Gaming The Iron Curtain

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Gaming the Iron Curtain

Author : Jaroslav Svelch
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 026254928X
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Gaming the Iron Curtain by : Jaroslav Svelch

Download or read book Gaming the Iron Curtain written by Jaroslav Svelch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-09-19 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In Gaming the Iron Curtain, Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc. Švelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, Gaming the Iron Curtain tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard.

Tetris

Author : Box Brown
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 162672315X
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis Tetris by : Box Brown

Download or read book Tetris written by Box Brown and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documents the history of the video game Tetris and looks at the role games play in art, culture, and commerce.

The Tetris Effect

Author : Dan Ackerman
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 161039612X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tetris Effect by : Dan Ackerman

Download or read book The Tetris Effect written by Dan Ackerman and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive story of a game so great, even the Cold War couldn't stop it Tetris is perhaps the most instantly recognizable, popular video game ever made. But how did an obscure Soviet programmer, working on frail, antiquated computers, create a product which has now earned nearly 1 billion in sales? How did a makeshift game turn into a worldwide sensation, which has been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, inspired a big-budget sci-fi movie, and been played in outer space? A quiet but brilliant young man, Alexey Pajitnov had long nurtured a love for the obscure puzzle game pentominoes, and became obsessed with turning it into a computer game. Little did he know that the project that he labored on alone, hour after hour, would soon become the most addictive game ever made. In this fast-paced business story, reporter Dan Ackerman reveals how Tetris became one of the world's first viral hits, passed from player to player, eventually breaking through the Iron Curtain into the West. British, American, and Japanese moguls waged a bitter fight over the rights, sending their fixers racing around the globe to secure backroom deals, while a secretive Soviet organization named ELORG chased down the game's growing global profits. The Tetris Effect is an homage to both creator and creation, and a must-read for anyone who's ever played the game-which is to say everyone.

Animation Behind the Iron Curtain

Author : Eleanor Cowen
Publisher : John Libbey Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780861967452
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (674 download)

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Book Synopsis Animation Behind the Iron Curtain by : Eleanor Cowen

Download or read book Animation Behind the Iron Curtain written by Eleanor Cowen and published by John Libbey Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animation Behind the Iron Curtain is a journey of discovery into the world of Soviet era animation from Eastern Bloc countries. From Jerzy Kucia's brutally exquisite Reflections in Poland to the sci-fi adventure of Ott in Space by Estonian puppet master Elbert Tuganov to the endearing Gopo's little man by Ion Popescu-Gopo in Romania, this excursion into Soviet era animation brings to light magnificent art, ruminations on the human condition, and celebrations of innocence and joy. As art reveals the spirit of the times, animation art of Eastern Europe during the Cold War, funded by the Soviet states, allowed artists to create works illuminating to their experiences, hopes, and fears. The political ideology of the time ironically supported these artists while simultaneously suppressing more direct critiques of Soviet life. Politics shaped the world of these artists who then fashioned their realities into amazing works of animation. Their art is integral to the circumstances in which they lived, which is why this book combines the unlikely combination of world politics and animated cartoons. The phenomenal animated films shared in this book offer a glimpse into the culture and hearts of Soviet citizens who grew up with characters as familiar and beloved to them as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny are to Americans. This book lays out the basic political dynamics of the Cold War and how those political tensions affected the animation industry in both the US and in the Eastern Bloc. And, for animation novices and enthusiasts alike, Animation Behind the Iron Curtain also offers breakout sections to explain many of the techniques and aesthetic considerations that go into this fascinating art form. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Cold War era and really cool animated films!

