Main Page: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:21, 6 January 2024

The Morgue File is a wiki for materials that give videogames context.

Our aim is to build an archive of information, links and media open to all researchers of videogame history, bringing scattered, difficult-to-find resources together into a single reference. And we need your help to build it!

"You don't understand a game by playing it."

Frank Cifaldi, Video Game History Foundation

Who is this for?

Researchers
Academics
Journalists
YouTubers
Anyone else interested in the history of videogames

What's with the name?

"A morgue file originally was a collection of paper folders containing old files and notes kept by criminal investigators, as well as old article clippings kept by newspaper reporters, in case they became of later use as a quick reference collection."

definition from Wikipedia

Want to help?

This wiki is still young. Please, join in and help shape this community project! We have a Getting Started guide, and we're open to suggestions.

What belongs here?

If it's relevant to videogames, and it's not made of code, this is probably the place for it. A non-exhaustive list:

Design documents
Advertisements
Trade press
Newspaper clippings
Reviews
Interviews
Talks
Histories
Letters to the editor
Old messageboard threads
Cultural ephemera

Sample Collections

Why not take a look at the resources we've gathered for...

Or see the list of all 268 games on the wiki.

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+<div class="container">
+<div class="jumbotron bg-ws px-5 py-3">
+<p class="h1 text-white">The <span style="font-family: Montserrat; font-weight: 700;">Morgue File</span> is a wiki for materials that '''give videogames context'''.</h1>
+</div>
+<p class="lead">Our aim is to build an archive of information, links and media open to all researchers of videogame history, bringing scattered, difficult-to-find resources together into a single reference. And we need your help to build it!</p>
 <blockquote class="blockquote text-center">
-<h3 class="mb-0">"You can't understand a game by playing it"</p>
+<h3 class="mb-0"><span style="font-weight: 700;">"You don't understand a game by playing it."</span></p>
-<p class="blockquote-footer">Frank Cifaldi</p>
+<p class="blockquote-footer">Frank Cifaldi, Video Game History Foundation</p>
 </blockquote>
-<div class="jumbotron bg-ws">
-<h1 class="text-light display-1">The Video Game Morgue File is a collection of material that gives videogames <em>context</em>.</h1>
-<p class="lead text-light">Our aim is to build an archive of information, links and media of value to researchers of videogame history, bringing resources currently scattered and difficult to find into one place, for every game ever made.</p>
+<div class="row">
-</div>
+<div class="col-lg">
+== Who is this for? ==
+* Researchers
+* Academics
+* Journalists
+* YouTubers
+* Anyone else interested in the history of videogames
-<div class="row">
-    <div class="col-6">
 == What's with the name? ==
-"A morgue file originally was a collection of paper folders containing old files and notes kept by criminal investigators, as well as old article clippings kept by newspaper reporters, in case they became of later use as a quick reference collection."
+<blockquote class="blockquote mt-4 px-4">
+<p><em>"A morgue file originally was a collection of paper folders containing old files and notes kept by criminal investigators, as well as old article clippings kept by newspaper reporters, in case they became of later use as a quick reference collection."</em></p>
+<p class="blockquote-footer">definition from Wikipedia</p>
+</blockquote>
+== Want to help? ==
+This wiki is still young. Please, join in and help shape this community project! We have a [[Help:Getting_Started|Getting Started guide]], and we're open to suggestions.
+</div>
+<div class="col-lg">
 == What belongs here? ==
+If it's relevant to videogames, and it's not made of code, this is probably the place for it. A non-exhaustive list:
 * Design documents
-* Advertising
+* Advertisements
 * Trade press
 * Newspaper clippings
 * Reviews
 * Interviews
-* Retrospectives
+* Talks
+* Histories
+* Letters to the editor
+* Old messageboard threads
+* Cultural ephemera
-And all of this is medium-agnostic: whether it's text, graphics, audio, or video, it's all good.
-    </div>
+== Sample Collections ==
-    <div class="col-6">
-== Upload policy ==
+Why not take a look at the resources we've gathered for...
-The nature of videogame research is such that the entire field falls under the current term of copyright, and nearly all of the material we study — whether advertising, press coverage, or fan reaction — is still technically under some company or individual's legal ownership. Whether this material was originally provided voluntarily, and under what terms that might have been, is usually unknowable; for the majority of materials, clearing the copyright is simply impossible.
+* [[Computer Space|...the first commercial videogame?]]
+* [[Amsterdoom|...an obscure Dutch first-person shooter?]]
+* [[Lemmings|...one of the most ported games of all time?]]
-So unlike most wikis, the Morgue File can't implement a blanket ban on copyrighted material... but we should try to stay on the right side of fair use.
-# If it's possible, please link to large files at their original locations instead of uploading them here.
+Or see the list of [[:Category:Game|all {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Game|pages}} games on the wiki]].
-# If it was never officially made available online, or no longer exists at its original location, try to find it at the Internet Archive and link to that copy.
-# If there's no other copy publicly accessible online, please consider its copyright status.
-# If it's no longer being actively sold, consider whether it would be fair use to excerpt it.
-# Never upload more than is relevant. Pages, not entire magazines. Segments of a podcast or show where a subject is discussed, not the whole thing.
-# Don't upload any materials with a known history of DMCA reaction or other litigation.
-    </div>
+</div>
+</div>
 </div>
 __NOTOC__
+__NOEDITSECTION__