video games
mulholland safehouse
from grand theft auto: san andreas posted in video games by chewing_the_scenery
The Mulholland Safehouse in Grand Theft Auto's fictional city of Los Santos is based on architect Pierre Koenig's iconic Stahl House in Los Angeles.
FYI: I read that you should save here instead of Madd Dogg's crib, because otherwise you will run into a glitch and you will no longer be able to play basketball... good to know.
view full location details...alamogordo landfill
from atari posted in video games by nevereatshreddedwheat
Now there's proof. A documentary film crew decided to unearth the buried E.T. cartridges, because really what else could human beings be doing with their time and energy?
view full location details...bryant junior high school (former)
from oregon trail posted in video games by pete_nice
In the fall of 1971, three student teachers (Bill Heinemann, Paul Dillenberger and Don Rawitsch) were trying to figure out how to make the historical subject unit of “The Western Expansion of the Mid-19th Century" more interesting to students.
Rawitsch was already developing a board game, but they came up with the idea of making it into a video game. Computers were rare in those days, but the crew used a teletype computer in a former janitor's broom closet at Bryant Junior High School to crank out an early prototype of the video game in 2 weeks: Oregon Trail was born.
The success of the game grew rapidly, the ownership of the game and the company changed hands several times. Oregon Trail helped to begin an era of educational video games and still remains popular to this day.
Source: Mental Floss
view full location details...brookhaven national laboratory
from tennis for two posted in video games by pete_nice
Developed in 1958 by William Higginbotham to entertain bored visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Tennis for Two is considered one of the first video games ever created.
The game was constructed using an oscilloscope as a display and a Donner Model 30 analog computer as a processor. The players would use an aluminum analog joystick to volley a "tennis ball" back and forth in a profile view of a match (unlike Pong, which was viewed from above).
The game was used only twice (during the Brookhaven open houses), but hundreds of people gathered in line to experience the new form of interaction. Check out this fascinating video of the 1958 recreation.
Higenbotham now has a special collection named for him, the William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection, at Stony Brook University. Their mission is dedicated to "documenting the material culture of screen-based game media."
view full location details...laguna seca raceway
from gran turismo, george lucas posted in video games by elvis_crabs
Laguna Seca Raceway (Spanish for "dry lake") is a California raceway opened in 1957 in the bed of a dry lake. The current track is 2.238 miles long and has 11 turns. The racetrack features a multitude of racing exhibitions.
The course (or interpretations of it) is featured in several racing video games: the Gran Turismo series (including the bike version Tourist Trophy), Forza Motorsport, and the MotoGP series.
George Lucas used to race here before he got into a car accident and gave up racing for filmmaking.
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