Hones in on code as an especially relevant site of cultural engagement for scholars. The development of UNIX and changing race relations in 1960s America, Tara McPherson In a recent examination of the parallel configurations between
But the significance of code goes beyond its purelyĬomputational power. Without code, aĬomputer is inoperable, inert.
#Jfk reloaded game software#
Chips and other hardwareĬonstraints also affect what kind of software can be executed on a computer, makingĬomputer code a critical part of platform studies. Way that shaped the look and playability of games themselves, the Atari 2600Īdaptation of Pac-Man being a dramatic example of thisĭynamic. A platform studies approach reveals, for example, that theĪtari VCS’s unique Television Interface Adapter constrained playfield graphics in a AndĮach of these individual components offers affordances - capabilities that are bothĮnabling and limiting. Every platform is aĬomposite of chips, circuits, controllers, software, storage devices, and so on. Relationship between these hidden foundations and the more visible creative andĮxpressive acts that appear on the surface of the machine. Platform studies considers both the software and hardware of systems, exploring the Unlike typical screen-centric approaches to born-digital works, Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost’s development of platform studies presents one answer to Visible - that nonetheless influence how that work circulates within culture? What aboutĭigital works with characteristics beyond the physical - or at least, beyond the A media-specific analysis is an important intervention into screenĮssentialism, but it privileges the manifestly present elements of media. Hayles formulates as “the interplay between a text’s physicalĬharacteristics and its signifying strategies” A media-specific analysis attends to a work’s materiality, which One response to thisĮssentialism is found in Katherine Hayles’ call for media-specific analysis ofĬreative works. Non-digital inputs and outputs that make the digital screen event possible in theįirst place. Screen,” as Matthew Kirschenbaum puts it, becomes the sole object of studyĪt the expense of the underlying software, hardware, storage devices, and even Media studies has suffered from the symptoms of what Nick Montfort calls screenĮssentialism. My insistence on the importance of code follows a recognition that for too long new Procedural logic of crime and the shock of history found in programmer comments in In particular I will focus on anĪspect of the games in which the signifying excess of code is palpable: the Which is the open source version of the legendary simulation SimCity (1994), and the notorious first-person shooter JFK: Reloaded (2004). To illustrate this methodology I willĬonsider the code of two games - Micropolis (2008), Videogames are pieces of software, made of code,Īnd I argue that thinking about game code as a signifying text is a fruitful way toĮnrich our understanding of videogames. Texts in a literal way, comprised of words, or at least, of numbers and letters. Haphazardly the way literary scholars like to describe everything as texts. I don’t mean metaphorical texts, using that word
Might at first appear to be retrograde, a reactionary doubling down on the position Want to advance an approach to videogames that, in light of this reconciliation, Single approach can adequately explore the cultural significance of videogames. In the past few years theĭebate has largely dissipated, with most scholars in the field recognizing that no Journals such as Game Studies and Electronic Book Review (e.g. The debate played out in conferences, blogs, and scholarly Games mainly about rules, structure, and play? Or did games tell stories and containĪllegories? Self-proclaimed ludologists argued for the former, while many othersĭefended the latter. The early years of videogames studies were defined by this tension. Games can be played, but they can also be LikeĪll cultural activities, however, games can be approached through means apart from This is how we come to know games, by experiencing them. Reveal the contours of the game, slowly uncovering what Lev Manovich calls its “hidden logic” We bump up against this rigid structure - rules, boundaries, mechanics - and Play is, as Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman describe it, “free movement within a more rigid Idiosyncrasies and dynamics become clear not when we read the instructions, but when Card games, board games, videogames - their
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