Racing The Beam

Download Racing The Beam full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Racing The Beam ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Racing the Beam

Author : Nick Montfort
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262539764
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Racing the Beam by : Nick Montfort

Download or read book Racing the Beam written by Nick Montfort and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-02-25 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10

Author : Nick Montfort
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262304570
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (623 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 by : Nick Montfort

Download or read book 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 written by Nick Montfort and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-11-23 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A single line of code offers a way to understand the cultural context of computing. This book takes a single line of code—the extremely concise BASIC program for the Commodore 64 inscribed in the title—and uses it as a lens through which to consider the phenomenon of creative computing and the way computer programs exist in culture. The authors of this collaboratively written book treat code not as merely functional but as a text—in the case of 10 PRINT, a text that appeared in many different printed sources—that yields a story about its making, its purpose, its assumptions, and more. They consider randomness and regularity in computing and art, the maze in culture, the popular BASIC programming language, and the highly influential Commodore 64 computer.

On a Beam of Light

Author : Jennifer Berne
Publisher : Chronicle Books
ISBN 13 : 1452113092
Total Pages : 58 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (521 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis On a Beam of Light by : Jennifer Berne

Download or read book On a Beam of Light written by Jennifer Berne and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A boy rides a bicycle down a dusty road. But in his mind, he envisions himself traveling at a speed beyond imagining, on a beam of light. This brilliant mind will one day offer up some of the most revolutionary ideas ever conceived. From a boy endlessly fascinated by the wonders around him, Albert Einstein ultimately grows into a man of genius recognized the world over for profoundly illuminating our understanding of the universe. Jennifer Berne and Vladimir Radunsky invite the reader to travel along with Einstein on a journey full of curiosity, laughter, and scientific discovery. Parents and children alike will appreciate this moving story of the powerful difference imagination can make in any life.

How to Do Things with Videogames

Author : Ian Bogost
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 145293312X
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis How to Do Things with Videogames by : Ian Bogost

Download or read book How to Do Things with Videogames written by Ian Bogost and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2011-08-05 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, computer games have moved from the margins of popular culture to its center. Reviews of new games and profiles of game designers now regularly appear in the New York Times and the New Yorker, and sales figures for games are reported alongside those of books, music, and movies. They are increasingly used for purposes other than entertainment, yet debates about videogames still fork along one of two paths: accusations of debasement through violence and isolation or defensive paeans to their potential as serious cultural works. In How to Do Things with Videogames, Ian Bogost contends that such generalizations obscure the limitless possibilities offered by the medium’s ability to create complex simulated realities. Bogost, a leading scholar of videogames and an award-winning game designer, explores the many ways computer games are used today: documenting important historical and cultural events; educating both children and adults; promoting commercial products; and serving as platforms for art, pornography, exercise, relaxation, pranks, and politics. Examining these applications in a series of short, inviting, and provocative essays, he argues that together they make the medium broader, richer, and more relevant to a wider audience. Bogost concludes that as videogames become ever more enmeshed with contemporary life, the idea of gamers as social identities will become obsolete, giving rise to gaming by the masses. But until games are understood to have valid applications across the cultural spectrum, their true potential will remain unrealized. How to Do Things with Videogames offers a fresh starting point to more fully consider games’ progress today and promise for the future.

Twisty Little Passages

Author : Nick Montfort
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262633185
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (331 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Twisty Little Passages by : Nick Montfort

