2023
Garda, Maria B.; Nylund, Niklas; Suominen, Jaakko
Unexpected Monument: Media Attention and Maintenance Work behind the Restoration of the Finnish Educational Game Promille (1990) Journal Article
In: ROMchip: a journal of game histories, vol. 5, iss. 1, 2023, ISSN: 2573-9794.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Alois Riegl, Computer games, Finland, Finnish video games, Heritage, Maintenance, Promille, Repair, Unintentional monument
@article{Garda2023,
title = {Unexpected Monument: Media Attention and Maintenance Work behind the Restoration of the Finnish Educational Game Promille (1990)},
author = {Maria B. Garda and Niklas Nylund and Jaakko Suominen },
url = {https://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal/article/view/190},
issn = {2573-9794},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-07-31},
urldate = {2023-07-31},
journal = {ROMchip: a journal of game histories},
volume = {5},
issue = {1},
abstract = {This article is a contextual historical study focused on the restoration process of a Finnish educational PC game, Promille (Tietotoimisto, 1990). In 2017, a floppy disk containing the previously unknown (to historians and hobbyists) game was found by chance in the city woods of Tampere, Finland. These unusual circumstances and the following repair efforts, undertaken as a collaboration between the local retrogaming circles and the Finnish Museum of Games in Tampere, attracted national media attention. This paper aims at reconstructing and contextualizing these events while at the same time reflecting on the cultural practices of maintenance and repair at public and private memory institutions in Finland, and how the case of Promille has affected the local heritage community. The study contributes to the theoretical discussions around the heritagization of games and revisits Alois Riegl’s concept of unintentional monuments in relation to game cultures.},
keywords = {Alois Riegl, Computer games, Finland, Finnish video games, Heritage, Maintenance, Promille, Repair, Unintentional monument},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article is a contextual historical study focused on the restoration process of a Finnish educational PC game, Promille (Tietotoimisto, 1990). In 2017, a floppy disk containing the previously unknown (to historians and hobbyists) game was found by chance in the city woods of Tampere, Finland. These unusual circumstances and the following repair efforts, undertaken as a collaboration between the local retrogaming circles and the Finnish Museum of Games in Tampere, attracted national media attention. This paper aims at reconstructing and contextualizing these events while at the same time reflecting on the cultural practices of maintenance and repair at public and private memory institutions in Finland, and how the case of Promille has affected the local heritage community. The study contributes to the theoretical discussions around the heritagization of games and revisits Alois Riegl’s concept of unintentional monuments in relation to game cultures.