"The [NES] Is Not Gonna Go On Forever" - Forget GDC 2026, Take A Trip Back In Time With Recordings From CGDC 1989 1
Image: Zion Grassl / Time Extension

The dust has only just settled on the 2026 edition of the Game Developers Conference, but The Video Game History Foundation is giving us the chance to blissfully drift back in time to the third such instalment of the (Computer) Games Developer Conference, recorded on audio tape and now finally preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Held in May 1989 at the Sunnyvale Hilton Hotel and featuring discussions with industry legends such as Danielle Bunten Berry, Bing Gordon, Chris Crawford, Richard Garriott, Steve Cartwright, Noah Falstein, Trip Hawkins, and Joe Miller, CGDC 1989's 300-person turnout might sound somewhat inconsequential by modern standards, but it's fair to say that some of the most important people in games were there, and the topics of the day are endlessly fascinating.

Talks were held on the "Golden Days" of home computer gaming (even in 1989, nostalgia was a thing), the perils of working with movie licenses, the media's relationship with the video game industry and – in an especially prophetic discussion, Nintendo's seemingly draconian business practices with its NES console, highlighted by the one and only Trip Hawkins – who is heard to utter that "the [NES] is not gonna go on forever." Well, the NES might not, Trip, but Nintendo has certainly stuck around.

The VGHF has only been able to catalogue this amazing event with the cooperation of the Department of Special Collections at Stanford University Libraries, which shared a copy of the CGDC 1989 program from the Steve Meretzky papers.

It's sadly not the complete audio story; two talks ('Strategy Games' with Roger Keating and Ian Trout, and 'Aristotle for Nerds', with Brenda Laurel) don't seem to have been recorded. Also, 22 roundtables took place during the event, which also don't seem to have been committed to audio tape.

Even so, this represents a remarkable way to reconnect with an industry that, back in 1989, was still evolving into what we know today.

[source gamehistory.org]