ROMchip is where the history of games is taken seriously.

ROMchip provides an online, open access, hybrid audience venue for advancing the historical study of games, whether analog or digital, sport or play, tabletop or online.

For ROMchip’s first five operating years, we were lucky to be supported by some of our editors' home universities. However, as administrative priorities change, university support is increasingly unreliable. Universities also have many spending limitations, making it hard to use our funds in the ways we think are most effective.

This is why we are coming to you. December 2023 marked our final semester of university-sponsored funding. Since then, we've proven we can find a sustainable future with the support of the very same people who read our journal and love our mission. Our first fundraisers raised 97% (2023) and 95% (2024) of our 3rd Tier, $10K goal. Can we finally smash $10K? Let's find out. 

Our funding tiers reflect the scalable goals we have at ROMchip.

TIER 1: $7,000

Our Tier 1 goal of $7000 allows us to keep doing what we do best: soliciting, reviewing, editing, and publishing the best original historical content we can find. This money covers all of our standard operating expenses: our incredible, hardworking copy editor, Mary💐; our super talented web dev, Jeff 💻; and all our platform fees, business, compliance, and administrative costs. It also helps us stash away a little money for rainy days and website improvements.

TIER 2: $8500

Our Tier 2 goal of $8500 covers all of our basic expenses while helping us expand who can publish in ​ROMchip. Once we break Tier 1, we can support another year of our super popular "ROMchip Presents" Twitch Talks, where we host researchers actively writing and publishing game history (check out some of last year's on our YouTube!). We'll also start re-filling the ROMchip Freelancer Fund: a pool of money we can use to pay professional freelancers (and not just academics) to write and translate for us. 

TIER 3: $10,000

Our Tier 3 goal of $10,000 covers all of our basic expenses and allows us to stretch farther than ever before. We’ll be able to top off the ROMchip Freelancer Fund, host our public Twitch talks, and...who knows what else? We've dreamed of travel grants, article awards, even a ROMchip conference. More money means more possibilities--so help us keep dreaming bigger!

LOST LEVELS...

Do more tiers await? Are there secrets yet to be found? The faster we meet our Tier 1 goal, the sooner you will find out!