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The Sumerian Game: Una rinascita digitale
Between 1962 and 1965, some classes of students in New York were involved in an innovative research project. The goal was to create a new teaching method without teachers, using powerful computers, automatic systems such as slide projectors, and the playback of recorded audio lessons.
At the conclusion of the lesson, a 300-baud modem connected a powerful mainframe, costing tens of millions of dollars at the time, to a teletype under the students' control. The teletype printed long texts on continuous paper rolls, forcing the students to make difficult decisions on how to manage scarce resources to feed the population and plant crops for the next season.
It was the Sumerian Game, the ancestor of all strategy, management, and city simulation games.
In this book, all the material gathered over years of research (the history, images, and people who worked on the Sumerian Game) is collected, along with a detailed explanation of the long process of analysis and reconstruction of the game and its King of Sumeria and Hamurabi.
At the conclusion of the lesson, a 300-baud modem connected a powerful mainframe, costing tens of millions of dollars at the time, to a teletype under the students' control. The teletype printed long texts on continuous paper rolls, forcing the students to make difficult decisions on how to manage scarce resources to feed the population and plant crops for the next season.
It was the Sumerian Game, the ancestor of all strategy, management, and city simulation games.
In this book, all the material gathered over years of research (the history, images, and people who worked on the Sumerian Game) is collected, along with a detailed explanation of the long process of analysis and reconstruction of the game and its King of Sumeria and Hamurabi.
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 2, 2024
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August 7, 2025
Digital archaeology of an early computer game. Not all listings are available, and this investigates connected articles to speculate on the missing pieces. An early educational resource, this had not only a teletype but a series of slides that apparently were part of the experience.
I heard about the Sumerian game while listening to Computer Game Evolution podcast. My first computer experience was a teletype connection to a mainframe in the early 80s - it is possible I experienced this game. I've certainly seen many of the derivatives (Ahl's 101 BASIC computer games).
The podcast detailed a three phase game, not discussed here. Later phases had the ruler focused more on research, with the earlier work of how much grain to store and feed automatically handled. This is one I had not heard of, and wanted to know more.
Book purchased as part of StoryBundle, and worth it :)
I heard about the Sumerian game while listening to Computer Game Evolution podcast. My first computer experience was a teletype connection to a mainframe in the early 80s - it is possible I experienced this game. I've certainly seen many of the derivatives (Ahl's 101 BASIC computer games).
The podcast detailed a three phase game, not discussed here. Later phases had the ruler focused more on research, with the earlier work of how much grain to store and feed automatically handled. This is one I had not heard of, and wanted to know more.
Book purchased as part of StoryBundle, and worth it :)
Displaying 1 of 1 review