Episode 151: Games Preservation at MIT Museum

From vacuum tubes to virtual worlds, Dr. Flori Pierri, Associate Curator of Science and Technology at the MIT Museum, joins us to explore their unexpected journey into the world of video game preservation. Dr. Pierri oversees diverse collections from science photography to physics  homework, and, of course, video games. MIT Museum has had a recent focus on computer games and a focus on play, starting with the Michael Dornbrook Collection and plans for a 2028 computer game exhibition. Dr. Pierri shares the importance of using original equipment for exhibits and the new challenges of preserving born-digital objects. They also discuss the museum's efforts to engage with both the public and with researchers, including a collection of unreleased Infocom game materials.

You can listen to the Video Game History Hour every other Wednesday on Patreon (one day early at the $5 tier and above), on Spotify, or on our website.

Mentioned in the show:

Whirlwind I: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlwind_I

Royal Game of the Dolphin: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Game_of_the_Dolphin,_1821.jpg 

Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Claude Elwood Shannon, Bell Labs, “father of information theory”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon 

See more from Dr. Flori Pierri:

Bluesky: @flori-p.bsky.social

Website: https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/collections-search 

Video Game History Foundation:

Email: podcast@gamehistory.org

Website: gamehistory.org

Support us on Patreon: /gamehistoryorg