Famicon, 134, 135 Film adaptation games. See Movie- based games Flanagan, Mary, 142–143 Flashback 2, 41, 42, 141 Flash ROM, 21 Flicker technique, 73 Fog <strong>of</strong> war, 58 Football, 121 Foot Craz, 138–140 Form/function level, <strong>of</strong> digital studies, 146–147 Frame-buffered graphics systems, 27 Freeway, 105, 107 Frogger (VCS game), 123, 131 Frostbite, 105, 132 Fry, Ben, 149 Frye, Tod, 67, 69, 71, 72, 74–76, 78 Fulop, Rob, 116 Galaga, 96 Galaxian, 65, 96 Galloway, Alexander, 149 Game cartridges. See Cartridges (VCS); specifi c video games Game developers, 60–61, 116. See specifi c game developers “homebrew” programmers, 142 teams <strong>of</strong>, 101–102 Garriott, Richard, 61 General Computing Company, 77 General Foods, 124 General Instruments, 10, 22 [giantJoystick], 143 The Godfa<strong>the</strong>r, 51 Goldberger, Jim, 116 Google Earth, 59 Gorf, 96 Grand Prix, 106, 107, 108, 112 Grand Theft Auto series, 4, 113, 128 Gran Trak 10, 21, 22 Green, Chris, 66 Grubb, Bill, 116 Grusin, Richard, 145–146 Half-Life series, 5, 51 Halloween, 128 Handheld electronic games, 121–122 Haunted House, 6, 59, 110, 111, 131–132 High-defi nition televisions (HDTVs), 141 High score list, 86–87 Higinbotham, Willy, 8, 9 Home Pong. See Pong (dedicated home game) Home video games, 8, 14. See also specifi c home video games benefi ts/risks <strong>of</strong>, 11 with interchangeable cartridges, 10–11 market for, 66, 133–134 reduced retail commitment to, 76 Horizontal blank period, 28 Horizontal movement technique, 72–73 Horizontal positioning, 50 Horizontal symmetry, <strong>of</strong> playing fi eld, 47, 69 Horror Games, 125 Illumination, in text adventures, 58 Imagic, 102, 103, 116–117, video games for <strong>the</strong> VCS (see Demon Attack) Indy 500, 106, 123 Intel chips, 12, 13 Intellivision, 14, 96, 132 Interactive fi ction. See Text adventures Interfaces, 25–30 for cartridges, 25–26 direct manipulation concept, 25 Peripheral Interface Adaptor, 14, 23 TIA (see Television Interface Adapter) Interface studies, 145–146 International Toy Fair, 119, 120 Iser, Wolfgang, 145 Ivey, Howell, 125 Iwatani, Toru, 65 Jakks Pacifi c, 141 Jammed, 142 Jarvis, Eugene, 129 Java, 148–149 Jentzsch, Thomas’s Jammed and Thrust, 142 Jones, Steven E., 149 <strong>Index</strong> [173]
Journey Escape, 124 Joysticks, 22–25 Combat, 22–23, 34 [giantJoystick], 143 introduction <strong>of</strong>, 14 Pitfall!, 113 in “television game” systems, 141 Jr. Pac-Man, 74 Kaboom!, 117 Kaplan, Larry, 38, 60, 72–73, 88, 99 Kassar, Ray, 76, 89, 100, 124, 135 Kee Games, 20 Keenan, Joe, 20 Kernel, 34 Kirschenbaum, Mat<strong>the</strong>w G., 149 Kitchen, Garry, 131 Kjellman, Sam, 128 Koble, Denis, 116 Kojima, Hideo, 61 Konami’s Track & Field, 138 Kool-Aid Man, 124 Lebling, Dave, 44 Legal disputes, 9 The Legend <strong>of</strong> Zelda, 49, 95 debut <strong>of</strong>, 127 “lost woods,” 58 memory, 87 open-world style, 113 virtual space, 4–5, 46 Leon, Harmon, 41 “Little running man” animation, 108–109 L<strong>of</strong>tus, Elizabeth F., 6, 145 L<strong>of</strong>tus, Ge<strong>of</strong>frey R., 6, 145 Logg, Ed, 85 LOGO, 148 Lord <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Rings: The Fellowship <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Ring (VCS game), 62 Ludology, 146 Lunar Lander, 31, 83, 85 Magnavox Odyssey, 8, 11, 12, 21, 25 games <strong>of</strong>, 31 score display, 48 Manchester Mark I, 38 [174] Manuals and documentation, 91, 142 Combat, 19, 36, 37 Pac-Man, 69, 74, 75 Yars’ Revenge, 81 MARIA, 135 Mark III, 134 Mask ROMs, 21, 25 Mattel Electronics, 119, 121. See also Intellivision video games for <strong>the</strong> VCS (see Kool-Aid Man) Maurer, Rick, 73 Mayer, Steve, 12, 20, 25, 26 Mayfi eld, Mike, 125 Mazes, 56–58, 68 McGee, American, 61 McLuhan, Marshall, 27 Meier, Sid, 61 Merhi, Yucef, 142 Merlin, 121, 122 Micros<strong>of</strong>t Excel, 59 Microvision, 121 Midway games, 6–9. See also Arcades Miller, Alan, 5, 60, 99, 100 Milner, Ron, 12, 20, 25, 26 Milton Bradley Company, 121 Miner, Jay, 13, 20, 27, 46–47 Miyamoto, Shigeru, 61 M Network. See Mattel Electronics Monopoly, 51 MOS Technology 6502 processor, 4, 12, 25, 28, 67 6507 processor, 12–13, 25, 27, 28, 77 6532 Peripheral Interface Adaptor, 14, 23 Motorola chips, 12, 13 Movement in action-adventure games, 48–49 contiguous through virtual space, 48–51 horizontal, 50, 72–73 in Pitfall!, 107 vertical, 50 in Yars’ Revenge, 88–89 Movie-based games, 15, 123–128. See also specifi c movie-based games Ms. Pac-Man (arcade game), 67 Ms. Pac-Man (VCS game), 74, 77–79, 87
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Racing the Beam
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Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost The MI
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Contents Series Foreword vii Acknow
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• an awareness of and discussion
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A shout-out goes to the bloggers an
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1982 Atari 5200 introduced; Atari V
