“Welcome to the first edition of Archive! This conference is an exploration of the history of games and the weird/wonderful ways in which we play.” - Archive Con 2019 pamphlet
Last month, I attended Archive Con at MICA in Baltimore. Archive Con describes itself as “a celebration of game history and culture,” and functions as a collaboration between Magfest and the MICA Game Lab.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived. I knew that there was going to be a focus on game history with a range of game-related panels and playable games (after all, what Magfest event doesn’t have a playable classic arcade?), but it ended up being much more than that.
Archive Con had an incredible social energy--if you’ve ever attended Maglabs, it was a very similar energy, but on an even closer scale. Panels were intimate, and there was time between events to have conversations with others, giving real opportunities to get to know the speakers. I saw both new and familiar faces. As an introvert, I often struggle with “mingling” at events like this, but the conversations over donuts and coffee at Archive Con came naturally. Our excitement and passion for obscure media bubbled over through sharing stories and photos of archive shelves full of Tetris-themed crackers, vestigial Gameboy accessories and empty Mario Kart spaghettio cans.
Andrew Borman from the Strong National Museum of Play shared stories of games that almost became lost media, and their sometimes unusual journeys to eventually arrive to the Museum’s archives. Digital Project Specialists and a Librarian Technician from the Library of Congress described the process of cataloguing video games, as well as their related materials like advertisements and packaging. Their stories also served as a reminder of just how delicate electronic media can be, particularly digital media. Even games with a significant number of downloads can be quickly lost to time if they aren’t actively preserved. David Gibson from the Library of Congress argued that electronic media from just a couple decades ago is more fragile and in more urgent need of preservation than one hundred year old film.
I’ve never thought of myself as an archivist, but hearing everyone talk, I’m beginning to embrace the title. I connected with everyone’s passion over obscure media, and the act of preserving and remembering. As a writer, I am always exploring, learning, and preserving. I write to preserve memories and ideas, but also the nostalgic aesthetic of the past, and the objects now lost from that time. Words are one method of preservation, but this weekend I was introduced to so many others. There’s an art to writing as well as archiving. The games we archive all tell stories, but will never be what they were at the time they were created. The environment around them changes, recontextualizing the experience of play. There’s something fascinating about that which can never be perfectly recreated, driving a sort of treasure hunt to recreate, remember and restore to the best of our ability. There’s a magic to these games, and all the more to the act of archiving.
To the MICA Game Lab, Archive Con is not just about engaging their students with the art of game archiving, but is one of many initiatives to provide resources on gaming to the local community. Like any act of creating, making games can be socially isolating, so the program is particularly passionate on “making games social” and engaging beyond the school walls into the local community. Magfest and MICA Game Lab anticipate that this year’s Archive Con was the first of many to come.
Missed Archive Con this year? MICA Game Lab’s vimeo will be uploading videos of the panels here. Follow them to get the latest updates.
Meg Eden's work is published or forthcoming in magazines including Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Crab Orchard Review, RHINO and CV2. She teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She is the author of five poetry chapbooks, the novel "Post-High School Reality Quest” (2017), and the forthcoming poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” (2020). She runs the Magfest MAGES Library blog, which posts accessible academic articles about video games. Find her online at www.megedenbooks.com or on Twitter at @ConfusedNarwhal.