrapup post for April is now up on the blog: savestate.site/stage-clear-ap...

I was informed there was an issue at the end of the video, so I did a reupload. youtu.be/eRN_FvyiMaE Additionally! This is posted on a new channel that you should follow if you're interested in our stream VODs! More of the MGC 2026 panels going up tomorrow.

Next on All the Adventures: St. Andrew's Adventure, which is as far as I can find, the first adventure game from Ireland. I give a history of Irish computing as well as how the author connected to the Commodore demoscene. bluerenga.blog/2026/04/29/s...

For our final translation this month, we have a nostalgic interview with Noriyoshi Ohba and Rieko Kodama from 2001! The pair chat about their history at Sega, looking back at the developments of Altered Beast, Shinobi, Phantasy Star IV, and more. shmuplations.com/ohbakodama/

Here's video of one of the three panels I was in! Shockingly, this was possibly the only panel on the Video Game Stage that filled every seat. The audience included folks like Scott Adams (the good one), Ed Fries, Paul Drury, and Vid Kid Rawson Stovall.

For those that couldn't catch us at Midwest Gaming Classic, I made sure to get the panel up quickly! youtu.be/SDnNTQWcc68 Headed by @katewillaert.bsky.social, @theycreateworlds.bsky.social, @nathaniellockhart.bsky.social, and myself talk about the important early arcade games of the 1970s.