Works of Game: the links
In the course of Works of Game, I discuss 98 different works created by 63 artists, designers or companies. I’ve created this page as a more internet-friendly version of the “Works Cited” list in the book. I hope to keep it up-to-date, so if you notice any errors or dead links, let me know.
In many cases, the works I talk about defy easy access through a web browser, game consoles, PCs and phones. This is more challenging for older videogames, where the companies developing and publishing the games have little reason to archive out-of-circulation titles. And as we all know, paintings are notoriously difficult to install on a console. So more often than not, I’m linking to documentation rather than the work itself.
Eleanor Abbott, Candy Land, Milton Bradley (board game), 1949.
Candy Land has gone through many, many updates and reboots since the original back in 1949. Eleanor Abbott’s is rare, but Candy Land 65th Anniversary Game is a facsimile of this original.
Cory Arcangel
Beat the Champ, 2011.
I Shot Andy Warhol, 2002.
Since You Been Gone, 2010.
Super Mario Clouds, 2002.
Cory Arcangel has a comprehensive website documenting his work. All the projects discussed in the book are in the “Things I Made” section of the site.
Myfanwy Ashmore, Super Mario Trilogy, 2006.
Myfanwy Ashmore has a page documenting the project and has posted a video.
Atari, Inc.
Asteroids, Atari, Inc. (arcade game), 1979.
Breakout, Atari, Inc. (arcade game), 1976.
Missile Command, Atari, Inc. (arcade game), 1980.
Pong, Atari, Inc. (arcade game), 1972.
Atari has been re-organized, sold, re-sold and re-organized so many times since its golden era that the company today has little relationship to the classic games of its past. That said, there are many efforts to preserve classic arcade games within institutions and ad-hoc fan efforts.
Auntie Pixelante, dys4ia, 2012.
The game is available for purchase for Mac and PC.
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, 1953.
The original script is available online. And the play is performed pretty regularly, likely at a high school near you.
Tom Betts, QQQ, 2002.
Blast Theory
The Goody Bullet, 2010.
Uncle Roy All Around You, 2003.
Blast Theory has a comprehensive website documenting their work.
Blue Fang Games, LLC, Zoo Tycoon, Microsoft Corporation (Windows), 2001.
The original Zoo Tycoon is no longer easily playable, as it was developed for Windows 98, 2000 and XP. Some video documentation is available online, but little else remains.
Mattie Brice, Mainichi, 2012.
Brice has a page from which you can download her game (Mac and PC).
John Cage, 4’33”, 1952.
The official documentation for the work is on the John Cage Trust website.
One of the more entertaining performances is documented here.
Chris Crawford, Balance of Power, Mindscape, Inc. (Macintosh), 1985.
Crawford has reissued this game a number of times of the years. A fan site has one of the more thorough pages, including a download to the original game. Crawford also has a link on his own site.
Bernie De Koven and Jaron Lanier, Alien Garden, 1982.
Video of the gameplay here.
Delire, q3apaint, 2002–2003.
The documentation for Julian Oliver’s work created under the name “delire” is difficult to come by sense selectparks went offline.
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917.
Likely the most well-documented urinal ever. As one of the most influential and notorious works of the 20th century, it has raised a good deal of controversy.
Mark Essen, Flywrench, 2007.
Flywrench was originally developed in 2007, documentation for it available here.
Walker Evans, First and Last, 1938.
Evans’ 1938 photo series was published in book form in 1978 by Harper & Row. It is still in print.
Exquisite Corpse.
The Museum of Modern Art has a number of drawings produced during the play of the game. The rules for playing are available here.
Mary Flanagan
Career Moves, 2000.
[giant Joystick], 2006.
[pile of secrets], 2011.
Tennessee Ernie Ford, “Sixteen Tons,” 1943.
This is the song from which Nathalie Pozzi and Eric Zimmerman derived the name for their game, Sixteen Tons. You can hear the song here.
Ryan Green and Josh Larson, That Dragon, Cancer, 2013.
Green and Larson’s game is still in development. You can follow their work on the game on their development blog.
Rod Humble, The Marriage, 2007.
The game can be downloaded here (Windows only) along with his artist statement.
id Software
Quake III, Activision, Inc. (Windows), 1999.
Wolfenstein 3D, id Software (DOS), 1992.
None of the original id developers remain with the company, though the games are available in more-or-less accurate ports on Steam. Quake III’s engine was used in creating Bett’s QQQ and Oliver’s ioQ3apaint. Wolfenstein 3D was used in the creation of JODI’s SOD.
Infocomm, Zork (MS-DOS), 1979.
Infocomm is long defunct, but Zork can be downloaded for Mac
and played online.
JODI
Jet Set Willy Variations ©1984, 2002.
Max Payne Cheats Only 1, 2004.
SOD, 2002.
King, Candy Crush Saga, King (iOS), 2012.
Orhan Kipack and Reini Urban, Ars Doom, 1995.
Official documentation of the work is on the Ars Electronica website.
Merritt Kopas. Lim, 2012.
You can play Lim online.
Sherrie Levine, After Walker Evans, 1979.
Levine has changed galleries since this exhibition, and neither gallery was willing to provide access to material about the exhibition. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the piece, and has some documentation on its website. If you want something even more meta, check these out.
Elizabeth Magie, The Landlord’s Game, 1906.
A thoroughly documented history of the game is available on this site. Discussion of its relationship to Monopoly is on this site.
