The popular memory archive: Collecting and exhibiting player culture from the 1980s

Abstract

Memories of playing games with computers have an important role in terms of documenting people’s personal relationships with computing history. This paper presents and discusses the Popular Memory Archive (PMA), an online portal of the “Play It Again” game history and preservation project, which addresses 1980s games, produced in Australia and New Zealand. As well as providing a way to disseminate some of the team’s research, the PMA taps into what is, effectively, a collective public archive by providing a technique for collecting information, resources and memories from the public about 1980s computer games. The PMA is designed to work with online retro gamer communities and fans, and this paper reflects on the PMA as a method for collecting and displaying the memories of those who lived and played their way through this period.