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From Zero to Kilo: Status report on the Bern GameLab

by Aurelia Brandenburg, Addrich Mauch, and Kevin Negele

In April 2024, the Bern Team of CH Ludens announced that we were starting to collect gaming magazines  relevant to our research as part of our GameLab, which in turn is a collaboration between the Bern Academy of the Arts and the University of Bern at the Swiss Center for Game Design Studies. Since then, over a year has passed and much has happened. So much that we want to use this opportunity to reflect on the current status of our collection, the challenges we faced in first starting it, and what we have learned from this process so far. This blog post will go over our first steps in the making of the GameLab, our current magazine and game collections and, finally, our visions for the GameLab.

How we started and our initial approach to collecting gaming magazines

When starting our collection, we deliberately placed our main focus on print gaming magazines in German published until 2000, but never restricted ourselves solely to them. This approach had multiple reasons: For one, within the scope of our project, gaming magazines in German simply are an important historical source. They played a relevant role in the constitution of what could be considered a gaming public and also contributed to forming different strands of mainstream gaming cultures until 2000 and beyond. Yet, they are rarely collected and archived in a professional way and thus, in danger of getting lost for research sooner rather than later.1 Secondly, as Aurelia Brandenburg is researching German gaming magazines for her PhD thesis as part of our project, it made sense to start with these in particular. This also points to another nuance that put us as a project in Switzerland in an interesting European position: The first Swiss professional print magazine solely on digital games we know of is PONG, which started in 2002.2 Meanwhile, we know, for example through letters to the editor, that magazines from Germany, France and Italy were distributed to and read in Switzerland as well. We cannot say how large that readerbase was in each case, especially in comparison to, for example, the German market where readers could get these magazines more easily and at a cheaper price, but Swiss readers did engage in the discourses of these magazines.3 And since there has been little academic research on German gaming magazines as of now, it made sense to use these magazines as a starting point. Lastly, there was a need to build a dedicated collection of gaming magazines since they are rarely included when it comes to GameLabs like ours. Many of them rather focus on hard- and software and less so on print cultures surrounding games as a medium due to pragmatic reasons, hence why we thought it important to include magazines in our collection to fill that niche.

A non-representative choice of video game magazines. From left to right: Video Games Special Issue 1, Amiga 08/87, PC Player 01/94, Megafun 07/93, PC Action 01/02
Fig. 1: A non-representative choice of video game magazines. From left to right: Video Games Special Issue 1, Amiga 08/87, PC Player 01/94, Megafun 07/93, PC Action 01/02

One clear advantage when starting to research German gaming magazines is that there is a quite large and active retro community dedicated to these magazines. Sites like kultboy.com or kultmags.com and the people behind them have been digitizing magazines and interviewing former journalists from a fan perspective since the early 2000s and there have also been similar initiatives such as the fan reboot of German magazine Aktueller Software Markt. These fan initiatives represent a different perspective than academic research but are a helpful basis since they, for example, collaboratively digitize magazine issues and make them available online as pdfs. These digitizations in themselves are sometimes problematic for academic research since their quality can vary but they also mean that projects like ours can sort their priorities differently when building their own collections (at least as a first step). This also explains parts of our own approach in 2024: Our initial list of magazines we were actively searching for contained a couple of popular German magazines (ASM and its successor PC Spiel, Power Play, Amiga Joker, GameStar) which can be found as pdfs online as well, albeit sometimes in bad quality or with pages missing, same as a couple of Swiss computer magazines (Software-Trend, PCtip, Computerworld Schweiz). The list also contained two special cases: Bravo Screenfun and hey! Games4Girls. Both were magazines that stemmed from popular youth magazine brands with different target audiences than classic gaming magazines, which make them particularly interesting for research. Furthermore, both are the type of magazine which rarely receives attention among the aforementioned retro magazine fandom, thus making them a gap that should be prioritised in an archiving initiative like ours.4

Where we stand and the current state of the collection and the GameLab in Bern

As of the time of writing, the CH Ludens team has acquired more than 2500 gaming magazines, spanning over a publication interval of 38 years, as well as almost 200 physical game copies and several boxes full of floppy disks. Although our original, and to this day prevalent, intention was to start a collection of physical copies of specific gaming magazines in German (primarily) published in the 1980s and 1990s, we have gone a little overboard: currently, over 150 different magazines have made their way into the CH Ludens’ possession, mostly thanks to donations we are incredibly grateful for. Most importantly, we want to thank Sven Schmalfuß, who was so kind to donate about 1800 issues of magazines to us, and Carolin Puckhaber, who picked up a great collection of old and rare magazines in Oldenburg, Germany, and sent them to us. Along what we have, the earliest publications date back to 1987 (Amiga-Magazin, 09/87), whereas many of the donated magazines were published in the last two decades, our most recent issues being from March of this year (PC Games; GameStar; M! Games, all 03/25).

