[Air-L] Announcing the Retro Mobile Gaming Database

[Adriana de Souza e Silva]

Hi all,

The Mobile Gaming Research Lab <https://mglab.chass.ncsu.edu/> at NC State University is proud to announce the release of the Retro Mobile Gaming Database <http://database.mglab.chass.ncsu.edu/> [http://database.mglab.chass.ncsu.edu/ <http://database.mglab.chass.ncsu.edu/>] (RMGD). The RMGD is an online,  publicly searchable database of early mobile games, intended for use by game scholars, students interested in games, and game enthusiasts. The RMGD includes information about games developed between the years 1975-2008. We have selected this initial experimental timeframe to demarcate the release of the earliest handheld games up through the release of iPhone 3G and app store in 2008, when the number of mobile games grew significantly. 

The RMGD offers a centralized repository for researching games. Prior to this point, it was often very difficult to find information about specific mobile games or to understand how they related to one another, since several early mobile games lacked consistent documentation and were experimental, ephemeral, or small-scale in nature. The RMGD fills this gap by allowing users to search using a wide range of criteria, such as title, time frame, genre, type of connectivity, number of players, place of development, authors, hardware, as well as popular press and scholarly articles written about them. By combining and establishing search criteria, users will be able to trace new correlations among games that otherwise might not be evident. The database also provides a map that shows the geographic locations of where searched games were developed and a list of games with similar features.

In addition, users will be able to participate by not only searching for games, but also by suggesting new games! So, if you know of a game that is not currently in the database, you can help to populate our database by suggesting a new game. To do that, simply register for a new account and complete the “suggest new entry” form. The game suggestions will be reviewed by the MGRL staff before becoming publicly available. 

WE WELCOME YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS!

Users can also export their search results as a .csv file, so that the data can be used for any individual research purposes. Finally, the repository is mobile friendly, so you can access it either from your computer or mobile device.

Mobile games are a growing and increasingly complex genre. Our database aims at creating a centralized repository for all types of mobile games, including (1) games played on mobile gaming consoles, such as Mattel Football and Nintendo Game & Watch Parachute, (2) games played on mobile phone screens, such as Tetris and Snake, and (2) games played with mobile phones, but that take place simultaneously in physical and digital spaces, such as location-based mobile games, hybrid reality games, pervasive games, augmented reality games, and urban games. 

The Retro Mobile Gaming Database was developed and designed by the NC State University Computer Science Department Senior Design Center team members:Alexander Chtcheprov, Shrawan Gautam, Neeloy Gomes, and Meet Patel, under the mentorship of Ms. Margaret Heil (Director), Dr. Lina Battestilli (Technical Advisor) and Mr. Michael DeHaan (Technical Consultant). 

The concept, content and structure of the MGDB was developed by the NCSU Mobile Gaming Research Lab research team, which is comprised of Ragan Glover-Rikjse ( CRDM, PhD candidate) and Akshay D'Souza(STS student), under the supervision of Dr. Adriana de Souza e Silva (Professor of Communication).



_________________________
Adriana de Souza e Silva
University Faculty Scholar
Professor
Department of Communication
NC State University
http://www.souzaesilva.com <http://www.souzaesilva.com/>