The Ruins of the Bez-Harr Embassy
On 3 October 2017 I received a note from No Man’s Sky player KingJamesHova with a link to a YouTube video showing him unearthing the Bez-Harr Embassy. “I can show you […]
No Man’s Sky Archaeological Survey Code of Ethics
No Man’s Sky Archaeological Survey Code of Ethics NOTE (15 August 2016): Version 0.3 of the Code is now available to read here. Version 0.2 with contributions from Catherine Flick […]
Modding the Xbox One for Archaeogaming
One of the questions I frequently get is “how do you excavate a video game”? This post will show you how it’s done from the hardware side of things with […]
Senseless Archaeology
For most archaeologists, excavation is integral to our professional training. As students we go to field schools or we volunteer in order to learn our tradecraft, the practicum balance to […]
Game Over: How We Faked the Atari Excavation and Got Away with It
[NOTE: This post was originally published as an April Fool’s joke on April 1, 2015, and was taken down because a lot of people believed this story to be true. […]
Archaeogaming in Gothenburg, Sweden: Challenge the Past
I attended the conference, Challenge the Past, Diversify the Future (#ctp2015), at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, from March 19-21, and presented my shortest-titled paper ever: “Archaeogaming”. The intent over […]
Excavating the Atari Dump Site
Watch this space! I am still in Alamogordo to continue our archaeological work with the team today, April 27th, but will blog about the real-world excavation of video games when I am home. It’s like Tron, but in reverse. Or LARPing Dig Dug. For science.
The Philosophy of Archaeology in Video Games
Look out honey, ’cause I’m using technology! Ain’t got time to make no apology . . . . I’m the world’s forgotten boy, the one who’s searchin’, searchin’ to destroy —Iggy Pop I admit it: when I’m in-game, I am a baaaad archaeologist. Indiana Jones bad (especially when I’m playing him as my Lego alter ego). I don’t take notes. […]
Video Game Archaeology in Meatspace
William Rathje would have been all over this. And maybe Fox Mulder. Picture this if you will: Somewhere in the southern desert of New Mexico, more than 150 miles south of Albuquerque, lies a secret dump-site filled with E.T. technology covered in meters of cement. Thirty years ago, a high-tech corporation had gone too far too fast and decided to […]
Archaeogaming 