Vintage Computing and Gaming

1. Tech Time Capsule: Early 1990s Clip Art Captured an Era

   Clip art collections from the early 1990s are today’s forgotten cultural time capsules, freezing life three decades ago as digital illustrations full of obsolete tech, vintage fashions, and more. Just for fun, let’s explore computer art from a time just before the Internet hit it big. [Benj’s note—I wrote this piece years ago, and it […]

2. I co-wrote a book about the Virtual Boy for MIT Press

   Platform Studies book from Zagal and Edwards launches May 14, 2024. Attention video game fans! I co-wrote an MIT Press Platform Studies book called Seeing Red: Nintendo’s Virtual Boy with Dr. Jose Zagal, and it’s coming out May 14th of this year. You can pre-order it now on Amazon if you’re wild about stereoscopic red […]

3. My memories of what life was like before the Internet

   [Benj’s note — I originally wrote this in 2020 and had it sitting around until now. I still think it might be useful to someone in the future, so I decided to publish it.] Many Americans alive today witnessed one of the most dramatic cultural transitions since the invention of the printing press: The rise […]

4. Benj Writes Tech History at Ars Technica

   In August 2022, I joined up with Ars Technica as their AI and Machine Learning Reporter. Of course, even while documenting one of the wildest cutting-edge stories in tech at the moment, my heart never strays far from the subject of this site: vintage technology and the history behind it. In between writing about AI […]

5. [ VC&G Anthology ] The Making of Pong (2012)

   Atari founders circa 1972-73 (from left to right):Ted Dabney, Nolan Bushnell, Larry Emmons, and Allan Alcorn [ Atari Pong turns 50 years old today, and I thought it might be fun to revisit an article I wrote about the game’s creation for Edge Magazine (Issue 248) back in 2012. Since the web version of that […]