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Monthly seminar on video game history: Input, Poke & Save

This monthly online seminar, organized in French by dhCenter member Yannick Rochat of the EPFL College of Humanities and GameLab UNIL-EPFL, in collaboration with Pierre-Yves Hurel of the Liège Game Lab, aims to provide a forum dedicated to the study of video game history and platforms. 

Through this free and open online seminar series, the organizers aim to explore the potential complementarity between the study of platforms and reference works concerning the history of video games in France, as well as recent studies on Swiss and Belgian video games.

The both theoretical and practical seminar will take place every first Thursday of the month, with a 20-40-minute talk from a speaker followed by a discussion. Talks will consist of classic academic presentations, and introductory workshops or testimonials on practices related to the platforms addressed.

In addition to the monthly seminar, discussions will continue on a dedicated Discord server open to all. The organizers will also solicit original work on both major and minor platforms, which often fall under the radar of the traditional “success stories” of computer and video game history.

Program of the first sessions

Schedule: 15h
Location: Discord
Speaking time: 20-40 minutes, followed by discussion

  • January 21, 2021: “Étude des plateformes : le cas du Smaky” by Yannick Rochat
  • February 4, 2021:  “Écrire une histoire culturelle du DAI : généalogie des pratiques” by Pierre-Yves Hurel
  • March 4, 2021: “Et si les jeux avaient toujours été impurs ? Émergence, exclusion et redécouverte des jeux d’actualisation sur la PC Engine CD-ROM2 ” by Carl Therrien
  • April 1, 2021: “Les plateformes comme boîtes à outils et infrastructures de la production de jeux vidéo” by Vincian Zabban
  • May 6, 2021: “Lire le code source pour écrire l’histoire : l’étude des jeux Bong, Mur et Ping (Daniel
  • Roux, Smaky, 1987)” by Stéphanie Mader, Romain Goudjil and Yannick Rochat
  • June 3, 2021: “Un poisson nommé Sega : retour sur le projet de préservation de la Fish Life” by Robin François

Participate in the discussion and make proposals by accessing the seminar’s Discord server: https://discord.gg/sW8PU6jRqb.

From: 1 Apr, 2021
To: 3 Jun, 2021
Organizer: GameLab UNIL-EPFL, Liège Game Lab
Languages: French