Gaming Magazine collection

With over 2500 magazines at hand, there was a necessity for an elaborate database. Every physical copy has its own entry, categorised by its name, year of publication and issue. We also keep track of special issues and spin-off series, such as PC Player’s CD-ROM oriented magazines, which were published under the name of CD Player, and the general state of the copy. As many (mostly older) magazines came with additional content such as demo or full version CDs, posters or stickers, some of the database entries can get quite extensive with long lists of playable demos on several CDs, as opposed to an entry as simple as Magazine – Power Play – 1990 – 03/90 for the March issue of Power Play from 1990.

Screenshot of some Power Play entries from our magazine inventory
Fig. 2: Screenshot of some Power Play entries from our magazine inventory

Naturally, cataloguing problems arise, for example, when a magazine such as MAN!AC changes its name to M! Games in October 2008, or when a magazine uses its own numbering system that deviates from our MM/YY style (e.g. by numbering them sequentially, from first to last); or when there is no information on the publication date available at all. Additionally, some of them show clear signs of wear, be it a loose cover or ripped out pages, and many of the older video game magazines that were sold with CDs find their way to us missing them entirely. We try our best to keep track of what belongs to what – and separate CDs are usually easy to trace back to their original issue – but additional content like posters often come without any kind of information on them. The only reliable way to find their respective issues is to match them to the advertising on the magazines’ front covers, and the same is true for CDs that come without any or only minor indications. At the moment, we thus accept a hitherto loose database without interconnection, which should follow in a later step. In many cases, magazines even offered more than one CD per issue so we are faced with even more cataloguing problems: CD A, CD B, Bonus-CDs, Video-CDs, Demo-CDs – all of them may not be explicitly labelled as such. To top it all off, video games’ names on demo and full version discs are far from consistent and sometimes contain spelling errors. Luckily, this has not caused any issues with the database so far, though we aim to standardise the spellings in the future.

Some exemplary magazine CDs from PC Player, PC Action and GameStar
Fig. 3: Some exemplary magazine CDs from PC Player, PC Action and GameStar

Storing over 750kg of digital gaming culture

Some magazines are currently stored in acid-free boxes, though the majority of them remain in regular cardboard storing boxes. We plan on sorting the different magazines alphabetically and order the individual issues by rising publication date once the remaining donation has arrived. A major problem with storing them quite loosely in cardboard boxes is that they are stored standing, which causes the magazines to slowly bend to one side or the other when the box is not fully filled, since almost all of them have soft covers that cannot maintain their shape. These cardboard boxes are also extremely convenient, as you can simply pick out individual magazines as you need. On the other hand, while keeping them in acid-free boxes is certainly a better option for long-time storage, it is also way less handy because you have to open the entire box – which is quite heavy when it is filled with up to 25 different magazines. However, they do bring the advantage of being able to be stored horizontally so that no magazine starts to bend.

Part of the magazine shelf. Magazines are currently stored in acid-free boxes, cardboard boxes or simply lying on the shelf.
Fig. 4: Part of the magazine shelf. Magazines are currently stored in acid-free boxes, cardboard boxes or simply lying on the shelf.

Hardware & Games

While gaming magazines are an important part of our collection, the GameLab, at its core, is aimed at gaming as a cultural and social practice that rests as much on games as a medium same as the hardware necessary for playing them: from the mystic Cassette 50 on Amstrad CPC464 to Banjo-Kazooie on Nintendo 64, from the Parachute Game & Watch to Pokémon Gold on Game Boy, and some very rare gems like the Swiss-made games Aldebaran and Secret of the Obelisk, the GameLab already exhibits a huge variety of different digital games and hardware. Most of our gaming consoles are stored in boxes with their respective equipment; a collection of PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo consoles, as well as Atari, Amiga, Amstrad, Sega Mega Drive and Videopac, for all of which we own a handful of video games. Currently, new platform and game acquisitions are made according to the Swiss Gamescape+ project, teaching courses, and other events organized by the GameLab. However, on the broader horizon, it is our aim to depict a more comprehensive gaming culture landscape and we are gladly open to any donations we receive. We would also like to thank Adrian Demleitner, Christof Zurschmitten, Eugen Pfister and Patrick Golkowsky for their important donations to our collection, which was originally based on a collection from the SNF-funded Ambizione project HGP.

A variety of gaming hardware (Atari 1040ST, Sega Mega Drive 2, handhelds, etc.) as well as video games for various platforms (PlayStation, PC, Game Boy, NES, SNES, etc.)
Fig. 5: A variety of gaming hardware (Atari 1040ST, Sega Mega Drive 2, handhelds, etc.) as well as video games for various platforms (PlayStation, PC, Game Boy, NES, SNES, etc.)