Homo Sovieticus

Author : Wladimir Velminski
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262035693
Total Pages : 129 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Homo Sovieticus by : Wladimir Velminski

Download or read book Homo Sovieticus written by Wladimir Velminski and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-02-10 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Soviet scientists and pseudoscientists pursued telepathic research, cybernetic simulations, and mass hyptonism over television to control the minds of citizens. In October 1989, as the Cold War was ending and the Berlin Wall about to crumble, television viewers in the Soviet Union tuned in to the first of a series of unusual broadcasts. “Relax, let your thoughts wander free...” intoned the host, the physician and clinical psychotherapist Anatoly Mikhailovich Kashpirovsky. Moscow's Channel One was attempting mass hypnosis over television, a therapeutic session aimed at reassuring citizens panicked over the ongoing political upheaval—and aimed at taking control of their responses to it. Incredibly enough, this last-ditch effort to rally the citizenry was the culmination of decades of official telepathic research, cybernetic simulations, and coded messages undertaken to reinforce ideological conformity. In Homo Sovieticus, the art and media scholar Wladimir Velminski explores these scientific and pseudoscientific efforts at mind control. In a fascinating series of anecdotes, Velminski describes such phenomena as the conflation of mental energy and electromagnetism; the investigation of aura fields through the “Aurathron”; a laboratory that practiced mind control methods on dogs; and attempts to calibrate the thought processes of laborers. “Scientific” diagrams from the period accompany the text. In all of the experimental methods for implanting thoughts into a brain, Velminski finds political and metaphorical contaminations. These apparently technological experiments in telepathy and telekinesis were deployed for purely political purposes.

The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games

Author : Felipe Pepe
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781999353308
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (533 download)

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Book Synopsis The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games by : Felipe Pepe

Download or read book The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games written by Felipe Pepe and published by . This book was released on 2019-09 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reviews over 400 seminal games from 1975 to 2015. Each entry shares articles on the genre, mod suggestions and hints on how to run the games on modern hardware.

Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality

Author : Melanie Swalwell
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 026236560X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality by : Melanie Swalwell

Download or read book Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality written by Melanie Swalwell and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The overlooked history of an early appropriation of digital technology: the creation of games though coding and hardware hacking by microcomputer users. From the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, low-end microcomputers offered many users their first taste of computing. A major use of these inexpensive 8-bit machines--including the TRS System 80s and the Sinclair, Atari, Microbee, and Commodore ranges--was the development of homebrew games. Users with often self-taught programming skills devised the graphics, sound, and coding for their self-created games. In this book, Melanie Swalwell offers a history of this era of homebrew game development, arguing that it constitutes a significant instance of the early appropriation of digital computing technology. Drawing on interviews and extensive archival research on homebrew creators in 1980s Australia and New Zealand, Swalwell explores the creation of games on microcomputers as a particular mode of everyday engagement with new technology. She discusses the public discourses surrounding microcomputers and programming by home coders; user practices; the development of game creators' ideas, with the game Donut Dilemma as a case study; the widely practiced art of hardware hacking; and the influence of 8-bit aesthetics and gameplay on the contemporary game industry. With Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality, Swalwell reclaims a lost chapter in video game history, connecting it to the rich cultural and media theory around everyday life and to critical perspectives on user-generated content.

Mao's Little Red Book

Author : Alexander C. Cook
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107057221
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Mao's Little Red Book by : Alexander C. Cook

Download or read book Mao's Little Red Book written by Alexander C. Cook and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-06 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the fiftieth anniversary of Quotations from Chairman Mao, this pioneering volume examines the book as a global historical phenomenon.

War of the Black Heavens

Author : Michael Nelson
Publisher : Syracuse University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815604792
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis War of the Black Heavens by : Michael Nelson

Download or read book War of the Black Heavens written by Michael Nelson and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 1997-12-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International diplomacy and a changing global economy did not bring about the fall of the Iron Curtain. Radio did, and it was mightier than the sword. Based on first-hand interviews and documents from the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, Michael Nelson shows that Western radio—principally, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America—were unrivaled forces in the fight against communism and the fall of the Iron Curtain. The Communists did everything in their power to prevent the infiltration of Western thought into their world, resorting to jamming radio signals, assassinating staff, and bombing stations. The Russians, for example, decided to stop the mass production of short-wave radios so that their citizens could not hear Western broadcasts. War of the Black Heavens reveals that, due to administrative incompetence, short-wave radio production continued, making worthless many of the billions of dollars spent on jamming. These radio programs introduced a forbidden, exciting culture to millions of eager listeners. Pop music, talk shows, news, and information about consumer goods all relayed a message of the good life, subtly undermining the values of the communist regimes. Western radio actively connected listeners with the cultures of Europe and North America. War of the Black Heavens describes an unheralded story of success and adds a new interpretation that helps us understand some of the most momentous political events of this century.

