Archaeogaming
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edition) Copy. Use (COVID-19 distribute.2020 Personalnot Do March Archaeogaming 21 edition) Copy. Use (COVID-19 distribute.2020 Personalnot Do March 21 edition) Copy. Archaeogaming Use (COVID-19 An Introduction to Archaeology distribute.2020 Personalnot Do March 21 in and of Video Games Andrew Reinhard berghahn N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D www.berghahnbooks.com First published in 2018 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com © 2018 Andrew Reinhard All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Reinhard, Andrew, author. Title: Archaeogaming: An Introduction to Archaeologyedition) in and of Video Games / Andrew Reinhard. Description: New York: Berghahn Books, 2018. | Includes bibliographical Copy. references and index. (COVID-19 Identifi ers: LCCN 2018005079 (print)Use | LCCN 2018005777 (ebook) | ISBN 9781785338748 (Ebook) distribute.| ISBN2020 9781785338724 (hardback: alk. paper) Personalnot Subjects: LCSH: Virtual reality in archaeology. | Imaging systems in Do March archaeology. | Archaeology—Computer21 simulation. | Video games— Technological innovations. Classifi cation: LCC CC79.I44 (ebook) | LCC CC79.I44 R45 2018 (print) | DDC 930.10285—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018005079 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78533-872-4 hardback ISBN 978-1-78533-873-1 paperback ISBN 978-1-78533-874-8 ebook edition) Homer’s Odyssey and Nishikado’s Space Invaders Copy. For my dad, who introduced me to Use (COVID-19 distribute.2020 Personalnot Do March 21 edition) Copy. Use (COVID-19 distribute.2020 Personalnot Do March 21 Contents List of Illustrations viii Acknowledgments x Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Real-World Archaeogaming 23 Chapter 2. Playing as Archaeologists 62 Chapter 3. Video Games as Archaeological Sites 88 edition) Chapter 4. Material Culture of the Immaterial 162 Copy. Conclusion Use (COVID-19 197 Appendix. No Man’s Skydistribute. Archaeological2020 Survey (NMSAS) Code ofPersonal Ethicsnot 203 Do March 21 Glossary 210 Works Cited 213 Games Cited 220 Index 222 Illustrations 0.1. Archaeogaming map created by the author (text) and Shawn Graham (design). 4 0.2. Image from the ergodic literature game Buried (Tara Copplestone and Luke Botham), a winner of the 2014 Heritage Jam. Used with permission. 16 1.1. Excavation photo from the Atari Burial Ground, Alamogordo, New Mexico. Photo by the author. 24 1.2. Inside Sore Thumb Games, York, England. Photo by Megan von Ackermann. Used with permission. 34 1.3. Early Helladic III Late (circa 2050–2000 BCEedition)) Greek amphora. Photo by Dan Diffendale. Used with permission. 47 Copy. 1.4. Late Geometric II (730–710 BCE) Greek amphora. Photo by Dan Diffendale. UsedUse with permission.(COVID-19 47 1.5. Bowl, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrimdistribute.2020 (Bethesda Softworks). Screen capture byPersonal author.not 48 Do March 1.6. Bowl, Elder Scrolls III:21 Morrowind (Bethesda Softworks). Screen capture by author. 49 1.7. Final Fantasy for the NES, 1987 (Square Enix). Screen capture by author. 50 1.8. Final Fantasy IV for the SNES, 1991 (Square Enix). Screen capture by author. 50 1.9. Final Fantasy XV for PlayStation 4, 2016 (Square Enix). Screen capture by author. 51 1.10. A “Pidgey” superimposed over a historical marker in Robbinsville, New Jersey, during a Pokémon Go (Niantic Inc.) outing. Screen capture by the author. 55 2.1. Cryptarch in Destiny (Bungie, Inc.). Screen capture by author. 71 Illustrations • ix 2.2. Opening screen to Hearthstone (Blizzard Entertainment). Screen capture by author. 76 2.3. Archaeological dialogue in Elder Scrolls Online (Zenimax Online). Screen capture by author. 85 3.1. Ruins in No Man’s Sky (Hello Games). Screen capture by author. 130 3.2. Glitch of a falling mammoth from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Softworks). Screen capture by author. 149 3.3. Glitch of the NPC Holgunn from Elder Scrolls Online (Zenimax Online). Screen capture by author. 150 4.1. Inside Vigamus, Rome’s video game museum. Photo by the author. 170 4.2. Left: BioShock’s Big Daddy (image 2K Games). Right: Cosplay at MCM London Comic Con 2015. Photo by Pete Sheffi eld, CC BY-SA 2.0. 186 4.3. Ryse Son of Rome (Crytek). Screen captureedition) by author. 