Remembering ‘Amnesia’—now on view in Hanke Gallery—revisits a 1986 video game novel

The exhibit “Remembering ‘Amnesia’: Rebooting the First Computerized Novel,” curated by Claire Fox, software preservation and emulation librarian at Yale Library, invites visitors to step into the world of the emerging video game culture of the 1980s.

In response to a library patron’s request, Fox and Born-Digital Specialist Alice Prael worked to provide access to the interactive, text-based game “Amnesia” on the now obsolete Commodore 64 computer. To run the game, they collaborated with Senior Software Preservation and Emulation Technologist Ethan Gates and with the Emulation-as-a-Service Infrastructure program (EaaSI, pronounced “easy”), an international effort to increase access to collections dependent on legacy software.

Science fiction author and poet Thomas M. Disch—whose papers are in the library’s collection and form the basis for the exhibit—began to write the script for “Amnesia” before he even owned a computer. The notebooks, printouts, manuscripts, and game packaging on display tell the story of the game’s evolution. The parallel story is of the library staff’s creative and careful efforts to preserve the game for researchers and enthusiasts.

Visitors to the exhibit can experience “Amnesia” in a close recreation of how players would have interacted with the game when it was published in 1986. There are two computer stations in Sterling Library and one in Bass Library, with accompanying instructions and tips to help 21st-century players—more familiar with our own everyday computing experiences—progress through the game.

Fox will give a curator’s talk at the opening reception for “Remembering Amnesia” on Oct. 1 at 4:30 p.m. in Sterling Memorial Library. She will also participate in an interview and Q&A session in a Monday at Beinecke Zoom event on Oct. 14 at 4 p.m.

Read more about the exhibit in Yale News.

—Deborah Cannarella

Photos by Dan Renzetti