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Hi folks! Today we're opening up research access to the William Volk papers, a collection of documents from former Activision VP of technology William Volk.

Backer Blog members have been hearing about the William Volk papers for a while now, but if you're one of our free followers, now's the time to learn about him! We did a full write-up on our website, which you should definitely read, but we'll copy the highlights here.

Volk led the technology team at Activision from 1988–1994. It was a precarious time for the company, and at the same time, there was a big generational change in the game industry. Volk was in charge of evaluating new technology, producing key titles, and, in general, managing any sort of tech-related questions or challenges at Activision.

This collection is rich with historical information that historians will love. Like...

  • Write-ups of conferences, like the Consumer Electronics Show, or something called the Conference on CD-ROM and Multimedia.

  • Early impressions and specs of then-new systems, like the Super Famicom and Sega Genesis.

  • Weekly development timelines for titles in production throughout Activision, with new information unreleased games like River Raid: Mission of No Return, Return to Planetfall, and Death Track for Game Boy.

  • Reams of material related to the development of the engine and video compression tech used in Return to Zork.

  • So many other documents you will love if you're researching the early 90s game industry.

(from "Dev. Offsite 2_25")

We can't wait to see what else people find in here! Again, see the blog post for detailed information about how we recovered these files, and check out the video for a whole bunch of examples of the kind of information you can find in here.

Files

Previews only

Discovering Activision's early history | VGHF Library Highlights

William Volk led Activision's tech team from 1988–1994. His documents give us an inside look at a challenging time in the company's history. Access the William Volk papers at the VGHF Digital Library: https://archive.gamehistory.org/folder/2cc8fcbc-9f8b-4ddd-b406-4b04e70c553d Read more: https://gamehistory.org/william-volk-papers/ --- Video/image credits: - Activision commercials via Activision Anthology (2000, Activision) - Borrowed Time (1985, Activision) - Little Computer People (1985, Activision) - Electronic Gaming Retail News, Volume 1, Number 2, July 1991 https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/97ca5235-4f61-49ec-b68f-3bfcfc8059f9 - Electronic Gaming Monthly, Number 18, January 1991 https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/dc9de403-27eb-440e-99a4-5388b5a542fd - VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, Issue 28, May 1991 https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/ae41632a-dbd0-4ca1-8f4b-4579f6a06188 - Computer Gaming World, Number 81, April 1991 https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/6c7722ff-ff6f-4904-a6e9-8ca0e4ef8953 - Sega Genesis "We Bring the Arcade Home" commercial via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNxf6hT5nQE - CD-i infomercial via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW8PVEe4qTw - Windows 3.1 commercial via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0iytzHSg4k - Return to Zork (1993, Activision) - The Manhole (1988, Activision) - Activision HQ photo by Coolcaesar, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3885_Bohannon_Drive.jpg - All retail box art via MobyGames. - Death Track build (1992, Activision) via Hidden Palace https://hiddenpalace.org/News/Death_Track_(Unreleased_Game_Boy_Port) - Winter Consumer Electronics Show 1993 footage from Computer Chronicles, episode 1023 https://archive.org/details/episode_1023/cc1023_computerelectronicsshow.mpg - BattleTech Center footage from Beyond 2000 via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJA5C_Po4U - Return to Planetfall renders via Interactive Entertainment, Episode 6 - Kaboom: The Mad Doctor’s Revenge and River Raid: Mission of No Return media via SNES Central (https://snescentral.com/article.php?id=1099, https://snescentral.com/article.php?id=1100) - 1994 Video Game Preview Guide, August 1993 https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/73c79d13-1211-461b-bd31-51ff559a3368 - Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1994, Activision) - King's Quest (1984, Sierra On-Line) - Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987, Sierra On-Line) - Mean Girls (2004, Paramount Pictures) - The 7th Guest (1993, Virgin Interactive) Music credits: - Return to Zork - Medley - EDM Detection Mode Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ - Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure - Ceiba Jungle - King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder - Ending Titles - Return to Zork - Opening Credits

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