Contributors examine the early days of video game history before the industry crash of 1983 that ended the medium's golden age.Following the first appearance of arcade video games in 1971 and home video game systems in 1972, the commercial video game market was exuberant with fast-paced innovation and profit. New games, gaming systems, and technologies flooded into the market until around 1983, when sales of home game systems dropped, thousands of arcades closed, a...

Mark J.P. Wolf’s study of imaginary worlds theorizes world-building within and across media, including literature, comics, film, radio, television, board games, video games, the Internet, and more. Building Imaginary Worlds departs from prior approaches to imaginary worlds that focused mainly on narrative, medium, or genre, and instead considers imaginary worlds as dynamic entities in and of themselves. Wolf argues that imaginary worlds—which are often transnarrative, transmedial,...

This is a comprehensive history of computer graphics in Hollywood cinema. As the first such work of its kind, it is an essential reference for anyone interested in the history of cinema, visual effects, or computer graphics, and the industries of which they are a part.The book begins with a look at the history behind the calculation of images, from weaving to screen imaging, and the faux computer graphics used in movies before real computer graphics were available ...

This is a magisterial work of rivalry and romance, loyalty and treachery, friendship and malice, quiet heroism and subhuman vileness. Wolf weaves a luminous tapestry, intimating without reproducing themes of Homer's Odyssey, Marlowe's Dr. Faustus and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The trials and transformation of common dwarves into hardened heroes, the corrupting lust for power, and the astonishing triumph of enduring goodness over the forces of darkness give this work the gravitas of a...

A definitive guide to contemporary video game studies, this second edition has been fully revised and updated to address the ongoing theoretical and methodological development of game studies.Expertly compiled by well-known video game scholars Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, the Companion includes comprehensive and interdisciplinary models and approaches for analyzing video games, new perspectives on video games both as an art form and cultural phenomenon, explorations...

Over a mere three decades, the video game became the entertainment medium of choice for millions of people, who now spend more time in the interactive virtual world of games than they do in watching movies or even television. The release of new games or game-playing equipment, such as the PlayStation 2, generates great excitement and even buying frenzies. Yet, until now, this giant on the popular culture landscape has received little in-depth study or analysis.In this book, Mark J....

The Video Game Theory Reader 2 picks up where the first Video Game Theory Reader (Routledge, 2003) left off, with a group of leading scholars turning their attention to next-generation platforms-the Nintendo Wii, the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360-and to new issues in the rapidly expanding field of video games studies. The contributors are some of the most renowned scholars working on video games today including Henry Jenkins, Jesper Juul, Eric Zimmerman, and Mia Consalvo. W...

This edited anthology offers a collection of essays that each look at various types of wayfinding. Together they explore a variety of wayfinding tools and techniques and their applications, as well as ways of keeping track of the construction of worlds too.With transmedial worlds extending over multiple media, multiple authors, and sometimes even multiple decades of creation, a wealth of different issues can arise; worlds need to direct audience members into how to organize them co...

With contributions from a distinguished group of world-builders, including academics, writers, and designers, this anthology of essays describes the process and discusses the nature of subcreation and the construction of worlds.From Oz to MUD, Walden to Rockall, all the worlds featured in this volume share one thing in common: they began in someone’s imagination, grew from there, and became worlds built with the assistance of multiple authors and a variety of different ide...

This volume examines fifty of the most important video games that have contributed significantly to the history, development, or culture of the medium, providing an overview of video games from their beginning to the present day.This volume covers a variety of historical periods and platforms, genres, commercial impact, artistic choices, contexts of play, typical and atypical representations, uses of games for specific purposes, uses of materials or techniques, specific subcultures...

Now in its second edition, the Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming is the definitive, go-to resource for anyone interested in the diverse and expanding video game industry.This three-volume encyclopedia covers all things video games, including the games themselves, the companies that make them, and the people who play them. Written by scholars who are exceptionally knowledgeable in the field of video game studies, it not...

This encyclopedia collects and organizes theoretical and historical content on the topic of video games, covering the people, systems, technologies, and theoretical concepts as well as the games themselves.This two-volume encyclopedia addresses the key people, companies, regions, games, systems, institutions, technologies, and theoretical concepts in the world of video games, serving as a unique resource for students. The work comprises over 300 entries from 97 con...