Play With History, Help Rhizome Bring Back Chop Suey

by Corinna Kirsch on December 3, 2014 · 3 comments Fundraiser

Archive history: give to Rhizome's Chop Suey Kickstarter.

Archive history: give to Rhizome’s Chop Suey Kickstarter.

It’s hard to play the CD-Rom games of our youth. Even some of the most well-known ones have suffered the fate of many commercial releases: here for a season, then gone the next. Wanting them back—it’s not just a matter of needing some keyboard nostalgia; it’s about historicizing gaming.

So thank you, Rhizome, for planning an exhibition into gaming’s foggy past. Part one: they’re hosting a Kickstarter to bring back Chop Suey—and two other games designed with the help of Theresa Duncan, Smarty (1996) and Zero Zero (1997)—to play in an online exhibition about feminist gaming. Part two: Duncan’s games will be free (hooray), and available on any modern browser via emulation.

This trio is a more than worthy addition to Rhizome’s digital archive. At the time of its release, Chop Suey received an incredible amount of praise. When the games-for-girls market was particularly “pink,” Chop Suey’s whimsical interactive story about two Midwestern girls who go on a series of dreamy, un-frilly animated adventures seemed groundbreaking. Keep in mind that Chop Suey’s main competitors were games like Barbie Makeover, which I did in fact own.

So let’s give to the future. There might always be a world where you can buy a first-edition Chop Suey on eBay. But why turn history into a collectible antique when there’s a possibility of adding it to a living archive like Rhizome’s?

{ 3 comments }

J Smith December 12, 2014 at 12:44 pm

Wasn’t the person who made that game a drug addict who killed her self because thought the Cia was after her

Paddy Johnson December 12, 2014 at 12:45 pm

Yup

J Smith December 13, 2014 at 6:05 pm

I thought that name sounded familiar i couldn’t remember if that was her or some on else thanks for answering my question

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