Playback – A Genealogy of 1980s British Videogames

Description

Through interviews with developers, gamers, and journalists examining the phenomena of bedroom coding, arcade gaming, and format wars, mapped onto enquiry into the seminal genres of the time including driving, shooting, and maze chase, Playback: A Genealogy of 1980s British Videogames examines how 1980s Britain has become the culture of work in the 21st century and considers its meaning to contemporary society. This crucial and timely work fills a lacuna for students and researchers of sociology, media, and games studies and will be of interest to employees of the videogames and media industries. Research into videogames have never been greater, but exploration of their historic drivers is as elided as the technology is influential, giving rise to a range of questions. What were the social and economic conditions that gave rise to a billion dollar industry? What were the motivations of the early 'bedroom coders'? What are the legacies of the seminal videogames of the 1980s and how do they inform the current social, political and cultural landscape? With a focus on the characteristics of the UK videogame industry in the 1980s, Wade explores these questions from perspectives of consumption, production and leisure, outlining the construction of a habitus unique to this time. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements 1 Loading . . . Habitus Genealogy Title screen: the scope of Playback 2 Home and Away: The International Context of UK Videogames of the 1980s Press play on tape Time splitters The ghost in the machine? Local studies Time extend 3 Back to the Future: The UK Gaming Field of the 1980s Historical positions of videogames Moral outrage Postindustrial Policy Clouds on the horizon The owl from auntie4 A new field The gaming habitus Playing fields 4 Coding, Copying and Cracking: Bedroom Cultures Game plan Panic button Consumption as work Silo mentality: in the bedroom Technological habitus Gender in the bedroom Bedroom cultures Zoning out: Computers in the bedrooms of the 1980s Public and private: copying culture Play to work Back to work? 5 Deeper Underground: Inside the Arcaves Insert coin Press start Sacrosanct and subterranean: subcultures and games Tilt or quit: the form of arcade games Labyrinths Getting into games Gaming the game Game on Game after 6 Format(ive) Wars: Building an Industry Foundations Format wars? Crossing the line: beyond the format wars The ends justifies the means: sales and distribution On the high street: chain stores and chains of approval Profiting from publication Disappearing into the mirror Press for success: magazines Videogame habitus: the formation of the industry Future development 7 The Politics of British Videogames in the 1980s Divisions Just another brick in the wall: work and class Racing, race, punched in the face: the bodily habitus Gender trends Resistance is futile? Just in time 8 Continue? Past, present and future References Index