Historic game developer and River Raid creator Carol Shaw has donated her personal collection of game dev artifacts to The Strong museum for display as part of its Women in Games initiative.
Her contribution to the exhibit includes a number of printed source code pages, console games, design sketches, and reference materials related to the games she developed for Atari and Activision in the early years of video game
Shaw herself entered the game development world as a designer and programmer in the late 1970s and is largely regarded as the first woman to do so. Her personal collection, now in the possession of The Strong museum, includes material from her first project, the unreleased game Polo, as well as multiple versions of her best selling game River Raid.
Additionally, the collection includes a number of product packages, promotional materials, source code, design documents, and reference materials for as many as 11 games she worked on during the 1970s and 1980s.
“In many ways, Shaw helped pave the way for the female game designers that came after her, and we’re proud to preserve this collection of materials that document her pathbreaking work,” said the initiative’s curator Shannon Symonds. “This wealth of materials provides great insight into the trailblazing work of one of the first women to design and program video games. They’re an invaluable resource to scholars, historians, gaming enthusiasts, and others wanting to examine the early video game industry.”
The Women in Games exhibit is set to open in September 2018. More information on both the exhibit and the initiative itself can be found on The Strong’s website.