Download or read book Twisty Little Passages written by Nick Montfort and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2005-02-11 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critical approach to interactive fiction, as literature and game. Interactive fiction—the best-known form of which is the text game or text adventure—has not received as much critical attention as have such other forms of electronic literature as hypertext fiction and the conversational programs known as chatterbots. Twisty Little Passages (the title refers to a maze in Adventure, the first interactive fiction) is the first book-length consideration of this form, examining it from gaming and literary perspectives. Nick Montfort, an interactive fiction author himself, offers both aficionados and first-time users a way to approach interactive fiction that will lead to a more pleasurable and meaningful experience of it. Twisty Little Passages looks at interactive fiction beginning with its most important literary ancestor, the riddle. Montfort then discusses Adventure and its precursors (including the I Ching and Dungeons and Dragons), and follows this with an examination of mainframe text games developed in response, focusing on the most influential work of that era, Zork. He then considers the introduction of commercial interactive fiction for home computers, particularly that produced by Infocom. Commercial works inspired an independent reaction, and Montfort describes the emergence of independent creators and the development of an online interactive fiction community in the 1990s. Finally, he considers the influence of interactive fiction on other literary and gaming forms. With Twisty Little Passages, Nick Montfort places interactive fiction in its computational and literary contexts, opening up this still-developing form to new consideration.

Racing the Beam

Author : Nick Montfort
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262539764
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Racing the Beam by : Nick Montfort

I Am Error

Author : Nathan Altice
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262534541
Total Pages : 439 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis I Am Error by : Nathan Altice

Download or read book I Am Error written by Nathan Altice and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complex material histories of the Nintendo Entertainment System platform, from code to silicon, focusing on its technical constraints and its expressive affordances. In the 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System videogame Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, a character famously declared: I AM ERROR. 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 I AM ERROR 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. Nintendo 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 Super Mario Bros. and its remarkable software innovations; the introduction of Nintendo's short-lived proprietary disk format and the design repercussions on The Legend of Zelda; 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.

Beam

Author : Jeff Hecht
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019020754X
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Beam by : Jeff Hecht

Download or read book Beam written by Jeff Hecht and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-03-10 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beam is the story of the race to make the laser, the three intense years from the birth of the laser idea to its breakthrough demonstration in a California laboratory. The quest was a struggle against physics, established wisdom, and the establishment itself. In 1954, Charles Townes invented the laser's microwave cousin, the maser. The next logical step was to extend the same physical principles to the shorter wavelengths of light, but the idea did not catch fire until October 1957, when Townes asked Gordon Gould about Gould's research on using light to excite thallium atoms. Each took the idea and ran with it. The independent-minded Gould sought the fortune of an independent inventor; the professorial Townes sought the fame of scientific recognition. Townes enlisted the help of his brother-in-law, Arthur Schawlow, and got Bell Labs into the race. Gould turned his ideas into a patent borth ation and a million-dollar defense contract. They soon had company. Ali Javan, one of Townes's former students, began pulling 90-hour weeks at Bell Labs with colleague Bill Bennett. And far away in California a bright young physicist named Ted Maiman became a very dark horse in the race. While Schawlow proclaimed that ruby could never make a laser, Maiman slowly convinced himself it would. As others struggled with recalcitrant equipment and military secrecy, Maiman built a tiny and elegant device that fit in the palm of his hand. His ruby laser worked the first time he tried it, on May 16, 1960, but afterwards he had to battle for acceptance as the man who made the first laser. Beam is a fascinating tale of a remarkable and powerful invention that has become a symbol of modern technology.

The Future Was Here

Author : Jimmy Maher
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262535696
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Future Was Here by : Jimmy Maher

Download or read book The Future Was Here written by Jimmy Maher and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-01-26 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the often-overlooked history and technological innovations of the world's first true multimedia computer. Long 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 The Future Was Here, the world's first true multimedia personal computer. Maher 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.

