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Broderbund founder donates company archives to National Museum of Play
Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? She's currently lurking at The Strong museum in Rochester, New York. Broderbund Software founder Doug Carlston has donated company records, design documents and games for permanent archival at the The Strong's International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG). The Strong's Broderbund Software Collection includes material documenting the creation of Lode Runner, Prince of Persia, Myst, SimCity, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and other landmark PC releases. The collection spans Broderbund's founding in 1979 up until 1997, when the developer was acquired by The Learning Company. The new collection supplements a previous donation of archival materials from SimCity creator Will Wright. Featured material is available for research purposes on request. [Image: ICHEG]
Will Wright gifts design docs and personal papers to Museum of Play
We already knew that Super Fun Club's Will Wright was a swell guy, but his recent donation of "personal papers and design documents" to the Strong National Museum of Play places him firmly is really swell guy territory. The International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) -- an institution within the museum -- has collected nine notebooks from Wright, featuring "original drawings, sketches, and notes for four of his SimCity, The Sims, and Spore games." Some of his donation will be on display this coming November as part of the "eGameRevolution" exhibit on the museum's second floor, for those interested in taking a peek. ICHEG director Jon-Paul Dyson spoke of the donation in a statement (via 1UP), "These papers document the creative process behind some of the most important games of our time. They have transformed our society, and we are pleased to preserve this record of how Wright created them." Wright lavished the ICHEG with equal praise, saying, "I know of no other institution that is covering the topic as comprehensively as they are." Wright's work will otherwise be housed alongside an enormous arcade collection -- what the ICHEG deems "the most significant games ever manufactured -- from Computer Space (1971) and Pong (1972) to Space Invaders (1978) and Pac-Man (1980) to Donkey Kong (1981) and Tetris (1988)" -- as well as an over 10,000-strong console game library. In other news, we totally know we're going when the Zombie Apocalypse goes down.