Both hardware and video games have to be tested in order to make sure that we have a functioning GameLab, which usually ends in a battle between us and the consoles’ cables. Since the hardware can be as old as almost 50 years, making everything work requires quite some patience. For example, we had to replace our Nintendo 64’s power cable because it seemed to be broken – which we could only confirm at the local retro store by exchanging it – and despite our best efforts, most of the N64 games still would not turn on, which later turned out to be just a loose connection of the console – the Nintendo 64’s mood swings, so to say. A few minutes into the games’ first levels (or one retro rainbow road later), however, are enough to mark the game as functioning in our inventory.

In our database, we are currently keeping track of every piece of hardware, additional equipment like cables, controllers and, of course, video games. As for the video games, we also make sure to list the respective developers and publishers, as well as the year of publication and additional information that may possibly help pin down the exact game version. Yet again, this is further complicated by the fact that we are trying to make the characteristics and descriptions of a variety of different platforms’ games fit into a single uniform inventory. The video games released for many of the newer consoles usually differentiate between US, JP and PAL versions, which was not (always) the case for older publications. Additionally, it can be difficult to gather information on a particular game’s developer and publisher, which is why we have to rely on archive websites such as AtariMania and the like.

Video game consoles, such as the Nintendo 64, stored in plastic boxes, and a variety of computers, such as the Amstrad or iMac. 
Fig. 6: Video game consoles, such as the Nintendo 64, stored in plastic boxes, and a variety of computers, such as the Amstrad or iMac.

Philosophy and Future

Accessibility is the key concept for the GameLab, rather than the mere archiving of objects. Video games as academic subjects gain more and more attention in diverse institutions at the University of Bern and the HKB, yet students and the interested public have no access to the material and often see themselves in need of investing private resources to study this cultural phenomenon. In this shortcoming, the GameLab steps in, not only as a first point of contact for anyone interested in game studies at the University, but also as a physical center for experiencing video game culture in an academic framework. The University of Bern and HKB team’s plan for the GameLab’s future lies within creating an openly accessible archive where both researchers and students can come together to test, analyse and discuss video games and video game related material. All platforms, that is consoles and computers with their respective monitors (there is a various collection of CRT-monitors and televisions), should be able to be installed and used in a time frame of maximum 20 minutes to guarantee a functioning workflow.

In autumn 2024, hardware and games from the GameLab provided a valuable framework for the interdisciplinary seminar Video Games MEET Musiktheater, organized by the Institute of Digital Humanities and the Institute of Musicology in Bern, and in May 2025, the team’s CH-Ludens workshop introduced the freshly acquired donation of magazines to the project. The GameLab also had the chance to present a variety of Swiss video games such as Necronom or Ball Raider (as well as a selection of SNES games) to the public at Epic Game Moments in Concert in June 2025. From autumn 2025 onwards, students and interested public have the possibility to discover and experience the collection of video game material on a weekly basis in the “GameLab Lunch Play Sessions” and even earn some ECTS points by writing short academic essays. Further projects are in the making. And finally, there is an initiative to bring together various media collections from the University’s humanities, both as a meta-database and a local center for experience, and social and academic exchange.

That said, if you happen to have a collection of old games, hardware, magazines, or anything else connected to digital games that you wish to donate, or if you are just genuinely interested in visiting our GameLab in Bern, do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact

Universität Bern
Digital Humanities/Walter Benjamin Kolleg
GameLab
Addrich Mauch, addrich.mauch@unibe.ch
Muesmattstrasse 45
CH-3012 Bern

  1. There are some fan-run initiatives, and a few institutions such as the Berlin Computerspielemuseum or the Deutsches Spielearchiv Nürnberg do have gaming magazines as part of their collections, but those are rather the exception than the norm. []
  2. The history of PONG is also interesting since at least some of the people writing for it have been active in gaming hobbyist scenes that Arno Görgen and Addrich Mauch have been mapping as part of Gamescapes+ at CH Ludens. Through that, we know that some of them apparently made their first steps to games journalism with fanzines in the 1990s. []
  3. Sometimes, they can even be found engaging deeply in discussions that did not even concern them as much as readers from Germany, as, for example, in the case of German youth protection laws, which caused much anger among gaming fans in Germany in the 1980s and 1990s, but obviously did not legally apply in the same way to Swiss readers. []
  4. This is also especially true in the case of Bravo Screenfun, which was one of the most popular German gaming magazines ever, but is also one of the magazines which had never been digitized and published the way other magazines have been. In fact, when we published our announcement in early April 2024, there were no pdfs of the magazine to be found online. In late April 2024, an anonymous user uploaded a partial collection to the Internet Archive, but even in this rare collection, especially for the timeframe until the year 2000, there are many issues missing. []

OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Aurelia Brandenburg, Addrich Mauch, Kevin Negele (September 8, 2025). From Zero to Kilo: Status report on the Bern GameLab. Confoederatio Ludens. Retrieved January 23, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/14lzl


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