The Challenges of Born-Digital Fiction: Editions, Translations, and Emulations: The Multimedia Accompaniment to the Print Edition

Versions & Editions of Penelope

To date, there are six versions and editions of Judy Malloy's its name is Penelope. As such, it is one of the most accessible of the early works of pre-web hypertexts published by Eastgate Systems, Inc. Most of the preservation efforts have been undertaken by the author herself. The importance of her artistic contributions is evident by the many influential and diverse institutions that collect her work, such as the David M. Rubenstein's Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Stanford Library. Additionally, ELO's The NEXT holds both physical and digital copies of this work.

Version 1.0: The 1989 Exhibition Edition

This edition was created in 1989 with Malloy's own generative hypertext authoring system, Narrabase II, in BASIC on a 3.5-inch floppy disk

Version 2.0: The Narrabase Press Edition

Published in 1990, this edition is an extensive revision of the 1989 Exhibition Edition and features a new cover and the edited text. It was released on a 5.25-inch floppy disk, self-published via Narrabase Press, and distributed by Art Com Software. The artist reports that she may have produced copies on 3.5-inch floppy disks for later requests though none can be yet found

Version 3.0: The 1993 Eastgate Editions for Macintosh Computers—the Vinyl and Cardboard Folio Editions

This edition, copyrighted in 1992 but published in 1993, is a retooling by Mark Bernstein of Version 2.0 from the original BASIC program into the Storyspace aesthetic. Published on 3.5-inch floppy disk for both Mac and PC, it was first packaged in a dark blue vinyl folio but soon re-released in the cardboard folio that the company shifted to that same year

Version 4.0 The 1993 Eastgate Edition for Windows

This edition was released after the 1993 Macintosh Edition and also published on 3.5-inch floppy disk

Version 5.0: The 1998 CD-ROM Edition

Published on CD-ROM in 1998 with no changes from the original 1993 Macintosh Edition, this version does not appear on the Eastgate Systems, Inc. website

Version 6.0: The Scholar's Edition

Created under the auspices of the Critical Code Studies Working Group 2016 from Jan 18 to Feb 14, 2016, this edition is a DOSBox emulation of Version 3.0 and includes new text and translations of Homer's Odyssey by the artist

A special note: An iPad version had been in development since 2012 by Eastgate Systems, Inc. Grigar had the opportunity to read a Beta version of it at the ELO conference in Bergen, Norway in 2015. It was designed with the same aesthetic as Version 3.0 but used the affordance of mobile touch technology for its functionality. To date, it has not been completed.

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