193 Copy. Use (COVID-19 distribute.2020 Personalnot Do March 21 Acknowledgments I would still be a level 1 n00b if it were not for the patient people in my archaeogaming guild who have taken time away from their own quests to assist me in mine. That is what good guildies do, and I hope to return the favor one day. Modern writing is an eSport, and I am lucky to be on the team with these players: From the University of York’s Centre for Digital Heritage, Meghan Dennis, Emily Johnson, Colleen Morgan, and Sara Perry. From the Atari excavation: Bill Caraher, Raiford Guins, Richard Rothaus, Bret Weber, and Zak Penn. Thanks to Theresa, Cath, Hailey, and Justin for reading early drafts of this manuscript, and to Anna, Viktor, and Maia for encouraging my strange obsession. Thanks also go to Stu Eve for suggesting sections on further reading at the end of each chapter, and to Sian Beavers for sharingedition) her DiGRA presenta- tion with me on historical video games. Thanks to Megan von Acker- mann for her last-minute photographyCopy. of Sore Thumb Games in York. Thanks to John Aycock andUse Katy Meyers(COVID-19 Emery for grouping with me on archaeogaming articles, and to the editors of Internet Archaeol- ogy, Public Archaeology, SAAdistribute. Archaeological2020 Record, and the Journal of Contemporary ArchaeologyPersonalnot for publishing early peer-reviewed arti- Do March cles on archaeogaming. I want21 to also thank Jonathan Ore, Robert Rath, Sarah Bond, Jordan Oloman, Carly Silver, Douglas Heaven, Jennifer Lepies, Damion Collins, Andrew Pallett, Luke Plunkett, and Kathleen Caulderwood for taking a chance on writing about my work for gen- eral audiences on the weirdness that is video game archaeology, and to Eleanor Flegg, Chris Webster, Chris Sims, Nora Young, Marc Bark- man-Astles, Cobra Smith, Sera Head, Alli Gold, Jen Jamula, and Tristan Boyle for having me on their podcasts and radio programs to talk about archaeogaming. Thanks to the VALUE Project at the University of Leiden for hosting the fi rst-ever international conference on archaeogaming (2016), The Interactive Past, and for bringing me along for the ride. Thanks also to the University of Umeå’s HUMlab for their enthusiasm for video game archaeology, for their “Challenge the Past” conference (2015), and for being such a welcome host. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology hosted the “Greek and Roman Games in the Computer Age” Acknowledgments • xi conference (2009), which introduced me to Classical reception in video games (and its grand master Dunstan Lowe) and set me on my way to thinking about video games archaeologically. Special thanks go to Tara Copplestone, Shawn Graham, and Lorna Richardson for pushing me, asking the diffi cult questions about the meaning and purpose of video games when studied archaeologically. If it were not for you, there would be no archaeogaming (or at least my fl avor of it). Thanks to my editor, Caryn Berg, for being open to the idea of video games as built environments worthy of archaeological study and for bringing my manuscript to Berghahn Books, and to my friend and agent David Hendin for helping me seal the deal. Thanks also to the three anonymous readers of the initial manuscript whose comments made the fi nal product worlds better. Thanks to Ute Wartenberg for helping me achieve my dreams. Thanks to my family for their love and support, especially Cleo who sat on my shoulder throughout and whispered in my ear while I typed. Some sections of this book fi rst appearededition) in draft form on my blog at archaeogaming.com, and earlier versions of my thinking on archae- ological tools/methods and game-sitesCopy. appeared in the SAA Archae- ological Record and The Interactive Past, which have been updated Use (COVID-19 for this volume. Any mistakes in this book are solely my own, and the above guild members shalldistribute. remain2020 blameless. I owe you all rounds of Thunder Ale in Orgrimar.Personalnot —Andrew ReinhardDo March 21 May 2018 edition) Copy. Use (COVID-19 distribute.2020 Personalnot Do March 21 Introduction Prologue It’s 2014, and a team of archaeologists arrives in the desert of Al- amogordo, New Mexico, to watch as a bucket auger drives thirty feet into the earth to retrieve evidence of a 1983 burial. After a few test holes, the auger recovers printed cardboard and a few pages of what ap- pears to be an instruction manual. This is all the proof needed to mark the spot with an “X.” The salvage excavation begins the next day, a backhoe puncturing the ceiling of a landfi ll cell in search of the largest (and possibly only) assemblage of video games ever dumped. On the third day of digging, hundreds of Atari cartridges and boxes surface, and the archaeologists catalogue and photographedition) these artifacts of Late Capitalism, part of a generation’s material culture and digital heritage. Copy. It’s 1996, and I am workingUse my way(COVID-19 through the monastery of St. Fran- cis in Greece, having solved several puzzles, nearly falling to my death distribute.2020 on several occasions, searching for the tomb of a ruler of Atlantis.