Still Loading #363: ROMChip - A Journal of Game Histories w/ Laine Nooney

·1 hr 4 min·5 clips

Josh Koval introduces ROM Chip, a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated solely to video game history.

The episode begins with host Josh Koval introducing the guest, Laine Nooney, managing editor of ROM Chip, a journal focused on video game histories. Nooney shares her personal gaming background, starting with a Tandy 1000 in the late 1980s and playing Sierra games like King's Quest. She explains that ROM Chip was founded about eight or nine years ago to provide a centralized, peer-reviewed venue for game history scholarship, which was previously lacking. The journal publishes three types of content: peer-reviewed articles (around 10,000 words), interviews and oral histories, and materials essays (3,000-5,000 words) that focus on specific objects or themes. Nooney highlights a materials essay about a Brazilian sex game called 'Cassetta Cassetta and Planeta Night Animal,' which explores post-dictatorship politics and censorship in Brazil, illustrating how game history connects to larger societal issues. She describes the peer-review process, where submissions are sent to an editorial board of experts, though finding reviewers for niche topics like ancient Greek games can be challenging. Nooney discusses the legitimacy of game history as a field, noting that ROM Chip helps accelerate scholarship by providing a dedicated platform, but popular perceptions often remain juvenile due to superficial online content. She emphasizes ROM Chip's independence from for-profit academic publishers, using an open-access platform and crowdfunding via annual Twitch streams to maintain control and keep content free. The journal also runs a freelancer fund to pay non-academic contributors, challenging the norm of unpaid work in academic publishing. Nooney mentions ROM Chip's YouTube channel, which hosts public talks by scholars to make game history more approachable. The episode concludes with lighthearted questions, including one about a dish named after Nooney, and details on where to find her work and support ROM Chip.

As heard by us

A grounded look at the editorial work behind a journal of game histories.

Still Loading frames Rom Chip as more than a journal of game histories: it becomes a look at how that kind of scholarship is shaped before publication.

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Why you'd press play

Press play when you want to follow the people keeping game history from becoming a pile of unreviewed homework.

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