Embracer Games Archive

We’re heading to Gamescom!
The Embracer Games Archive will be in Cologne for Gamescom, ready to explore, connect, and share our passion for games.
 
If you’d like to meet us, share ideas, or discuss potential collaborations, send us an email or drop us a message here, we’d love to connect!

Jonathan Rozenkrantz (middle), lecturer in Film Studies at Lund University, spent a week at the archive exploring classic cinematic games—hands-on research for his project on film’s influence on video games. We also had a visit from Karlstad University doing some research.

This week, Embracer Games Archive is at SpelAlmedalen with other organisations to promote gaming culture in Sweden. We are showcasing an exhibition proposing what could be included in a Swedish gaming culture canon. Join us to explore games as an industry, culture, and research field.

Today we had a visit from some of our collaborators at Karlstad University. We’ve started preparing a small exhibition that will be part of the international Geomedia conference held at the university later this year.

Yesterday we welcomed a Swedish research network focused on speculative fiction. With members exploring sci-fi and fantasy across media—including video games—we hope the archive can be a helpful resource for their work!

A couple of photos from the entrance room, where we keep many of the game systems used to play the games stored in the archive.

Today, we had the pleasure of diving into a box of classic Game & Watch games. These gems, with their simple yet addictive gameplay, have truly stood the test of time. They're still fun to play and represent an important part of gaming history.

Here’s our Chief Archivist Natalia, preparing a small exhibition featuring games that could be part of a proposed Swedish cultural canon.

Unfortunately, we were unable to film any interviews. During our next visit to the archive, we will try to arrange an interview with the visitor.

Centipede for the Atari 7800.
We love the pun on the back of the box: "This game's got bugs!" 🐛
This time, that’s a good thing. 😄

Here are some pictures of the Atari tables we set up during last week’s visit from Atari CEO Wade Rosen.

YouTube video by Embracer Games Archive A Look Into Our Atari Collection – Plus Recent Additions to the Archive

New video! A Look Into Our Atari Collection – Plus Recent Additions to the Archive

youtu.be/uyMcs1DyQ4E

Enjoy homages to every major video game controller across the medium's history, delivered through a blend of insightful retrospectives, incisive personal essays and photography of peripherals lost to time, thanks to our friends at @embracergamesarchive.com.

harpercollins.co.uk/products/joy...

We had the pleasure of welcoming Wade Rosen, CEO of Atari, to the archive today. A great visit with interesting conversations — and potential ways to support each other in preserving gaming culture.

We had a visit from local librarians here in Värmland, where the archive is based. They’re exploring new ways to raise awareness that games—just like books—can also be borrowed from libraries.

New arrival at the archive: the original Grand Theft Auto. An influential game that started it all. Hard to believe GTA VI is coming later this year.

We received a fantastic donation to the archive this week — an Apple Lisa, one of Apple’s first computers. It was extremely expensive at the time and was named after Steve Jobs’ daughter, Lisa. Now, of course, we’ll need to track down some games for it too!

YouTube video by Embracer Games Archive Internship Insights: Anton & Iza at the Game Archive

New video from the Game Archive! We’ve had two archive students with us for their internship—let’s hear what they’ve discovered during their time here.

youtu.be/vbyxnyPVWkw

Hello. No, we don’t have it.

We’ve started testing a large-scale sorting process for the archive’s collection. First up: Xbox.
One aisle is now dedicated to most of the Xbox-related items we’ve gathered so far

We recently had the pleasure of hosting guests from France who are planning Odyssée—a new museum dedicated to video games and pop culture near Paris. It was a rewarding day of sharing knowledge and inspiration!

Even if a game shares the same title, it can sometimes be a completely different experience.
A example of this is Resident Evil 2 for the handheld system GAME . com—quite different from the version you might be familiar with.

Here are the latest games that have arrived at the archive! Do you have any special memories of any of these games? Feel free to share!

If you’re conducting research on video game history and require access to physical game collections, our archive may be a valuable resource. Don’t hesitate to contact us.

Sega Divers 2000 CX-1 is a truly unique piece. It’s a CRT monitor combined with a Dreamcast, designed to resemble Sonic’s head, and it also has glowing lights!

Kenji Matsubara, CEO of SNK, recently visited the archive. As a veteran of the games industry, it was an honor to have him here. He couldn’t stop smiling as he reminisced about the many games he has been part of over the years.

One of the strangest items in our archive is the Pocket Sonar for Game Boy—a real sonar to locate fish while fishing! It even has a minigame to play while waiting for a bite. Check out Gaming Historian’s video for a full review!

www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

People often ask if we get to play all the games in the archive. While we can’t play them all, we do make time to try out some of the new arrivals! Today, we fired up a few freshly added titles for the Neo Geo AES!

YouTube video by Embracer Games Archive We Answer Your Most Common Questions!

We receive a lot of questions about the work we do at the game archive, and it’s great to see so much interest. In this video, we’ve gathered and answered some of the most common questions we get.
youtu.be/WWE2ubDbOl4

Hello! The Archive is a valuable resource that promotes gaming culture, history, and the industry. We prioritize requests that support these goals. Therefore, visits should primarily have a purpose.