Breaking the ice

Whether this is the start of something that matters will be decided in (or by) the future. Picking Up the Pieces is a blog dedicated to one thing: computer game history. It’s become common today to collapse computer and video games into a single category — Pac-Man and Ultima; Mario and Zork—, but that is not the modus operandi here.

Through Picking Up the Pieces, I hope to explore a question that’s dogged me for over 10 years: “What happened?” This blog’s dramatic title was not chosen at random. The computer game industry that first sparked my interest — the industry of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Riven, No One Lives Forever, Sierra On-Line, LucasArts, Black Isle Studios and Looking Glass Studios — is very much gone. I want to understand what that industry was, what it involved and represented. And, most importantly, I want to understand where it went.

Our update schedule here will be irregular. Expect fits and spurts. I’ve never managed to be a “content” machine; unless I feel that I have something of value to add, I don’t add anything. If you care to keep up with the unscheduled historical deep-dives of this non-professional, noncredentialed computer game historian, I encourage you to follow Picking Up the Pieces. Until next time.