ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories

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ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories // www.romchip.org GET OUR NEWSLETTER: http://eepurl.com/crCul1 Editors: @lainenooney.bsky.social @daveparisi.bsky.social @liebenwalde.bsky.social‬ Soraya Murray

Duotone advertisement for the computer game Vapor Palace by Bananasoft (black ink on a brown background). The ad features a stylized illustration of a shirtless man peering from behind a doorway beside the title "Vapor Palace," with the tagline "Hot Time at the Baths." The game is priced at $24.95 postpaid and notes that it requires a minimum of 16K RAM. It was released for multiple home computer platforms, including the Timex 1000 (cassette), TRS-80 III (cassette), Apple II (DOS 3.3 floppy disk), IBM PC (floppy disk). The ad states it was soon to be available for the VIC-20 (cassette). The bottom of the advertisement includes the Bananasoft banana logo, the company's mailing address in Seattle, Washington, a note that Washington residents must add sales tax, and an estimated delivery time of two to six weeks.
picture of game boxes and merchandise of the 4 2026 inductees
two nearly identical light blue hats for sale on the ROMchip merch store: one says videogames (as 1 word) and the other says video games (as 2 words)
A historical board game map titled Punaisten ja valkoisten taistelu Suomessa 1918 (The Reds and the Whites' Battle in Finland 1918), depicting southern Finland during the Finnish Civil War. The map is marked with a dense network of black lines and nodes representing railways and towns. The southern region is shaded orange to indicate contested territory. Red and white wooden playing pieces are placed across various nodes, symbolizing opposing factions. A white six-sided die lies in the lower left corner.
Scan of the Poizone (1991) game floppy disk, showing the contributors, the game title, and the distributor’s logo. (Paolo Baerlocher’s GitHub)
Screenshot of Alexander’s article “‘Gamers’ Don’t Have to Be Your Audience,” published at Gamasutra (now Game Developer). The article image depicts an angry, screaming white man in a gamer headset. Screenshot sourced using The Wayback Machine, snapshot dated August 28, 2014,
Japanese print advertisement. Kyowa International regularly advertised on the rear cover of Technique of Backup magazine. This particular example comes from the March 1989 issue. The fully assembled KIC-045DX supergun cost ¥5,000 ($39) more than the unassembled kit. According to the advertisement, “this kit includes a case with precut holes and assembly instructions. Position the parts, solder the pieces, and tighten the bolts. An optional color VHF video converter [RF modulator] is available for purchase. Assembly time requires approximately two hours. Assembly requires tools such as a soldering iron, nipper, pliers, and multimeter. This project is recommended for people who possess skills in electronics, such as those who may have previously built a transistor radio.” (Courtesy of Sansai Books)
An American Girl doll styled in 1980s fashion—denim skirt, pink tights, side ponytail, colorful bracelets, and headphones—stands in front of a yellow Pac-Man arcade cabinet in a neon-lit arcade. She holds a pink Walkman cassette player.
Cover of なぜ２Dゲームは右へ進むものが多いのか?, known in English as Legend 7: Why Do 2D Games Usually Go to the Right?, by Hiromasa Iwasaki (Image courtesy of cover artist, Hiroshi Aizawa). Cover features drawings of Luigi, Mario, and Toad running to the right, which right-facing arrow behind them.
PC Multimídia magazine, containing two CD-ROMs: one with the game Casseta & Planeta: Noite Animal (ATR Multimídia, 1995), prominently featured on the magazine cover, and another with the game Betrayal at Krondor (Dynamix, 1993) along with demo versions of other games, including children’s games (Courtesy of Leandro Matioli)
Menu principal du jeu Blupi is Back (2024), disponible sur Android et Windows. https://www.maniabricks.com/games/blupi-is-back/ Main menu of Blupi Is Back (2024), a video game available for Android and Windows. https://www.maniabricks.com/games/blupi-is-back)
a photograph of a long-haired child, standing next to their TV, which displays the end screen of a video game
Internet Archivist Jason Scott wearing a top-hat and purple suit jacket.
