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”Und es läuft heute noch perfekt!”

Galactic Empires for Networks (GEn) – ein Schweizer Multiplayer Spiel (1984-2000)

von Beat Suter

Kann ein Strategiespiel 40 Jahre später noch gleichviel Spannung und Spielspass generieren? Kann ein Netzwerk-Spiel 25 bis 30 Jahre später auf neuen Systemen noch genauso gut funktionieren wie damals? Was unmöglich oder unwahrscheinlich klingt, schaffen drei Schweizer Entwickler mit ihrem Spiel Galactic Empires. Alle drei gehören zu der ersten Generation von Informatik Studierenden der ETH Zürich. Sie haben die Digitalisierung in der Schweiz von Anfang an mitgeprägt. Ihr Multiplayer Spiel hat eine Spieldauer von 4 – 8 Stunden und kann heute noch im gleichen Rahmen gespielt werden, wie damals, als sie mit Freunden ganze Nächte durchgezockt haben.

Der Hinweis kam von einem guten Freund, der in den frühen neunziger Jahren regelmässig Freitag- oder Samstagnacht ein Science-Fiction Strategiespiel in seinem Freundeskreis aus Informatik und Ökonomie gespielt hatte, meist in den Wohnungen und Büroräumen seiner Freunde. Dabei handelte es sich um ein Multiplayer Spiel, das über Jahre immer wieder weiterentwickelt und immer wieder gespielt wurde bis etwa ins Jahr 2008. Die Entwickler und Spieler bezeichneten das Spiel mit GalEmp oder Galactic Empires, später auch GEn, Galactic Empires for Networks.

Continue reading ”Und es läuft heute noch perfekt!”

“And it is still running perfectly today!”

Galactic Empires for Networks (GEn) – a Swiss multiplayer game (1984-2000)

by Beat Suter

Can a strategy game still provide the same excitement and fun 40 years later? Can a network game work as well on new systems 25 to 30 years later as it did back then? What sounds impossible or unlikely has been achieved by three Swiss developers with their game Galactic Empires. All three belong to the first generation of computer science students at ETH Zurich. They have helped shape digitalization in Switzerland from the very beginning. Their multiplayer game has a playing time of 4 to 8 hours and can still be played today in the same way as it was played all night long with friends.


The tip came from a good friend who, in the early 1990s, regularly played a science fiction strategy game on Friday or Saturday nights with his circle of friends from the IT and business departments, mostly in the homes and offices of his friends. It was a multiplayer game that was developed over the years and played again and again until about 2008. The developers and players called the game GalEmp or Galactic Empires, later also GEn, Galactic Empires for Networks.

Continue reading “And it is still running perfectly today!”

“On the other hand, the girls are quite discreet”: Strip-Poker-Reviews in early German Gaming Magazines

by Aurelia Brandenburg

This post (“’On the other hand, the girls are quite discreet’1: Strip-Poker-Reviews in early German Gaming Magazines”) is an English translation of a paper previously published in German at Spiel|Formen following the conference “Gender & Spielkultur” in Siegen, Germany in July 2023. This is an adapted version with some minor changes for clarity in English while the German original can be found here.

Abstract

Gaming magazines of the 1980s and 1990s are one of the places that laid much of the foundations of modern gaming culture(s). Still, both magazines in German on one hand and erotic games and/or the discourses surrounding them on the other hand have seldomly been researched. Yet, both offer valuable insight in the cultural dynamics of the time, especially from a gender historical perspective. The following paper is an attempt to close some gaps in this field by examining how the rhetoric regarding strip poker games in particular in the German press 1984-1994 developed and what conclusions regarding larger phenomena within (German) gaming magazines at the time might be drawn from that.

Keywords: Strip Poker, Games Journalism, Erotic Games, Gender Studies

Continue reading “On the other hand, the girls are quite discreet”: Strip-Poker-Reviews in early German Gaming Magazines

  1. “Andererseits sind die Mädchen sehr diskret”, Koch 1984, p. 54. []

Bridging Disciplines: Reflections on ReAnimate Summer School and Interdisciplinary Approaches in Digital Game Studies

by Sophie Bémelmans and Adrian Demleitner

In June 2024, the ReAnimate Summer School in Montréal brought together a diverse group of scholars and practitioners from all over the world to explore the intersections of digital game history, criticism, and development. This unique event, organized by Concordia University, Université de Montréal, and École de Technologie Supérieure, aimed to bridge the gap between humanities and engineering in digital game studies, and initated by Carl Therrien, Yann-Gaël Guéhéneuc, Fabio Petrillo, and their team. As researchers from Confoederatio Ludens, we participated in this week-long program that challenged traditional disciplinary boundaries. The summer school featured a rich mix of academic presentations, practical workshops and collaborative activities, providing a multifaceted approach to understanding digital games as complex cultural and technological artefacts.

This blog post reflects on our experiences at ReAnimate, highlighting key insights gained and exploring the crucial role of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing the field of digital game studies. Through this reflection, we aim to contribute to the ongoing dialogue about research methodologies and collaborative approaches in our rapidly evolving discipline.

Continue reading Bridging Disciplines: Reflections on ReAnimate Summer School and Interdisciplinary Approaches in Digital Game Studies

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

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

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

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