Confoederatio Ludens – Swiss History of Games, Play and Game Design 1968-2000

Richard M. Holmes and the high-price island of Switzerland

by Beat Suter

The video game publisher Black Legend was founded in Switzerland in 1992 by Richard M. Holmes. Holmes lived in Uster in the Canton of Zurich, had grown up here and had just graduated from KZO Wetzikon. The 20-year-old young entrepreneur wanted to produce games for Amiga computers and launch them on the market. He looked around in Switzerland for fellow campaigners, but soon found good contacts in England and finally emigrated to produce some well-performing games for Amiga and PC with his label Black Legend for the Kompart distribution company in the following years. Continue reading Richard M. Holmes and the high-price island of Switzerland

Richard M. Holmes und die Hochpreisinsel Schweiz

von Beat Suter

Der Video Game Publisher Black Legend wurde 1992 in der Schweiz von Richard M. Holmes gegründet. Holmes lebte in Uster, war hier aufgewachsen und hatte gerade die KZO Wetzikon abgeschlossen. Der 20jährige Jungunternehmer wollte Spiele für Amiga Computer produzieren und auf den Markt bringen. Er sah sich in der Schweiz nach Mitstreitern um, fand aber bald gute Kontakte in England und wanderte schliesslich aus, um in den folgenden Jahren mit Black Legend für die Vertriebsgesellschaft Kompart einige gut laufende Spiele für Amiga und PC zu produzieren. Continue reading Richard M. Holmes und die Hochpreisinsel Schweiz

Dataset: German Games Journalists 1980-2000

by Aurelia Brandenburg

Working with early gaming magazines as a source often poses a variety of problems. One can be the accessibility both of magazine issues as objects as well as PDFs, another how to deal with nostalgic biases, and last, but not least, it can also be difficult to grasp who the people making these magazines and pioneering games journalism as a field actually were. Both in German games journalism and elsewhere, there often are a couple of names which always make it into any list of examples, but these names actually represent a small sample of all people involved. People like Heinrich Lenhardt, Manfred Kleimann, Michael Labiner, and more were influential in the way German games journalism in the 1980s and 1990s began and evolved over time. What has been missing for me, ever since I started researching these magazines, was a list that recorded any editor/writer or even the whole staff involved and that would allow analysing dynamics within the field as a whole between 1980 and 2000. Who were the people writing for these magazines? How long did they work there? And the maybe most obvious question from a Gender Studies perspective: How high – or rather: how low – was the quota of women involved, and how did it evolve in the case of which magazine?

Continue reading Dataset: German Games Journalists 1980-2000

A visit at the Museum for Communication depot

by Yannick Rochat

On 13 June 2024, a delegation from the Confoederatio Ludens project visited the Museum of Communication depot in Schwarzenburg.

The aim was to explore the museum’s collections, particularly its computer hardware collections. Previously, we had had opportunities to talk to one of the museum curators, Juri Jaquemet, notably as part of the Pixelvetica preservation project.

Here are some thoughts related to this visit.

LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher 4: The Publishing Business

by Beat Suter

LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher:
Part 1 – A comprehensive list of LINEL’S games
Part 2 – Collaborations and unreleased games
Part 3 – People and Work at LINEL
Part 4 – The Publishing Business

The following text originally appeared here.

LINEL was a software developer and publisher based in Switzerland. The label was active from 1987 to 1995. Part 1 of this essay established a complete list of all games that were published and distributed by the Swiss company LINEL. Part 2 pieces together LINEL’s international collaborations with other publishers and developers and uncovers the games that were never released. Part 3 takes a closer look at founder Markus Grimmer and the developers, studios, and distributors Grimmer’s LINEL worked with in those years.

Part 4 will focus on the publishing business with the physical production of the commercial games, distribution and marketing strategies and communication efforts by LINEL.

Continue reading LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher 4: The Publishing Business

LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher 3: From Eureka! to the Neverending Story – People and Work at LINEL

by Beat Suter

LINEL – Swiss Game Publisher:
Part 1 – A comprehensive list of LINEL’S games
Part 2 – Collaborations and unreleased games
Part 3 – People and Work at LINEL
Part 4 – Publishing and Marketing (expected)

The following text originally appeared here.

LINEL was a software developer and game publisher based in Switzerland. The label was active from 1987 to 1995. Part 1 of this essay established a complete list of all games that were published and distributed by the Swiss company LINEL. Part 2 pieces together LINEL’s international collaborations with other publishers and developers and uncovers the games that were never released. Part 3 takes a closer look at founder Markus Grimmer and the developers, studios, and distributors Grimmer’s LINEL worked with in those years.