Photo of Phil Salvadore smiling and holding a black chicken.
Photo of Phil Salvadore smiling and holding a black chicken.
Illustrated portrait of qdot as a wolf wearing glasses and a leather collar.
Headshot of Paolo Pedercini. He wears a black shirt with a pixel art image of the wagon and oxen from from the 1985 version of Oregon Trail. It says "You have died of colonization" underneath.
Headshot of merritt k.
Headshot of Holly Nielsen. She stands in front of a nature background wearing a sweater and a bright orange coat.
fundraiser bar at 62% of a $7K tier 1 goal, or $4,340.69
A headshot of Sharang Biswas laughing toward camera. He wears a silver tie over a black shirt.
Headshot of tinahacks smiling.
A scanned excerpt of printed instructions for running "Electronic Theater," dated October 24, 1984, and authored by Dona Bailey and Paul Allen Newell. The document provides steps for connecting a Commodore 64 to an Apple computer , inserting disks, and entering commands. The text is monospaced, as is typical of early computer-printed documents.
Rob Marince’s gaze focuses on a screen off-camera, lips tightly formed around a mouthpiece connected to a metal cylinder, itself connected through a clear piece of tubing to circuits and wires behind a clear rectangle of Plexiglas. Photographed in a dim location, Marince’s face is lit from his left side, casting a strong shadow over his right. His hair is combed back out of his face, and he is clean shaven. He wears a red Telephone Pioneers of America top under a black scarf; to the right of his head, some fur is wrapped around the headrest of his motorized chair, whose metal frame peeks out from behind Marince’s left shoulder. In the background sit a pair of cabinets running Astro Blaster and Space Panic , their illumination faint in comparison to Marince’s face in the light. The layout of the cover includes no border or graphics. The title and subtitle of the magazine (as well as price and date) appear at the top, and the only other addition to the full-page photo is the cover-story description: “‘Pins & Pongs’ in Pittsburgh: Special Players Compete In A Games Tourney for Handicapped.”
A black-and-white promotional photo from Fairchild’s 1976 Annual Report to Employees shows two people using the Fairchild Channel F console. The woman on the left holds a controller and looks at a CRT television screen displaying a video game. The man on the right holds another controller. The Channel F console is on a wood table with a cartridge inserted. A brick wall is visible in the background, giving the impression that the players are in a living room or den.
A photograph of a dirty and weathered white 3.5-inch floppy disk lying on the ground in the woods, partially covered in wet dirt and surrounded by wet leaves. The label on the disk reads "PROMILLE" in bold capital letters, with additional text below that says "ALKO" and "ALKOHOLIPOLIITTINEN SUUNNITTELU." ALKO was the national alcoholic beverage retailing monopoly of Finland.
The cover of the "Barbie Fashion Designer" CD-ROM game features a Barbie doll dressed in a pink top skirt with a purple and white heart pattern. The background includes a computer with a monitor displaying digital clothing designs, along with various design tools. The cover highlights features such as the ability to design and print real clothes for Barbie dolls, using printer-compatible fabric with no sewing required. The branding includes the Barbie logo at the top, the "CD-ROM" label, and publisher information from Mattel Media and Funsoft.
Two people are engaged in the strategy board, Game of war, on a glass table. The board has a gray grid with various three-dimensional pieces, including orange towers, gray structures, and other geometric elements resembling a futuristic battlefield. One player, wearing a striped shirt, is making a move, while the other, dressed in a black shirt, observes with a thoughtful expression. The game appears to be a tactical or war-based game, with an intricate and visually striking design.
The image is the cover of the June issue of ASCII Magazine, a Japanese monthly publication focused on "home and office computer science." The cover features a bold "ASCII" title in large, uppercase letters at the top, along with mostly Japanese text. The main illustration, created by Ikko Ohno, is a playful, pixelated image of an anthropomorphic water strider insect, dressed in a black suit, red bow tie, glasses, and a mustache. The insect is floating on a blue, rippling water surface while holding a multicolored umbrella. The background consists of stylized concentric ripples and a pixelated water texture, characteristic of early computer graphics.
