Creating Worlds

Object
Courtesy Cave Research Foundation

Text commands, hand-drawn maps and borrowed access to mainframes brought early game worlds to life. Built on clunky machines and shared across primitive networks, they were shaped by people eager to explore a new technology. From dungeon crawls to early online chatrooms, these creations weren’t just technical feats – they were acts of world-building. Dreamers, designers and players pushed the limits of what games and computers could do, glimpsing a future where digital spaces might feel as real as the world outside.

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

Collection

Not in ACMI's collection

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

198405

Object Types

Group

Collected

20168 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/125359--creating-worlds/ |title=Creating Worlds |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=24 November 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}