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The Sumerian Game: The Most Important Video Game You've Never Heard Of

Willaert, Kate. 2019. “The Sumerian Game: The Most Important Video Game You've Never Heard Of.” A Critical Hit!

Cite as
Willaert 2019
Original
https://www.acriticalhit.com/sumerian-game-most-important-video-game-youve-never-heard/
sha256
d3e9195d6939eb89ab095b14e8cf1f02e2833fcf585f9ecf0a832de9408cbfe3
Archived
https://web.archive.org/web/20261017075425/https://www.acriticalhit.com/sumerian-game-most-important-video-game-youve-never-heard/
Accessed
2026-10-20
Licence
all rights reserved
Credit
Kate Willaert's research, crediting Devin Monnens, Dale Geddes, Tobias Winnerling, Frank Cifaldi, and correspondence with Doug Dyment and David H. Ahl.
Notes
Includes a "2021 Update" on the DECUS listing of The Sumer Game. Dyment's quoted words are filed separately as dyment-2019-interview.

Cited on

Claims (5)

Dyment's DECUS listing already spells the steward's name HAMURABI, with one m.2021 UpdateCode
Dyment's steward opens each year with "I BEG TO REPORT", and The Sumerian Game reported spoiled grain with "Sir: I am sorry to report".2021 UpdateCode
Kate Willaert reports that the game was printed as King of Sumeria in DEC's Focal-8 Demonstration Programs in July 1970, and that Dyment wrote a much more compact revision a year or so after the DECUS version.2021 UpdateWeb
Hamurabi descends from The Sumerian Game through Dyment's FOCAL Sumer Game, which Ahl converted to BASIC, and which Dyment based on a description of The Sumerian Game.2021 UpdatePublisher
Kate Willaert writes that The Sumerian Game "wasn't the first resource management game for computers" but was the first designed for elementary school students.Web