{"title":"Platform Studies","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into Platform Studies and discover how digital platforms shape our lives. Explore the evolution, impact, and future of these ubiquitous technologies. Perfect for tech enthusiasts and social scientists alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"racing-the-beam-book-nick-montfort-9780262012577","title":"Racing the Beam","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA study of the relationship between platform and creative expression in the Atari VCS.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStudies 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: \u003ci\u003eCombat\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAdventure\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePac-Man\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eYars' Revenge\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePitfall \u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003e Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back\u003c\/i\u003e. They describe the technical constraints and affordances of the system and track developments in programming, gameplay, interface, and aesthetics. \u003ci\u003eAdventure\u003c\/i\u003e, 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 \u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGrand Theft Auto\u003c\/i\u003e), by allowing the player to walk off one side into another space; and \u003ci\u003eStar Wars: The Empire Strikes Back\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50112178782481,"sku":"GOR006434676","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50210892611857,"sku":"CIN026201257XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50280259584273,"sku":"GOR013910918","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50347420385553,"sku":"CIN026201257XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/026201257X.jpg?v=1750695249"},{"product_id":"racing-the-beam-book-nick-montfort-9780262539760","title":"Racing the Beam","description":"A study of the relationship between platform and creative expression in the Atari VCS.  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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50252876710161,"sku":"CIN0262539764VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50902380478737,"sku":"CIN0262539764G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51197558718737,"sku":"GOR014197034","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53103849832721,"sku":"NIN9780262539760","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262539764.jpg?v=1750843828"},{"product_id":"super-power-spoony-bards-and-silverware-book-dominic-arsenault-9780262036566","title":"Super Power, Spoony Bards, and Silverware","description":"\u003cb\u003eA critical look at how the Super Nintendo Entertainment System-and a resistance to innovation-took the company from industry leadership to the margins of videogaming.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e This is a book about the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that is not celebratory or self-congratulatory. Most other accounts declare the Super NES the undisputed victor of the \"16-bit console wars\" of 1989-1995. In this book, Dominic Arsenault reminds us that although the SNES was a strong platform filled with high-quality games, it was also the product of a short-sighted corporate vision focused on maintaining Nintendo's market share and business model. This led the firm to fall from a dominant position during its golden age (dubbed by Arsenault the \"ReNESsance\") with the NES to the margins of the industry with the Nintendo 64 and GameCube consoles. Arsenault argues that Nintendo's conservative business strategies and resistance to innovation during the SNES years explain its market defeat by Sony's PlayStation.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Extending the notion of \"platform\" to include the marketing forces that shape and constrain creative work, Arsenault draws not only on game studies and histories but on game magazines, boxes, manuals, and advertisements to identify the technological discourses and business models that formed Nintendo's Super Power. He also describes the cultural changes in video games during the 1990s that slowly eroded the love of gamer enthusiasts for the SNES as the Nintendo generation matured. Finally, he chronicles the many technological changes that occurred through the SNES's lifetime, including full-motion video, CD-ROM storage, and the shift to 3D graphics. Because of the SNES platform's architecture, Arsenault explains, Nintendo resisted these changes and continued to focus on traditional gameplay genres.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50465551646993,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50465552138513,"sku":"CIN0262036568G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51602364301585,"sku":"CIN0262036568VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262036568.jpg?v=1751005363"},{"product_id":"media-snatcher-book-carl-therrien-9780262042901","title":"The Media Snatcher","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn in-depth exploration of a neglected video game platform of the 1990s and a reflection on the way we construct the cultural history of video games.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Media Snatcher\u003c\/i\u003e, Carl Therrien offers an in-depth exploration of NEC's PC Engine\/TurboGrafx-16, a little-studied video game platform released in the late 1980s. The PC Engine was designed to bring technological expandability to the world of game consoles; The Media Snatcher's subtitle evokes some of the expansions and the numerous rebranded versions of the system released by NEC, including the first CD-ROM add-on in video game history. The platform makers hoped that expandability would allow its console to remain at the cutting edge and even catch up with such perceptually rich media as cinema and anime. More than a simple shape-shifter, the PC Engine became a media snatcher.