Iron Curtain

Author : Anne Applebaum
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385536437
Total Pages : 803 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (855 download)

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Book Synopsis Iron Curtain by : Anne Applebaum

Download or read book Iron Curtain written by Anne Applebaum and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 803 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the long-awaited follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag, acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Eastern Europe after World War II and transformed in frightening fashion the individuals who came under its sway. At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union to its surprise and delight found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to Communism, a completely new political and moral system. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. She draws on newly opened East European archives, interviews, and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray in devastating detail the dilemmas faced by millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief and took away everything they had accumulated. Today the Soviet Bloc is a lost civilization, one whose cruelty, paranoia, bizarre morality, and strange aesthetics Applebaum captures in the electrifying pages of Iron Curtain.

Midnight in Chernobyl

Author : Adam Higginbotham
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501134639
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Midnight in Chernobyl by : Adam Higginbotham

Download or read book Midnight in Chernobyl written by Adam Higginbotham and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Best Book of the Year A Time Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Winner From journalist Adam Higginbotham, the New York Times bestselling “account that reads almost like the script for a movie” (The Wall Street Journal)—a powerful investigation into Chernobyl and how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the history’s worst nuclear disasters. Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering one of the twentieth century’s greatest disasters. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers its citizens and the entire world. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a “riveting, deeply reported reconstruction” (Los Angeles Times) and a definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. “The most complete and compelling history yet” (The Christian Science Monitor), Higginbotham’s “superb, enthralling, and necessarily terrifying...extraordinary” (The New York Times) book is an indelible portrait of the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will—lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary.

Tanks at the Iron Curtain 1946–60

Author : Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472843312
Total Pages : 49 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (728 download)

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Book Synopsis Tanks at the Iron Curtain 1946–60 by : Steven J. Zaloga

Download or read book Tanks at the Iron Curtain 1946–60 written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-25 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the Soviet and NATO armored forces that faced each other off in Central Europe in the early Cold War, and how their technology, tactics, and doctrine were all rapidly developed. For 45 years, the most disputed point in the World was the dividing line between East and West in Europe; here the use and development of tanks was key. In this fully illustrated study, author Steve Zaloga, describes how Soviet and NATO tanks were deployed in the early years of the Cold War, and how a generation of tanks such as the Soviet T-44/T-54 and IS-3, British Centurion, US Army M26/M46 Pershing (all developed during World War II) saw extensive service after the war had ended. Initial post-war generation tanks including the Soviet T-54A, T-10 heavy tank, British late-model Centurions, Conqueror, US Army M41, M47, M48 and the French AMX-13 are examined in detail alongside the most important technical trends of the era: the development of shaped-charge anti-tank projectiles, the influence of anti-tank missiles, and the introduction of chemical/nuclear protection and night fighting equipment. The book also considers the influence of post-war doctrine and tactics on tank technology and the effect of regional conflicts such as the 1950 Korean War, the war in Indo-China, and the 1956 Mid East War on tank warfare.

Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines

Author : Edward Hampshire
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472839358
Total Pages : 49 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (728 download)

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Book Synopsis Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines by : Edward Hampshire

Download or read book Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines written by Edward Hampshire and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-17 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this highly detailed book, naval historian Edward Hampshire reveals the fascinating history of the nuclear-powered attack submarines built and operated by the Soviet Union in the Cold War, including each class of these formidable craft as they developed throughout the Cold War period. The November class, which were the Soviet Union's first nuclear submarines, had originally been designed to fire a single enormous nuclear-tipped torpedo but were eventually completed as boats firing standard torpedoes. The Alfa class were perhaps the most remarkable submarines of the Cold War: titanium-hulled (which was light and strong but extremely expensive and difficult to weld successfully), crewed with only thirty men due to considerable automation and 30% faster than any US submarines, they used a radical liquid lead-bismuth alloy in the reactor plant. The Victor class formed the backbone of the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet in the 1970s and 1980s, as hunter-killer submarines began to focus on tracking and potentially destroying NATO ballistic missile submarines. The Sierra classes were further titanium-hulled submarines and the single Mike-class submarine was an experimental type containing a number of innovations. Finally, the Akula class were being constructed as the Cold War ended, and these boats form the mainstay of the Russian nuclear attack submarine fleet today. This book explores the design, development, and deployment of each of these classes in detail, offering an unparalleled insight into the submarines which served the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War period. The text is supported by stunning illustrations, photographs and diagrams of the submarines.

