Before the Crash: Early Video Game History

Back Cover

“Finally, a book of scholarship on video games that acknowledges that they were made before World of Warcraft, The Sims, and Tomb Raider! This book offers insight into the design and technical history of games and systems you should be embarrassed not to know more about.” —Ian BOgOst , professor of digital media at Georgia Institute of Technology and co-author of Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System “One of our preeminent video game scholars, Wolf continues to break new ground with this fascinating collection.” —James CastOnguay , associate professor of communication and media studies at Sacred Heart University “In this smart volume on the early history of video games, the authors admit to their feelings of nostalgia, while bringing us new insights about old games and game hardware.” —Jesper JuuL, assistant professor at New York University Game Center and author of Half-Real “Before the Crash is fascinating reading and provides valuable service to the entire game studies field by presenting detailed analyses of early video game culture. Covering the production, economics, and gameplay of video games produced in the 1970s and early 1980s, this book proves the value of historical perspective for understanding the basis of the present digital lifestyle. As leading academics in game history and professionals who themselves participated in the creation of the games industry, the contributors bring together an impressive body of expertise from this important field.” —Frans mäyrä, professor of digital culture and game studies at University of Tampere mark J.p. WOLF is a professor in the communication department at Concordia University Wisconsin. His books include Abstracting Reality: Art, Communication, and Cognition in the Digital Age; The Medium of the Video Game; Virtual Morality: Morals, Ethics, and New Media; The Video Game Theory Reader; Myst and Riven: The World of the D’ni; The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond; The Video Game Theory Reader 2; and the two-volume Encyclopedia of Video Games. He is also founder of the Landmark Video Game book series and the Video Game Studies Scholarly Interest Group within the Society of Cinema and Media Studies. Contributors: Jessica Aldred, Ralph H. Baer, Brett Camper, Karen Collins, Ross A. Dannenberg, Leonard Herman, Erkki Huhtamo, Carly A. Kocurek, Sheila C. Murphy, Ed Rotberg, Tim Skelly, Carl Therrien, Staci Tucker, Zach Whalen, Mark J. P. Wolf Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series Cover design by Rebecca Lown Wayne State University Press Detroit, Michigan 48201-1309 medIa studIes | VIdeO games ...