Collecting, Preserving, and Interpreting the History of Electronic Games - An Interview with Jon-Paul C. Dyson

Oct 15, 2026

Interview with Jon-Paul C. Dyson, vice president for exhibits and director of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games at The Strong. Dyson traces his early experiences playing iconic games and programming on school and home computers, then explains how his academic path led him into museum work. He describes how The Strong expanded from limited electronic holdings to systematic collecting, preservation, and interpretation of video games, and how this approach connects video game history to the broader history of play and society.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Interview with Jon-Paul C. Dyson

Origins of Dyson’s Video Game Experience

From Playing to Collecting and Studying

The Strong’s Mission and Video Game Collections

How Broader Play History Shapes Interpretation

Collecting, Preserving, and Interpreting the History of Electronic Games An Interview with Jon-Paul C. Dyson Jon-Paul C. Dyson is vice president for exhibits and director of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) at The Strong. Trained as a cultural and intellectual historian, he joined The Strong in 1998 and has worked on and supervised the development of dozens of exhibits on play and video games. He initiated the museum’s efforts to collect, preserve, and interpret video games in 2006, and today The Strong’s collections are the most comprehensive in the world. He writes frequently on video games and play for both scholarly and general audiences. This interview exploreshow The Strong has developed its video game collections, what some of the pressing issues are in preserving those materials, and some possible directions that video game scholarship will take in the coming years. Key words: collecting electronic games; electronic game history; electronic game preservation; International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG); video games American Journal of Play: Let’s start with your personal experiences. Did you play video games growing up? Jon-Paul Dyson: Definitely. I was among the first generation of kids to have real access to video games. I remember playing a version of Pong in the 1970s and then some arcade games like Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and myall-time favorite Galaga. But for me, my world opened up when I got access to computers at school and at home in the early 1980s. My first exposure to computer games came when my older brother brought home printed sheets of papers from a teletype printer. For those too young to remember, a teletype printer was a device you used to interact with the computer by inputting commands and reading responses on large spools of paper—it 1 American Journal of Play, volume 10, number 1 © The Strong Contact [Jon-Paul Dyson at jpdyson@museumofplay.org](Jon-Paul Dyson at jpdyson@museumofplay.org) was essentially a giant, interactive typewriter. You typed your commands onto these large spools of paper, and the computer would print out its responses. My brother had been playing Zork, a text-based adventure game in which players explored a magical world by reading descriptions of rooms and entering short written commands like “get sword” or “climb tree.” He would bring home printouts of his adventure, and I would give unsolicited advice about what he should do next. I’m sure he ignored my advice, but the experience allowed me to play vicariously, to participate in computer play. AJP: Did you have an opportunity to play with computers more directly? Dyson: Yes. In middle school, I gained access to computers and learned to program games. My parents then bought an Osborne computer for our home (it was billed as a “portable” computer, but it was the size of a small suitcase) . It allowed me to play and program more games, and when my parents purchased an Apple IIe, I gained access to hundreds more games. I was hooked, and I have been playing ever since. AJP: So how did you move from playing video games to collecting them and studying them? Dyson: Well, for one thing, I never stopped playing them. I also enjoyed creating them and went to college to be a computer science major. However, along the way, I switched to history and got a PhD in American History with an emphasis on intellectual and cultural history and the history of science. In 1998 I began working at The Strong. In 2003 the museum shifted its mission to explore the history and impact of play (for a good overview of this see the interview with G. Rollie Adams in the Winter 2013 issue of the American Journal of Play. As the museum considered how best to collect, preserve, and interpret the history of play, the staff realized that, although video games were transforming the way people play, learn, and relate to each other, the museum’s collections were woefully i

FAQs

Who is Jon-Paul C. Dyson and what role does he have at The Strong?

Jon-Paul C. Dyson is vice president for exhibits and director of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) at The Strong.

How did Dyson’s early life influence his later work with video games?

He describes growing up with early video games, later gaining direct access to computers, learning to program games, and continuing to play over time.

Why did The Strong expand its efforts to collect, preserve, and interpret video games?

Staff recognized that while video games were transforming play and learning, the museum’s collections were inadequate for electronic games, so the museum launched a dedicated effort to contextualize video games within broader play.

Oct 15, 2026

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