“Thanks, That Was Terrible”: Reflections on Video Games, Archives and the Creative Process

Transcript

1. Walker Sampson / ACA@UBC Seminar and Symposium Program, April 29, 2022 “Thanks, That Was Terrible” Re fl ections on Video Games, Archives and the Creative Process
2. One Art BY ELIZABETH BISHOP The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem fi lled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fl uster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master. Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster. I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three loved houses went. The art of losing isn’t hard to master. I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster. —Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
3. From Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box [1]
4. Starcraft alpha, 1996 [2] Starcraft Remastered, 2017 “Sprout Valley,” 2012 [3] Stardew Valley, 2016
5. Planescape: Torment, Vision Statement, 2007 [4] Charting out memory bank usage in Street Fighter II (1991) [5]
6. "L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de La Ciotat,” Lumière brothers, 1896
7. Is this play?
8. Is it Art? Satan, Gustave Doré, 1890
9. Beta Tester, Diablo II “Thanks, That Was Terrible” [6]
10. Walker Sampson, wsampson.blog Thank you! Slides at speakerdeck.com/wsampson [1] Quinn, Alice, editor. Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts and Fragments. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006 [2] “Hall fi ry's uno ff i cial Blizzard Archive.” https://www.blizzardarchive.com/pub/ index.php?id=scalpha1 [3] Loe ff l er, Jordan. “Stardew Valley Creator Shares Early Images and Looks to New Projects.” DualShockers, https://www.dualshockers.com/stardew-valley-creator- shares-early-images-looks-to-new-projects. [4] “Planescape Torment Vision Statement.” GameDocs, https://gamedocs.org/ planescape-torment-vision-statement. [5] Sanglard, Fabien. “Street Fighter II, Paper Trails.” Fabien Sanglard’s Website, December 22, 2021. https://fabiensanglard.net/sf2_sheets. [6] “Prerelease:Diablo II.” The Cutting Room Floor, https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Diablo_II. Accessed April 25, 2022.