Handbook of Computer Game Studies

Author : Joost Raessens
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262516586
Total Pages : 471 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Handbook of Computer Game Studies by : Joost Raessens

Download or read book Handbook of Computer Game Studies written by Joost Raessens and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-08-19 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A broad treatment of computer and video games from a wide range of perspectives, including cognitive science and artificial intelligence, psychology, history, film and theater, cultural studies, and philosophy. New media students, teachers, and professionals have long needed a comprehensive scholarly treatment of digital games that deals with the history, design, reception, and aesthetics of games along with their social and cultural context. The Handbook of Computer Game Studies fills this need with a definitive look at the subject from a broad range of perspectives. Contributors come from cognitive science and artificial intelligence, developmental, social, and clinical psychology, history, film, theater, and literary studies, cultural studies, and philosophy as well as game design and development. The text includes both scholarly articles and journalism from such well-known voices as Douglas Rushkoff, Sherry Turkle, Henry Jenkins, Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman, and others. Part I considers the "prehistory" of computer games (including slot machines and pinball machines), the development of computer games themselves, and the future of mobile gaming. The chapters in part II describe game development from the designer's point of view, including the design of play elements, an analysis of screenwriting, and game-based learning. Part III reviews empirical research on the psychological effects of computer games, and includes a discussion of the use of computer games in clinical and educational settings. Part IV considers the aesthetics of games in comparison to film and literature, and part V discusses the effect of computer games on cultural identity, including gender and ethnicity. Finally, part VI looks at the relation of computer games to social behavior, considering, among other matters, the inadequacy of laboratory experiments linking games and aggression and the different modes of participation in computer game culture.

Race for the Escape

Author : Christopher Edge
Publisher : Delacorte Press
ISBN 13 : 059348603X
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (934 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Race for the Escape by : Christopher Edge

Download or read book Race for the Escape written by Christopher Edge and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2022-07-05 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five kids. One ultimate escape room. Can they solve it--or will they die trying? From the award-winning author of The Many World of Albie Bright comes a brand-new adventure that will having you racing to finish. When Ami Oswald arrives at The Escape--a new, supposedly impossible-to-beat escape room--all she wants it an evening of adventure for her birthday. She deserves it, after all her hard work. But as soon as the game starts, Ami and her four teammates realize they may have gotten more than they bargained for. Now, the only way Ami and her friends can get out is by solving the mysterious riddle the Escape's Host has given them: Find the Answer, save the world. But the Answer could be anywhere, and in this game, a single mistake could be deadly. Because, as Ami quickly finds out, the danger in these rooms is very, very real. Join Ami and the rest of the Five Mind as they face ancient Mayan warriors, a sinister library, and even prehistoric beasts in their quest to find the Answer and save the world, before it's too late. Can you escape the Escape? The world is betting on your success...

Before the Crash

Author : Mark J. P. Wolf
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
ISBN 13 : 0814337228
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (143 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Before the Crash by : Mark J. P. Wolf

Download or read book Before the Crash written by Mark J. P. Wolf and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-15 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributors examine the early days of video game history before the industry crash of 1983 that ended the medium’s golden age.

Codename Revolution

Author : Steven E. Jones
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 026201680X
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Codename Revolution by : Steven E. Jones

Download or read book Codename Revolution written by Steven E. Jones and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-02-24 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nintendo’s hugely popular and influential video game console system considered as technological device and social phenomenon. 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. This book describes the Wii’s impact in technological, social, and cultural terms, examining the Wii as a system of interrelated hardware and software that was consciously designed to promote social play in physical space. Each chapter of Codename Revolution focuses on a major component of the Wii as a platform: the console itself, designed to be low-powered and nimble; the iconic Wii Remote; Wii Fit Plus, and its controller, the Wii Balance Board; the Wii Channels interface and Nintendo’s distribution system; and the Wii as a social platform that not only affords multiplayer options but also encourages social interaction in shared physical space. 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.