MicroProse Software, Inc., Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon, MicroProse Software, Inc. (DOS), 1990.
Milton Bradley Company
Chutes and Ladders, 1943.
The Game of Life, 1960.
Operation, 1965.
All three of these games are still in print, though in greatly modified versions. They’ve since been reissued in “collectors edition” facsimiles.
Molleindustria
The Best Amendment, 2013.
The McDonald’s Videogame, 2006.
Molleindustria’s website provides access to all of Paolo’s games.
Mossmouth, LLC, Spelunky, Mossmouth, LLC (Windows), 2009.
The official site provides links to PC, PSN and xBox versions of the game:
Nintendo
Donkey Kong, Nintendo (arcade game), 1980.
Hogan’s Alley, Nintendo (NES), 1984.
Super Mario Bros, Nintendo (NES), 1985.
WarioWare, Nintendo (Game Boy Advance), 2003.
Hogan’s Alley was the source for Arcangel’s I Shot Andy Warhol. Super Mario Bros. was the source for Ashmore’s Super Mario Trilogy and Arcangel’s Super Mario Clouds.
Number None, Inc.
Braid, Microsoft Game Studios (Xbox Arcade), 2008. ()
The Witness, Number None, Inc. (Windows), 2015.
Julian Oliver, ioq3aPaint, 2010.
Documentation of images created using the tool are available here.
Parker Brothers, Monopoly, 1935.
Mary Pilon’s book, The Secret History of the Board Game Monopoly, is a good source for the history of the game. Another perspective is found in Philip Orbanes’ The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, from Tiddly Winks to Trivial Pursuit.
Picasso, Pablo, Guernica, 1937.
The work is in the collection of the Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.
Polytron Corporation, Fez, Microsoft Studios (Xbox Arcade), 2012.
Nathalie Pozzi and Eric Zimmerman
Cross My Heart + Hope to Die, 2010.
Flatlands, 2010.
Interference, 2012.
Sixteen Tons, 2010.
Starry Heavens, 2011.
Robert Rauschenberg, First Landing Jump, 1961.
The piece is in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection.
Robert Rauschenberg and Jim McGee, Open Score, 1966.
Official documentation for the piece is on the Daniel Langlois Foundation website.
Remedy Entertainment, Max Payne 2, Rockstar Games (Playstation 3), 2003.
Jason Rohrer
Between, 2008.
The Castle Doctrine, 2014.
Diamond Trust of London, 2012.
Gravitation, 2008.
Inside a Star-Filled Sky, 2011.
Passage, 2007.
Primrose, 2009.
Sleep Is Death (Geisterfahrer), 2010.
All of Rohrer’s games are accessible from his SourceForge page.
Brenda Romero
“The Mechanic is the Message,” 2008 -.
Mexican Kitchen Workers, unreleased.
One Falls for Each of Us, unreleased.
Síochán leat, 2009.
Train, 2008.
Romero’s “Mechanic is the Message” series documentation is here, to the extent that documentation exists—she discourages photography and video of the installed games.
Steve Russell et al., Spacewar!, DECUS (PDP-1), 1961.
An emulator of the original PDP-1 game is available here.
A great article on the game was published in a 1972 issue of Rolling Stone.
Takako Saito
Liquor Chess, 1975.
Smell Chess, 1965.
Spice Chess, 1965.
Weight Chess, 1965.
Saito’s work is sadly under-documented. This Tumblr has images of many of the chess variants Saito created as part of the Fluxchess project.
Tino Sehgal, The Kiss, 2010.
Seghal does not document his work in any form. There are no artist statements, no installation plans, not even contracts for their sale. So documentation of his work is always ephemeral. Here are a couple reviews of The Kiss.
Richard Serra, Torqued Ellipses, 1997–1998.
Serra’s pieces are in the permanent collection of the Dia Art Foundation at Dia:Beacon.
Mieko Shiomi, Mirror, 1963.
Mirror is in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection.
Sierra Entertainment, King’s Quest (IBM PCjr), 1984.
This game was released for the IBM PCjr, which did not do well. Sites like this provide the best documentation we have these days.
Sir-Tech Software, Inc.
Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games (MS-DOS), 1994.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, Sir-Tech Software, Inc. (MS-DOS), 1981.
Michael Smith, Mike Builds a Bomb Shelter, 1983.
Documentation of this early art game is mostly non-existent. There is also a video art piece with a similar name, which is much more easily found.
Software Projects, Ltd., Jet Set Willy, Software Projects, Ltd. (Sinclair ZX Spectrum), 1984.
Very little information remains on this game. The JODI project based on it has eclipsed it online.
Superbrothers Inc. and Capybara Games Inc., Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Capybara Games Inc. (iPad), 2011.
Jean Tinguely, Homage to New York, 1960.
As much as a work that destroyed itself can be in a permanent collection, Homage to New York is in the Museum of Modern Art.
Trecartin, Ryan, Re’Search Wait’S (Edit 1: Missing Re’Search Corruption Budget), 2009.
An excerpt from this piece is on Trecartin’s Vimeo page.
Bill Viola and the University of Southern California Game Innovation Lab, The Night Journey, 2008.
Visual Concepts Entertainment, Inc., NBA 2K 12, 2K Sports (Playstation 3), 2011.
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans, 1962.
In the Museum of Modern Art’s collection.
Rachel Whiteread, House, 1993.
Documentation on the project is available here.