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTherrien examines the multidirectional interactions of video game technologies, commercial structures, and cultural dynamics. He considers, among other things, hyperbolic marketing and its impact on how we construct video game history; glitches, technological obsolescence, and the difficulty of conducting media archaeology of the recent past; the emergence of male-centered power fantasies through audiovisual rewards; the rise of original genres such as visual novels; and the sustained efforts to integrate PC Engine software in the sprawling media landscape of Japan (where the PC Engine found much of its success). Avoiding the usual techno-industrial glorification, Therrien recounts the bold technological aspirations of the platform makers and the struggles to make the actual technology realize its potential.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50563528687889,"sku":"NGR9780262042901","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51107616948497,"sku":"CIN0262042908G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262042908.jpg?v=1750940428"},{"product_id":"future-was-here-book-jimmy-maher-9780262535694","title":"The Future Was Here","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExploring the often-overlooked history and technological innovations of the world's first true multimedia computer.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLong ago, in 1985, personal computers came in two general categories: the friendly, childish game machine used for fun (exemplified by Atari and Commodore products); and the boring, beige adult box used for business (exemplified by products from IBM). The game machines became fascinating technical and artistic platforms that were of limited real-world utility. The IBM products were all utility, with little emphasis on aesthetics and no emphasis on fun. Into this bifurcated computing environment came the Commodore Amiga 1000. This personal computer featured a palette of 4,096 colors, unprecedented animation capabilities, four-channel stereo sound, the capacity to run multiple applications simultaneously, a graphical user interface, and powerful processing potential. It was, Jimmy Maher writes in \u003ci\u003eThe Future Was Here\u003c\/i\u003e, the world's first true multimedia personal computer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaher argues that the Amiga's capacity to store and display color photographs, manipulate video (giving amateurs access to professional tools), and use recordings of real-world sound were the seeds of the digital media future: digital cameras, Photoshop, MP3 players, and even YouTube, Flickr, and the blogosphere. He examines different facets of the platform--from Deluxe Paint to AmigaOS to Cinemaware--in each chapter, creating a portrait of the platform and the communities of practice that surrounded it. Of course, Maher acknowledges, the Amiga was not perfect: the DOS component of the operating systems was clunky and ill-matched, for example, and crashes often accompanied multitasking attempts. And Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. But for a few years, the Amiga's technical qualities were harnessed by engineers, programmers, artists, and others to push back boundaries and transform the culture of computing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50828662767889,"sku":"CIN0262535696G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51156011974929,"sku":"GOR013709696","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52664196104465,"sku":"NLS9780262535694","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262535696.jpg?v=1750940530"},{"product_id":"future-was-here-book-jimmy-maher-9780262017206","title":"The Future Was Here","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExploring the often-overlooked history and technological innovations of the world's first true multimedia computer.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLong ago, in 1985, personal computers came in two general categories: the friendly, childish game machine used for fun (exemplified by Atari and Commodore products); and the boring, beige adult box used for business (exemplified by products from IBM). The game machines became fascinating technical and artistic platforms that were of limited real-world utility. The IBM products were all utility, with little emphasis on aesthetics and no emphasis on fun. Into this bifurcated computing environment came the Commodore Amiga 1000. This personal computer featured a palette of 4,096 colors, unprecedented animation capabilities, four-channel stereo sound, the capacity to run multiple applications simultaneously, a graphical user interface, and powerful processing potential. It was, Jimmy Maher writes in\u0026gt;\u003ci\u003eThe Future Was Here\u003c\/i\u003e, the world's first true multimedia personal computer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaher argues that the Amiga's capacity to store and display color photographs, manipulate video (giving amateurs access to professional tools), and use recordings of real-world sound were the seeds of the digital media future: digital cameras, Photoshop, MP3 players, and even YouTube, Flickr, and the blogosphere. He examines different facets of the platform--from Deluxe Paint to AmigaOS to Cinemaware--in each chapter, creating a portrait of the platform and the communities of practice that surrounded it. Of course, Maher acknowledges, the Amiga was not perfect: the DOS component of the operating systems was clunky and ill-matched, for example, and crashes often accompanied multitasking attempts. And Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. But for a few years, the Amiga's technical qualities were harnessed by engineers, programmers, artists, and others to push back boundaries and transform the culture of computing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50828663882001,"sku":"CIN0262017202G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51321583960337,"sku":"GOR006653010","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51864998248721,"sku":"CIN0262017202VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262017202.jpg?v=1751258860"},{"product_id":"i-am-error-book-nathan-altice-9780262028776","title":"I Am Error","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe complex material histories of the Nintendo Entertainment System platform, from code to silicon, focusing on its technical constraints and its expressive affordances. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System videogame \u003ci\u003eZelda I: The Adventure of Link\u003c\/i\u003e, a character famously declared: I AM EROR. Puzzled players assumed that this cryptic mesage was a programming flaw, but it was actually a clumsy Japanese-English translation of My Name is Error, a benign programmer's joke. In \u003ci\u003eI AM EROR\u003c\/i\u003e Nathan Altice explores the complex material histories of the Nintendo Entertainment System (and its Japanese predecessor, the Family Computer), offering a detailed analysis of its programming and engineering, its expressive affordances, and its cultural significance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNintendo games were rife with mistranslated texts, but, as Altice explains, Nintendo's translation challenges were not just linguistic but also material, with consequences beyond simple misinterpretation. Emphasizing the technical and material evolution of Nintendo's first cartridge-based platform, Altice describes the development of the Family Computer (or Famicom) and its computational architecture; the translation problems faced while adapting the Famicom for the U.S. videogame market as the redesigned Entertainment System; Nintendo's breakthrough console title \u003ci\u003eSuper Mario Bros.\u003c\/i\u003e and its remarkable software innovations; the introduction of Nintendo's short-lived proprietary disk format and the design repercussions on \u003ci\u003eThe Legend of Zelda\u003c\/i\u003e; Nintendo's efforts to extend their console's lifespan through cartridge augmentations; the Famicom's Audio Processing Unit (APU) and its importance for the chiptunes genre; and the emergence of software emulators and the new kinds of play they enabled. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51197543612689,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51197545218321,"sku":"GOR009887218","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53040775233809,"sku":"CIN0262028778G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262028778.jpg?v=1750813321"},{"product_id":"four-shades-of-gray-book-simon-rowberry-9780262543507","title":"Four Shades of Gray","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52124796453137,"sku":"NLS9780262543507","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780262543507.jpg?v=1757459289"},{"product_id":"now-the-chips-are-down-book-alison-gazzard-9780262552028","title":"Now the Chips Are Down","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52654861189393,"sku":"NLS9780262552028","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780262552028.jpg?v=1762217866"},{"product_id":"peripheral-vision-book-zabet-patterson-9780262548823","title":"Peripheral Vision","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52662290940177,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52662291792145,"sku":"NLS9780262548823","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780262548823.jpg?v=1762269167"},{"product_id":"codename-revolution-book-steven-e-jones-9780262553780","title":"Codename Revolution","description":"\u003cb\u003eNintendo's hugely popular and influential video game console system considered as technological device and social phenomenon.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Nintendo Wii, introduced in 2006, helped usher in a moment of retro-reinvention in video game play. This hugely popular console system, codenamed Revolution during development, signaled a turn away from fully immersive, time-consuming MMORPGs or forty-hour FPS games and back toward family fun in the living room. Players using the wireless motion-sensitive controller (the Wii Remote, or \"Wiimote\") play with their whole bodies, waving, swinging, swaying. The mimetic interface shifts attention from what's on the screen to what's happening in physical space. 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Finally, the authors connect the Wii's revolution in mimetic interface gaming-which eventually led to the release of Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect-to some of the economic and technological conditions that influence the possibility of making something new in this arena of computing and culture.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52665694945553,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52665695895825,"sku":"NLS9780262553780","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780262553780.jpg?v=1762277995"},{"product_id":"minitel-book-julien-mailland-9780262537759","title":"Minitel","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe first scholarly book in English on Minitel, the pioneering French computer network, offers a history of a technical system and a cultural phenomenon.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eA decade before the Internet became a medium for the masses in the United States, tens of millions of users in France had access to a network for e-mail, e-commerce, chat, research, game playing, blogging, and even an early form of online porn. In 1983, the French government rolled out Minitel, a computer network that achieved widespread adoption in just a few years as the government distributed free terminals to every French telephone subscriber. With this volume, Julien Mailland and Kevin Driscoll offer the first scholarly book in English on Minitel, examining it as both a technical system and a cultural phenomenon. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMailland and Driscoll argue that Minitel was a technical marvel, a commercial success, and an ambitious social experiment. Other early networks may have introduced protocols and software standards that continue to be used today, but Minitel foretold the social effects of widespread telecomputing. They examine the unique balance of forces that enabled the growth of Minitel: public and private, open and closed, centralized and decentralized. Mailland and Driscoll describe Minitel's key technological components, novel online services, and thriving virtual communities. Despite the seemingly tight grip of the state, however, a lively Minitel culture emerged, characterized by spontaneity, imagination, and creativity. After three decades of continuous service, Minitel was shut down in 2012, but the history of Minitel should continue to inform our thinking about Internet policy, today and into the future.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52665829261585,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52665829982481,"sku":"NLS9780262537759","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780262537759.jpg?v=1762278341"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/platform-studies-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}