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E-book
Author Nicoll, Benjamin (Lecturer in digital media), author.

Title Minor platforms in videogame history / Benjamin Nicoll
Published Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, [2019]
©2019

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Description 1 online resource (211 pages) : illustrations
Series Games and play
Games and play
Contents Cover; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Failed, forgotten, or overlooked? Methods for historicizing minor platforms; 1. Ways of seeing videogame history: The Vectrex as a transitional platform; 2. Articulations of videogame piracy: The Zemmix as a decolonial platform; 3. Domesticating the arcade: The Neo Geo as an imaginary platform; 4. A dialectic of obsolescence? The Sega Saturn as a residual platform; 5. How history arrives': Twine as a minor platform; Conclusion: 'Something new in the old'; Index; List of Tables and Figures
Figure 4. Advertisement for a Zemmix Vconsole. From Computer Study (January1988: n.p.). By permission of Sam Derboo(photographer). Figure 5. Advertisement for Computer Kindergarten-which consists of four MSX cartridges ofedutainment software-being played on a ZemmixSuper V. From MyCom (March, 1990: n.p.). Bypermission of Sam Derboo (photographer).; Figure 7. A caricature of a Japanese samurai imposing a copyright infringement notice on a SouthKorean peasant. From MyCom (January 1991: 71). By permission of Sam Derboo (photographer)
Summary Videogame history is not just a history of one successful technology replacing the next. It is also a history of platforms and communities that never quite made it; that struggled to make their voices heard; that aggravated against the conventions of the day; and that never enjoyed the commercial success or recognition of their major counterparts. In Minor Platforms in Videogame History, Benjamin Nicoll argues that 'minor' game histories are anything but insignificant. Through an analysis of transitional, decolonial, imaginary, residual, and minor videogame platforms, Nicoll seeks out moments of difference and discontinuity in game history. From the domestication of vector graphics in the early years of videogame consoles to the proliferation of videogame piracy in South Korea in the 1980s, this book explores case studies that challenge taken-for-granted approaches to videogames, platforms, and their histories
Analysis Videogame history, media archaeology, platform studies, media theory
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Table 1: Korean-developed Zemmix software registered between the applicationof the Computer Programs Protection Act in July 1987 and November1989, in chronological order of copyright registration. Figure 1. Athanasius Kircher's magic lantern illustration. From Georgibus de Epibus, Romani CollegiSocietatis Jesu Celeberrimum (Amsterdam 1678: 39). Retrieved from: (accessed9 April 2018)
Figure 2. Memory pattern of illuminated bit locations displayed on a Williams Tube CRT . From theNational Institute of Standards and Technology Research Library (original photo taken in October1951). Retrieved from: (accessed20 April 2018). Figure 3. Advertisement for the Vectrex light pen. Retrieved from: (accessed 14 April 2018). Bypermission of Matthew Henzel (scanner)
Figure 8. The Zemina team in January of 1988. From Computer Study (January 1988: n.p.). Bypermission of Sam Derboo (photographer). Figure 9. Flyer depicting the Neo Geo AES home console (top right) and the Neo Geo MVS arcademachine variations (bottom) along with their interchangeable cartridge boards. Retrieved from: (accessed13 April 2018). By permission of Greg McLemore
Figure 10. 'Video games aren't kidstuff anymore!'. From SN K's Bigger-Badder-Better advertisementsupplement (date unknown). Retrieved from: (accessed 9 April 2018). By permission of Mike Melanson (scanner)
Online resource, title from digital title page (viewed on June 23, 2020)
Subject Video games -- History
Video games.
Media studies.
Games development and programming.
GAMES -- Video & Electronic.
Computer games
Video games
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9048540305
9789048540303