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eception and operation of computer
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specifi c machines can reveal the r
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important contributions as well. Ce
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game encourages continued play and
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1.1 To play Atari’s Home Pong, th
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Design of the Atari VCS The enginee
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RAM, the memory programs use to sto
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of the basic hardware capabilities
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Combat 2 The Atari VCS console was
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ROM technologies that are not truly
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and the available VCS controllers.
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allows for bits 4 (left player, up)
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Where VCS Meets TV The processor is
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2.3 The smallest vertical unit in t
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For Two Players Combat imitated the
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VCS programs. Even when the machine
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Game Variations The game’s variat
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.BYTE $24 ;Game 1: 0010 0100 TANK .
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Storing a large set of instructions
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two human players, as it had no AI.
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Adventure 3 What video game could b
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computer platforms of the early 198
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PF0 PF1 PF2 bits: bits: bits: 4 5 6
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merely press the joystick in a comp
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of Tank had been developed jointly
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Turning a missile on for the entire
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3.2 If Adventure had used bounding
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3.3 This map of the world in Advent
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why the cursor matches the walls an
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Today, there are perhaps a handful
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different perspective to let the pl
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Pac-Man did fairly well in Japan, b
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More important than the sheer amoun
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equirements of the TIA playfi eld,
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4K ROM provides greater fl exibilit
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Pac-Man would have been unrecogniza
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a very unusual production run, give
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4.3 The VCS Ms. Pac-Man has bonus f
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Yars’ Revenge 5 In 1981 Yars’ R
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power, graphics, and controller set
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Asteroids, on the other hand, makes
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some cases, as important as the ses
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up and down are both laid out in RO
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There are reasons for these intrica
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The Code Zone Yars’ Revenge featu
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Color port of Yars’ Revenge in 19
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mechanic), and up from the bottom (
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[100] our contribution to the compa
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hundred people. These teams are div
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Design Center. The company later ad
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(COLUP0/COLUP1) and graphics (GRP0/
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comprises Combat’s planes, Slot R
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that this idea would make an intere
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As stated here, the high bit of the
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contemplated all at once. It offers
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Another graphical detail can be see
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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
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tribution through Sears, the compan
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