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Will Wright collection donated to game institute

Tom Magrino
By Tom Magrino

Famed SimCity creator gives nine-notebook set of design and development material to International Center for the History of Electronic Games.

In March 2009, the Strong National Museum of Play announced its International Center for the History of Electronic Games, an exhibition devoted to the interactive medium. A depository of gaming culture that reaches back to gaming's roots, ICHEG's 22,500-piece collection has preserved in its archive every major gaming console since the Magnavox Odyssey, as well as more than 100 handhelds, 10,000 games, and various other industry artifacts.

Today, ICHEG announced its latest high-profile addition, as famed SimCity creator Will Wright has donated a collection of personal papers for use in the exhibition. Nine graph-lined notebooks in all, the papers include drawings, notations, and doodles related to his design work on SimCity 2000, SimCopter, The Sims, and Spore. The books also include notes on Wright's business ventures.

The Will Wright papers.

The Will Wright papers.

"Games do not spring out of the minds of game designers full grown, like Athena from the head of Zeus," commented ICHEG director Jon-Paul Dyson. "These papers document the creative process behind some of the most important games of our time. They have transformed our society, and we are pleased to preserve this record of how Wright created them."

The ICHEG expects to offer its first public showing of "some of the Will Wright materials" as part of its eGameRevolution exhibit, which will open on November 20. The National Center for the History of Electronic Games collection is housed at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. More information on the museum is available through its Web site.

Tom Magrino
By Tom Magrino

Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.

10 comments
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blackace
blackace

Chicken scratch material that became incredible games. Will had a lot of crazy ideas in his head. He's pretty much a genius when it comes to creativity and people want to see what his thoughts were. Should be interesting.

DarkM151
DarkM151

kool i would love to see those papers =D

hotso
hotso

A: "What are this papers?" B: "Oh just some doodles and stuff, someone must have been bored at work. Just throw them in the shredder." C: "O hay guis, seen those Will Wright notebooks that just arrived. They contain the inspiration for Simcity, The Sims and Spore. Neat, right?" A, B: "NOOOOOO!"

thecraponahat
thecraponahat

Doodles! ^_^ I hope someone wont make a mistake and throw them away

Toysoldier34
Toysoldier34

At the Pacific Science Center in Seattle they have two main areas that are always the same and one more that changes each year or season I'm not sure. But anyways a few years back they had one on video games and they had probably +100 gaming consoles set up with TVs and you just walk up and play them, it was very cool. Most of the screens were about 26in or less and had one or two controllers depending on the game but it was a big place. They also had museum style displays with old systems and they had R.O.B. in the Nintendo displays holding a Gameboy. When you first walked in they had a projector that had maybe a 10 foot screen set up with the original pong people were playing there and it showed gamings evolution as you walked through the exhibit. Wish they brought that back or had museums strictly for gaming more commonly, I wouldn't want to travel across the country just to see it but as a gamer I feel obligated to see it once.

JJS29
JJS29

Hopefully he's ramping up for a proper sequel to Sim City 4....I dream....oh do I dream.

yaba
yaba

Looks like this thing is taking off. It got Mr. Simcity.

proteron
proteron

This is the kind of content that would benefit from being scanned, not just "archived," even if on display, in a realspace collection. I am not familiar with the ICHEG but I hope that as part of their process they do recognize the value of a virtual counterpart.

XenoLair
XenoLair

Wow, this would be awsome to see.

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