Electronic and computer games: The history of an interactive medium

Screen

Volumn 29, Issue 2, 1988, Pages 52-73

  Haddon, Leslie ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0009174973     PISSN: 00369543     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/screen/29.2.52     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Keynote Report, Records and Tapes, London,1986, p 1 and Keynote Report, llomecomputer Software, London, 1985, p 11.
2. Mel Coucher, ‘SoftwareApocalypse - Now’, Computer Trade Weekly, December 15 1986, p 8.
3. John Condry and Douglas Keith, ‘Educational and Recreational Uses of Computer Technology: Computer Instruction and Video Games, Youth andSociety, vol 15 no 1, p 103, September 1983, pp 87-111.
4. Jon Bing, ‘The Electronic Games Gambit, Impact of Science on Society, vol 37 no 4, October- December 1982, p 36.
5. Peter Nulty, ‘Why the Craze Won’t Quit, Fortune, November 15 1982, p 114.
6. Gillian Skirrow, ‘Hellivision: An Analysis of Video Games, in Colin MacCabe (ed), High Theory/Low Culture: Analysing Popular Television and Film, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1986, pp 115-42.
7. This piece contains by far the most sophisticated analysis of games as texts currently published.
8. An example of a recent citing of games as masculine texts is
9. Margaret Gallagher, ‘Redefining the Communications Revolution, in Helen Baehr and Gillian Dyer (eds), Boxed In: Women and Television, London, Pandora Press, 1937, p 25. Qualitative and quantitative research, including my own, supports the view of far more male interest in games. However, there is also a degree of less visible female interest.This section is mainly based on: Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Revolution, Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1984;
10. Stewart Brand, ‘Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums, Rolling Stone, December 7 1972; and Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, Fire in the Valley: the Making of the Personal Computeri Berkeley, Osborne/McGraw- Hill, 1984.
11. Stewart Brand, ‘Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums, Rolling Stone, p34.Cited in
12. Stewart Brand, ‘Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums, Rolling Stone, p 35.
13. Gillian Skirrow, ‘Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums, Rolling Stone, provides a history of the adventure genrt which traces its features back to previous texts.
14. Interview from the author’s research.For the history of arcade developments see Tekla Perry and others, ‘Video Games: the Electronic Big Bang’, IEEE Spectrum, vol 19 no 12, December 1982, pp 20-33;
15. Craig Kubey, The Winners Book of Video Games, London, W H Allen, 1982;
16. John Price, ‘Social Science Research on Video Games’, Journal of Popular Culture, vol 18, no 4, Spring 1985, pp 111-125;
17. Peter Bernstein, ‘Atari and the Video Games Explosion, Fortune, vol 104 no 2, July 1981, pp 40-46;
18. Judith Larsen and Everett Rogers, Silicon Valley Fever: Growth of High Technology Culture, London, Unwin, 1984;
19. Sidney KapIan, ‘The Image of Amusement Arcades and the Differences in Male and Female Video Game Playing’, Journal of Popular Culture, 1983, pp 93-98;
20. Sue Smith, “Coin Detected in Pocket”Videogames as Icons’, in C Geist and S Nachbar (eds), The Popular Culture Reader, Bowling Green, Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1983, pp 145-151;
21. Aaron Latham, ‘Videogames Star Wars’, New York Times Magazine, October 25 1981, pp 100-112.
22. Eric Egli and Lawrence Meyers, ‘The Role of Video Game Playing in Adolescent Life: Is there Reason to be Concerned?’, Bulletinof the Psychonomic Society, vol 22 no 4, 1984, p 309.
23. See Terri Toles, ‘Video games and American Military Ideology', in Vincent Mosco and janet Wasko (eds), The CriticalCommunications Review, vol III: Popular Culture and Media Events, Norwood, Ablex, 1965, pp 207-223;
24. Nancy Needham, ‘Thirty Billion Quarters Can’t Be Wrong: Or Can They? A Look at the Impact of Video Games on American Youth’, Today's Education, 1982-3 Annual, 1983, pp 52-55;
25. John Price, Thirty Billion Quarters Can’t Be Wrong: Or Can They? A Look at the Impact of Video Games on American Youth, pp 111-125;
26. Eric Egli and Lawrence Meyers Thirty Billion Quarters Can’t Be Wrong: Or Can They? A Look at the Impact of Video Games on American Youth, pp 30- 312;
27. EL News, ‘AntiVideo Game Movement Gatherinj Momentum’, Electronic Learning, vol 1 no 3, 1982
28. Neil Frude, The Intimate Machine: Close Encounters with New Computers, London, Century, 1983, p 68.
29. This same concern has carried over into writing from an overtly socialist perspective, as in Tony Solomonides and Les Levidow, Compulsive Technology: Computers as Culture, London, Free Association Books, p 6.
30. Discussed in Sherry Turkle, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, London, Granada, 1984.
