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The History of Videogame Genres
TobyToadstool writes "Over the last few months, CNET have been quietly running a series of free video documentaries that take a look back at the history of different videogame genres. The Space Bubble show has covered everything from the history of Platformers to the origins of the Beat em up. The gaming sections are interspersed with other tech-related information, but almost every show covers one of the major genres. There's loads of footage from ancient arcade machines, and bizarre trivia, like the fact that some schools are using the Dance Dance Revolution videogame in place of traditional physical education. It's presented by an eccentric British guy floating in a little bubbleship in Space — odd but good."
I can't pull up any links related to games at work, but GameSutra has an incredible in-depth history of the RPG genre in a 3 part series. It is a great read.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I have been trying to get back the source code to a game made 9 years ago but its been a horribly difficult. Games are made and there is no attempt to preserve them for the future.
You can still watch a film/movie/moving picture made 50 years ago but with games you can't play a game made as recently as 5 years ago!!
It is the publishers/developers fault and they could do a lot more to help the situation such as putting out the source code to that game to ensure that its consumers can still play in the future when they're company doesn't exist any more. Instead we have 100's of games which the developers and publishers are not making money on any more which can not be played on today's hardware.
ID software leads the way in this respect and you can still play all their old games.
Until that happens any history on games where I can't actually play the game in question is bullshit. It is the equivalent of a Wikipedia entry describing a film which will never capture the emotion of the media in question.