Continue reading LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher 3: From Eureka! to the Neverending Story – People and Work at LINEL

Fallstudie: Ball Raider (Golden Gate Crew/Diamond Software/Robtek, 1987, Amiga)

von Aurelia Brandenburg, Adrian Demleitner, Arno Görgen, Addrich Mauch und Eugen Pfister

Einleitung

Die Fallstudie von Necronom (Lunatic Software/Linel, 1991, Amiga) erschien zwar diesen März als erste Fallstudie auf unserem Blog¹, aber sie war nicht die erste, an der wir gemeinsam in unserem Projekt gearbeitet haben. Bereits ein Jahr zuvor, im März 2023 und kurz nach Beginn unseres Forschungsprojektes, haben wir uns gemeinsam ans Spielen und Analysieren von Ball Raider (Golden Gate Crew/Diamond Software/Robtek, 1987, Amiga) gesetzt. Das Spiel ist eine Breakout-Variante für den Amiga aus dem Jahr 1987. Es war in vielerlei Hinsicht ein erstes Kennenlernen für uns. Es war das erste Mal, dass wir gemeinsam an einem Text arbeiteten. Es war das erste Mal, dass wir gemeinsam spielten. Es war das erste Mal, dass wir vor der Herausforderung standen, wie wir uns am besten ein Amigaspiel aus den 1980er Jahren erfahrbar machen könnten. (Zu dem Zeitpunkt hatten wir noch keinen Amiga in unserem Gamelab). Nun, aller Anfang ist schwer und wir lernten aus unseren Fehlern. Unsere ersten Spielerfahrungen mit Ball Raider sammelten wir auf unseren modernen Windows PCs und MacBooks mittels des sehr zugänglichen FS-UAE Amiga Emulators. Es war eine harte Schule. Nur kurz darauf beschafften wir uns unsere Joysticks. Das Spiel erschien uns unnachgiebig schwer. Nun, das ist es auch bis zu einem gewissen Grad. Allerdings lernten wir auch, was für einen Unterschied es machte, Ball Raider über den Emulator zu spielen oder auf einem Amiga.

Continue reading Fallstudie: Ball Raider (Golden Gate Crew/Diamond Software/Robtek, 1987, Amiga)

Brandenburg, Aurelia / Demleitner, Adrian / Görgen, Arno / Mauch, Addrich / Pfister, Eugen. “Case Study: Necronom (Lunatic Software/Linel, 1991, Amiga)”. Confoederatio Ludens. 28.03.2024. https://doi.org/10.58079/w4dm. [↩]

LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher 2: Collaborations and Unreleased Games

by Beat Suter

LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher:
Part 1 – A comprehensive list of LINEL’S games
Part 2 – Collaborations and unreleased games
Part 3 – Working for LINEL – is in progress

The following text originally appeared here. (First published on CH Ludens on 19.10.2023, now in a new, significally extended version from 10.06.2024.)

LINEL was a software developer and publisher based in Switzerland. The label was active from 1987 to 1995. Part 1 of this essay tried to establish a complete list of all games that were published and distributed by the Swiss company LINEL. Part 2 pieces together LINEL’s international collaborations with other publishers and developers and uncovers the games that were never released.

Continue reading LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher 2: Collaborations and Unreleased Games

LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher 1: A complete list of LINEL’s games

by Beat Suter

LINEL – Swiss Game Publisher:
Part 1 – A comprehensive list of LINEL’S games
Part 2 – Collaborations and unreleased games
Part 3 – Working for LINEL – is in progress

The following text originally appeared here. (First published on CH Ludens on 11.10.2023, now in a new, significally extended version from 29.05.2024.)

LINEL was a software developer and publisher based in Switzerland. The label was active from 1987 to 1995. Part 1 of this essay tries to establish a complete list of all games that were published and distributed by the Swiss company LINEL.

Continue reading LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher 1: A complete list of LINEL’s games

“The Feel of Sweaty Fingers” – The CH LUDENS Team’s First Memories of Digital Games

by the CH Ludens Team

How did we as scientists become what we are today? Where does our interest in digital games come from? Join us on a short autobiographical journey to the ludic beginnings of the CH LUDENS team.

Continue reading “The Feel of Sweaty Fingers” – The CH LUDENS Team’s First Memories of Digital Games