Game Wizards

Author : Jon Peterson
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262542951
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Game Wizards by : Jon Peterson

Download or read book Game Wizards written by Jon Peterson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the arcane table-top game that became a pop culture phenomenon and the long-running legal battle waged by its cocreators. When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success--and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. As the game's fiftieth anniversary approaches, Peterson--a noted authority on role-playing games--explains how D&D and its creators navigated their successes, setbacks, and controversies. Peterson describes Gygax and Arneson's first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release of the game; the founding of TSR and its growth as a company; and Arneson's acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR. He recounts the "Satanic Panic" accusations that D&D was sacrilegious and dangerous, and how they made the game famous. And he chronicles TSR's reckless expansion and near-fatal corporate infighting, which culminated with the company in debt and overextended and the end of Gygax's losing battle to retain control over TSR and D&D. With Game Wizards, Peterson restores historical particulars long obscured by competing narratives spun by the one-time partners. That record amply demonstrates how the turbulent experience of creating something as momentous as Dungeons & Dragons can make people remember things a bit differently from the way they actually happened.

Gamer Army

Author : Trent Reedy
Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1338045318
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Gamer Army by : Trent Reedy

Download or read book Gamer Army written by Trent Reedy and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2018-11-27 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely and thrilling novel, Ender's Game meets Ready Player One and several terabytes of fast-paced video game action as five gamers are recruited into a tech giant's secret program. After Rogan Webber levels up yet again on his favorite video game, Laser Viper, the world-famous creator of the game invites him to join the five best players in the country for an exclusive tournament. The gamers are flown to the tech mogul's headquarters, where they stay in luxury dorms and test out cutting edge virtual-reality gaming equipment, doing digital battle as powerful fighting robots. It's the ultimate gaming experience.But as the contest continues, the missions become harder, losing gamers are eliminated, and the remaining contestants face the growing suspicion that the game may not be what it seems. Why do the soldiers and robots they fight in Laser Viper act so weird? What's behind the strange game glitches? And why does the game feel so... real?Rogan and his gamer rivals must come together, summoning the collective power of their Gamer Army to discover the truth and make things right... in a dangerous world where video games have invaded reality.

Radio Free Europe's "Crusade for Freedom"

Author : Richard H. Cummings
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786462078
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis Radio Free Europe's "Crusade for Freedom" by : Richard H. Cummings

Download or read book Radio Free Europe's "Crusade for Freedom" written by Richard H. Cummings and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1950 to 1960, millions of Americans participated in Radio Free Europe's "Crusade for Freedom." They signed "Freedom Scrolls" and "Freedom Grams," attended Crusader meetings, marched in parades, launched leaflet-carrying balloons, and donated Truth Dollars in support of the American effort to broadcast news and other programming to the peoples of communist-governed European countries. The Crusade for Freedom proved to be a powerful tool of the state-private network's anti-communist agenda. This book takes an in-depth look at the Crusade for Freedom, revealing how its unmatched pageantry of patriotism led to the creation of a dynamic movement involving not only the government but also private industry, mass media, academia, religious leaders, and average Americans.

Soviet Baby Boomers

Author : Donald J. Raleigh
Publisher : OUP USA
ISBN 13 : 0199744343
Total Pages : 435 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis Soviet Baby Boomers by : Donald J. Raleigh

Download or read book Soviet Baby Boomers written by Donald J. Raleigh and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-01-12 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soviet Baby Boomers traces the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transformation of Russia into a modern, highly literate, urban society through the life stories of the country's first post-World War II, Cold War generation. Illuminating a critical generation of people who had remained largely faceless up until now, the book reveals what it meant to "live Soviet" during the twilight of the Soviet empire.