OT: Coolest collection on (UM) campus

http://alumnus.alumni.umich.edu/coolest-collection-campus/

Just saw this in the alumni e-newsletter. Apparently, in the basement of the Duderstadt Center, there is a video game library collection (the Computer & Video Game Archive, or CVGA) that is open for anyone to come and play. 

That's pretty cool, man. And a few select quotes...

[T]he CVGA boasts nearly 8,000 video games that can be played—for free—on more than 60 consoles, from the classic Atari 2600 to the motion-sensing Xbox Kinect. Other video game archives have sprung up, notably at Stanford University and the Library of Congress, but they either are not as comprehensive or they don’t allow the public to play the games.

While Carter gets about $13,000 a year to acquire new materials, mostly the latest issues and systems, much of the CVGA’s growth has come from donors clearing out their garages of ancient e-junk. That’s how Carter says he landed such obscure systems as the short-lived, early-1980s cult favorite Vectrex and the once-hot-in-Japan GameBoy knockoff WonderSwan. ... Currently, he has placed a Namco Pac-Man’s Arcade Party Cocktail Game Cabinet, valued at around $3,000, on the U-M Library’s online wish list, which is published for donors looking for a way to contribute.

As fun as the CVGA is, it serves many academic purposes. Engineering classes come by for lessons on programming and game design, but just as often it’s a variety of humanities classes that derive research value. In the fall 2018 semester alone, according to the CVGA site, the archive will factor into the syllabi of at least nine courses, including classes in comparative literature (zombie fiction), education (how video games aid learning), and screen arts and culture (adaptations of films to other media).