31. Tom Panelas, ‘Adolescents and Video Games: Consumption of Leisure and the Social Construction of the Peer Group’, Youth and Society vol 15 no 1, September 1983, pp 5165.
32. Desmond Ellis, ‘Video Arcades, Youth and Trouble’, Youth and Society vol 16 no 1, September 1984, pp 47-8.
33. There seems to be little public market research available on arcades. These figures are derived from a compilation of small scale observational studies.Arguably, the other concern about antisocial behaviour and isolation may reflect a general reservation about male overinvolvement with ‘things’, and especially with technology.
34. In the sense that all cultural commodities can be treated as texts. See Richard Johnson, ‘The Story So Far: and Further Transformations?’, in David Putner (ed), An Introduction to Contemporary Cultural Studies, London, Longman, pp 227313.
35. Edward T rapanski, Special When Lit: A I 'isual IIistory of the Pinball, New York, Dolphin, 1979.
36. An example of this type of analysis would be Nancy Kreinberg and Elizabeth Stage, 'EQUALS in Computer Technology', in Jan Zimmerman (ed), The Technological Woman: Interfacing with Tomorrow, New York, Praeger, 1983, p 255.
37. Nancy Needham, The Technological Woman: Interfacing with Tomorrow, p 54.
38. Terri Toles, The Technological Woman: Interfacing with Tomorrow, p 214.
39. Tekla Perry and others, p 26; John Price, p 122.
40. D Talbot, ‘Pac-Man Kills Kids: Video Horrors’, Mother ' Jones, April, 1983. The game was withdrawn after a campaign by Women Against Pornography.
41. P. Perry and others estimated that there were about 100 video game designers in the US when they were writing. About 4 or 5 of these were women, mostly designing home video games. Tekla Perry others estimated that there were about 100 video game designers in the US when they were writing. About 4 or 5 of these were women, mostly designing home video games, pp 28-9.
42. Sue Smith, others estimated that there were about 100 video game designers in the US when they were writing. About 4 or 5 of these were women, mostly designing home video games, p 150.
43. Tekla Perry others estimated that there were about 100 video game designers in the US when they were writing. About 4 or 5 of these were women, mostly designing home video games, p 3
44. Based on the author's interviews with boys and girls and observation of a London boys’ computer club.
45. For the history of home video games developments, see Ralph Baer, ‘Television Games: Their Past, Present, and Future’, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics vol CE-23 no 4, November 1979, pp 496-504;
46. M Jones, ‘Video games as Psychological Tests’, Simulations and Games, vol 15 no 2, June 1984, pp 133-134;
47. Thomas Murrey, ‘The Boom in Video Games’, Dun's Review vol 108 no 3, September 1976, pp 54-55; Screen Digest, 'Video games’, July 1977, pp 127-9; Stephan Bristow
48. The History of Video Games’, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, February 1977, pp 58-68;
49. Tekla Perry and others, ‘Design Case History: The Atari Video Computer System’, IEEE Spectrum, March 1983, pp 45-51;
50. Peter Nulty, ‘Design Case History: The Atari Video Computer System’, IEEE Spectrum, pp 114-124.
51. Ralph Baer, ‘Design Case History: The Atari Video Computer System’, IEEE Spectrum, p 496.
52. Beverly Knudsen,‘“Happy Days are Here Again”: For Video Games’, Audio Video International, December 1977, p 42. This US trade journal carried regular articles where hardware manufacturers expressed such hopes.
53. Author interview with Atari management in Britain.The British history of the micro is derived from the author’s Ph D thesis, the research for which entailed interviews with a variety of producers. See Leslie Haddon, ‘Home Computers: the Making of a ConsumerElectronic, Science as Culture no 2, 1987.On Sinclair, see Ian Adamson and Richard Kennedy, Sinclair and the ‘Sunrise Technology: the Deconstruction of a Myth, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1986.
54. Although not strictly necessary for game- playing, joysticks were the most common peripheral bought for micros.This view of the burst bubble has been accepted in what are otherwise more critical analyses.
55. Pam Linn, ‘Microcomputers in Education’, in Tony Solomonides and Les Levidow (eds), This view of the burst bubble has been accepted in what are otherwise more critical analyses, p 58.
56. Other research on usage of micros includes alongitudinal study at the Centre for Mass Communications Research in Leicester University, and David Skinner’s current Ph D research at Brunei University. A new project on the use of Information Technology in the home is now starting at Brunei under the direction of Roger Silverstone.Author interview with Commodore’s advertising agency account manager.
57. Mel Coucher, A new project on the use of Information Technology in the home is now starting at Brunei under the direction of Roger Silverstone.Author interview with Commodore’s advertising agency account manager, 1986, P 8.