Practical Archaeogaming

As a sequel to Archaeogaming: an Introduction to Archaeology in and of Video Games, the author focuses on the practical and applied side of the discipline, collecting recent digital fieldwork together in one place for the first time to share new methods in treating interactive digital built environments as sites for archaeological investigation. Fully executed examples of practical and applied archaeogaming include the necessity of a rapid archaeology of digital built environments, the creation of a Harris matrix for software stratigraphy, the ethnographic work behind a human civilization trapped in an unstable digital landscape, how to conduct photogrammetry and GIS mapping in procedurally generated space, and how to transform digital artifacts into printed three-dimensional objects. Additionally, the results of the 2014 Atari excavation in Alamogordo, New Mexico are summarized for the first time.

"?it really fleshes out what ?archaeogaming? looks like in its multiple and varied incarnations. In that respect, it dovetails well with the author?s previous book Archaeogaming which was more prescriptive about what archaeogaming could or should be. In that respect, it?s rare and interesting (and valuable!) to see a field get defined and then realized, and (with certain caveats) I could see the two volumes packing a one-two punch employed in classrooms or in graduate programs, providing focus and direction for aspiring archaeologists interested in this open field somewhere between digital archaeology and media archaeology.? ? Shawn Graham, Carleton University