A WOW token infographic from World of Warcraft, illustrating the economic transaction between time and in-game gold
The image is a screenshot of the Matajuegos website, a Spanish-language games and culture platform. The header features a wavy, multicolored gradient (yellow, red, green) with small, playfully drawn black icons, including a sword, thunder bolt, cactus, and a dozen others. Below, there is a stylized illustration of a blue fish, a pink skull, and a yellow banana, each connected by a wire to a piece of computer equipment (a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse, respectively). The website's name, "Matajuegos," is written in an cursive-style font with a red wavy underline. The navigation menu at the bottom has icons and labels in Spanish, including Inicio (Home), Acerca de (About), Glosario (Glossary), Archivo (Archive), and English, with a search icon on the right. The overall design is playful and creative.
The image shows the box cover of The Ungame, a board game. The cover features a collage of black-and-white and green-tinted photographs of people of various ages, genders, and ethnicities engaging in conversation, smiling, thinking, and interacting. Some images depict people playing a board game. The title, "tell it like it is!!", is written in bold green letters, while "THE UNGAME" is in large, black, uppercase letters below it.
A screenshot of the classic Macintosh game Caper in the Castro, an early LGBTQ+ mystery adventure game. The game window displays the title "Caper in the Castro" at the top, followed by a text-based introduction under the headings "The Scenario" and "Prologue." The text reads: The Scenario You are the world-famous lesbian private detective, Tracker McDyke. You are searching for a kidnapped drag queen, Tessy LaFemme. What you didn't count on was stumbling onto an even larger and more treacherous crime. Prologue It's 3:05 am. You have just been awakened by a phone call from your old friend, Tessy LaFemme. She sounded frantic and asked you to meet her in front of The Gayme Room, (a favorite hang-out of yours.) She said she'd be there in 15 minutes. She started to say something about getting the goods on Dullagan Straightman (notorious fiend & villain) but before you could ask Tessy what she meant..... ....she was cut-off. At the bottom of the window, there is a button labeled "I'm Done Reading." The game is running on a Macintosh operating system, visible through the classic Mac interface, including a Trash icon and a Macintosh HD icon in the background.
The image is a promotional schedule for ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories' Twitch fundraiser event on February 22. The schedule is presented in a colorful, block-patterned background with event details organized by time slots. A yellow highlight box in the top right corner contains the event’s Twitch URL (www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal) and donation link (donate.romchip.org). The event schedule is as follows: • 11 AM ET – Jason Scott: Touring Internet Archive’s most obscure in-browser games. • 12 PM ET – tinahacks: "All Castles" speedrun of Super Mario World: Super Mario Bros 4 (1990). • 1 PM ET – Sharang Biswas: Age of Mythology: Retold (2024). • 2 PM ET – Holly Nielsen: Dragon Age: Origins (2009). • 3 PM ET – merritt k: Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002). • 4 PM ET – Patrick LeMieux: Water, Water, Everywhere: An Hour of Aquatic Modular Synth Music Sampling Videogame Soundtracks. • 5 PM ET – Paolo Pedercini: Kinoautomat (1967). • 6 PM ET – qdot: Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest (2002). • 7 PM ET – Phil Salvador: TWO HOURS of the Fisher Price Wonder Tools Cruiser, a 1990s children's busy box peripheral. • 9 PM ET – Colleen Macklin: The Rez (2001) Rave Hour. • 10 PM ET – Jason Scott: Jason Scott’s Sleepy Time Cave of Wonders.
This image showcases a comparison of three gaming-focused energy drink brands. First is G FUEL: The left section features two colorful cans of G FUEL, labeled "Rainbow Sherbet" and "Sour Cherry," emphasizing their "Energy + Focus" benefits and zero sugar. The middle section highlights a tub of Sneak Energy, featuring a cartoon bunny logo. A person wearing a Sneak hoodie and cap, with their face blacked out, holds the product against a vibrant, poster-covered background. The right section shows a "Respawn" branded shaker bottle and a box of "Pomegranate Watermelon" drink mix. The focus is on "Mental Performance" with a sleek, gaming-themed design.