From the playbook to the book play - media history of video games

Project object

The aim of the project is to research the media-genetic tradition lines between historical game picture books or book-shaped game objects and video games on the basis of the collections of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and the Museum Europäischer Kulturen - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. This project is based on the thesis that the interactive game picture books and paper stages of the 19th and early 20th centuries play a hitherto overlooked key role in the development of the computer game genre - not only from the aspect of diegesis, but also with regard to the hardware and software influences on the construction and game mechanics of older video games in particular.

Project term

September 2022 - August 2023 

Project participants

• Museum Europäischer Kulturen – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
  Zentrum für Digitale Kulturgüter in Museen
  museum4punkt0
  NFDI4Culture
  Ruhr-Universität Bochum
  Pennsylvania State University
  IT University Kopenhagen

Third-party-funding

Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM)

Contact

Carola Pohlmann
Children's and Young People's Literature
Head of department
phone: + 49 30 266 436 400
carola.pohlmann@sbb.spk-berlin.de
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Dr. Christian Mathieu
Reader Services - Scientific Services
Subject Specialist
phone: + 49 30 266 433 240
christian.mathieu@sbb.spk-berlin.de
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz
 

Read more about the project

• Zur Mediengenese des Video Game (only in German)
• Rettet die Spielbücher(only in German)