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.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-=The Video Game Morgue File is a collection of reference material that anyone can edit.=
+<div class="container">
-The aim is to build an archive of information, links and media of value to researchers of video game history, bringing resources that are currently scattered across the internet into one place.
-== What kind of resources are welcome here? ==
+<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"><span style="font-weight: 700;">"You don't understand a game by playing it."</span></p>
+<p class="blockquote-footer">Frank Cifaldi, Video Game History Foundation</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="row">
+<div class="col-lg">
+== Who is this for? ==
+* Researchers
+* Academics
+* Journalists
+* YouTubers
+* Anyone else interested in the history of videogames
+== What's with the name? ==
+<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.
+== Sample Collections ==
-== Upload policy ==
+Why not take a look at the resources we've gathered for...
-It is the nature of game research that the material from the entire history of videogames is still in its copyright term, and belongs to someone. Whether this material was originally provided voluntarily, and under what terms, is often unknowable.
+* [[Computer Space|...the first commercial videogame?]]
+* [[Amsterdoom|...an obscure Dutch first-person shooter?]]
+* [[Lemmings|...one of the most ported games of all time?]]
-As such, unlike other wikis, we can't put a blanket ban on copyrighted material... but we want to stay the right side of both fair use and the unwritten rules of acceptable material that cause similar sites like MobyGames to operate with few problems.
-# If it's possible, please link to large files at their original locations instead of uploading 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's fair use.
-# 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.
-== 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."
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
 __NOTOC__
+__NOEDITSECTION__