Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer SystemMIT Press, 2009年1月9日 - 192 頁 A study of the relationship between platform and creative expression in the Atari VCS, the gaming system for popular games like Pac-Man and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The Atari Video Computer System dominated the home video game market so completely that “Atari” became the generic term for a video game console. The Atari VCS was affordable and offered the flexibility of changeable cartridges. Nearly a thousand of these were created, the most significant of which established new techniques, mechanics, and even entire genres. This book offers a detailed and accessible study of this influential video game console from both computational and cultural perspectives. Studies of digital media have rarely investigated platforms—the systems underlying computing. This book, the first in a series of Platform Studies, does so, developing a critical approach that examines the relationship between platforms and creative expression. Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost discuss the Atari VCS itself and examine in detail six game cartridges: Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall!, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. They describe the technical constraints and affordances of the system and track developments in programming, gameplay, interface, and aesthetics. Adventure, for example, was the first game to represent a virtual space larger than the screen (anticipating the boundless virtual spaces of such later games as World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto), by allowing the player to walk off one side into another space; and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was an early instance of interaction between media properties and video games. Montfort and Bogost show that the Atari VCS—often considered merely a retro fetish object—is an essential part of the history of video games. |
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第 1 到 5 筆結果,共 86 筆
第 5 頁
... play against a person and to play somewhat like a person , rather than just serving as the playing field and referee , wasn't a given in the early days of gaming . Early on , most games were either two - player , like Pong and Spacewar ...
... play against a person and to play somewhat like a person , rather than just serving as the playing field and referee , wasn't a given in the early days of gaming . Early on , most games were either two - player , like Pong and Spacewar ...
第 6 頁
... played in bars , lounges , and arcades . The arcade cabinet has become a rare sight in the United States , but in their best year , coin - operated games collected quarters that , adjusting for inflation , sum to more than twice the ...
... played in bars , lounges , and arcades . The arcade cabinet has become a rare sight in the United States , but in their best year , coin - operated games collected quarters that , adjusting for inflation , sum to more than twice the ...
第 7 頁
... play was part of the problem - the general public wasn't accustomed to arcade games . Parlor and midway games inspire play based partly on familiarity and partly on external rewards . To make a breakthrough , Bushnell needed to merge ...
... play was part of the problem - the general public wasn't accustomed to arcade games . Parlor and midway games inspire play based partly on familiarity and partly on external rewards . To make a breakthrough , Bushnell needed to merge ...
第 8 頁
... play games.9 Here , Bushnell combined all of his prior influences . Chuck E. Cheese's was an arcade : its games encouraged con- tinued play and cross - cabinet play . It was also a restaurant : food and drink drew players to the locale ...
... play games.9 Here , Bushnell combined all of his prior influences . Chuck E. Cheese's was an arcade : its games encouraged con- tinued play and cross - cabinet play . It was also a restaurant : food and drink drew players to the locale ...
第 9 頁
... play, but vague enough to create the partial reinforcement of the slot machine and the midway; after failing, players wanted to try again. One other important sentence appeared on the machine: “Insert coin.” Pong's start in a Silicon ...
... play, but vague enough to create the partial reinforcement of the slot machine and the midway; after failing, players wanted to try again. One other important sentence appeared on the machine: “Insert coin.” Pong's start in a Silicon ...
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action-adventure action-adventure games Activision appear arcade game Asteroids Atari VCS ball bitmap Bogost Bushnell button BYTE BYTE chip coin-op games color clock Combat computing systems controllers created creative culture digital media display draw early electron Empire Strikes Back game’s gameplay genre high score HMOVE home console home video games horizontal innovation Intellivision interaction interface joystick licensed machine maze missile move Nintendo objects offered on-screen Pac-Man paddle Parker Brothers PDP-10 Adventure pixels plane Platform Studies play player playfield graphics Pong port processor Qotile released Revenge Robinett scan line screen Slot Racers snowspeeder sound Space Invaders Spacewar sprite graphics Star Castle Star Wars switch tank games technique television text adventure titles two-player variations VCS Adventure VCS cartridge VCS games VCS hardware VCS Pac-Man VCS platform VCS program vertical Video Olympics videogame Warshaw Yars