The Meaning of Video Games

Author : Steven E. Jones
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135902178
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (359 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Meaning of Video Games by : Steven E. Jones

Download or read book The Meaning of Video Games written by Steven E. Jones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-04-11 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Meaning of Video Games takes a textual studies approach to an increasingly important form of expression in today’s culture. It begins by assuming that video games are meaningful–not just as sociological or economic or cultural evidence, but in their own right, as cultural expressions worthy of scholarly attention. In this way, this book makes a contribution to the study of video games, but it also aims to enrich textual studies. Early video game studies scholars were quick to point out that a game should never be reduced to merely its "story" or narrative content and they rightly insist on the importance of studying games as games. But here Steven E. Jones demonstrates that textual studies–which grows historically out of ancient questions of textual recension, multiple versions, production, reproduction, and reception–can fruitfully be applied to the study of video games. Citing specific examples such as Myst and Lost, Katamari Damacy, Halo, Façade, Nintendo’s Wii, and Will Wright’s Spore, the book explores the ways in which textual studies concepts–authorial intention, textual variability and performance, the paratext, publishing history and the social text–can shed light on video games as more than formal systems. It treats video games as cultural forms of expression that are received as they are played, out in the world, where their meanings get made.

A History of Video Games in 64 Objects

Author : World Video Game Hall of Fame
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062838709
Total Pages : 589 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (628 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis A History of Video Games in 64 Objects by : World Video Game Hall of Fame

Download or read book A History of Video Games in 64 Objects written by World Video Game Hall of Fame and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by the groundbreaking A History of the World in 100 Objects, this book draws on the unique collections of The Strong museum in Rochester, New York, to chronicle the evolution of video games, from Pong to first-person shooters, told through the stories of dozens of objects essential to the field’s creation and development. Drawing on the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s unmatched collection of video game artifacts, this fascinating history offers an expansive look at the development of one of the most popular and influential activities of the modern world: video gaming. Sixty-four unique objects tell the story of the video game from inception to today. Pithy, in-depth essays and photographs examine each object’s significance to video game play—what it has contributed to the history of gaming—as well as the greater culture. A History of Video Games in 64 Objects explains how the video game has transformed over time. Inside, you’ll find a wide range of intriguing topics, including: The first edition of Dungeons & Dragons—the ancestor of computer role-playing games The Oregon Trail and the development of educational gaming The Atari 2600 and the beginning of the console revolution A World of Warcraft server blade and massively multiplayer online games Minecraft—the backlash against the studio system The rise of women in gaming represented by pioneering American video game designers Carol Shaw and Roberta Williams’ game development materials The prototype Skylanders Portal of Power that spawned the Toys-to-Life video game phenomenon and shook up the marketplace And so much more! A visual panorama of unforgettable anecdotes and factoids, A History of Video Games in 64 Objects is a treasure trove for gamers and pop culture fans. Let the gaming begin!

Making Games for the Atari 2600

Author : Steven Hugg
Publisher : Puzzling Plans LLC
ISBN 13 : 1541021304
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Making Games for the Atari 2600 by : Steven Hugg

Download or read book Making Games for the Atari 2600 written by Steven Hugg and published by Puzzling Plans LLC. This book was released on 2016-12-22 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Atari 2600 was released in 1977, and now there's finally a book about how to write games for it! You'll learn about the 6502 CPU, NTSC frames, scanlines, cycle counting, players, missiles, collisions, procedural generation, pseudo-3D, and more. While using the manual, take advantage of our Web-based IDE to write 6502 assembly code, and see your code run instantly in the browser. We'll cover the same programming tricks that master programmers used to make classic games. Create your own graphics and sound, and share your games with friends!

Advanced Game Programming for Intellivision

Author : Oscar Toledo Gutierrez
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781716485633
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (856 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Advanced Game Programming for Intellivision by : Oscar Toledo Gutierrez

Download or read book Advanced Game Programming for Intellivision written by Oscar Toledo Gutierrez and published by . This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the success of Programming Games for Intellivision, here comes advanced game programming for your knowledge thirst!!! Discover the fun of making mummies chase the player, fast moving action in Pumpkin Master, physics for bullets in Pumpkin Catapult, simulate a pseudo-3D environment and racing the beam to display a wireframe planet on Meteor Storm, secrets of RPG programming revealed in Dungeon Master, conversion of pictures to graphics, and voice files to console audio!!! Complete source code included, as well as links to download the required development software and tools.