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MRTS 4410 Video Game Histories

Understand the history of video games by critically approaching how different interpretations led to different futures of video games as a medium, industry, and cultural form.

Week 1: Industry History Overview

In-Class Documentary:  Video Games: The Movie (DVD 17586)

Week 2: The Great White Men of Video Game History

Steven Kent. 2001. The Ultimate History of Video Games: Chapters 2-4, 6. 

Week 3: The Golden Age and Crash

Kent. 2001. Ultimate History: Chapters 9-14, 16.

Week 4: Console Wars and the Upgrade Logic

Kent. 2001. Ultimate History: Chapters 17-20, 22-24.

Week 5: Fragmentation

Week 8: Gender

Documentary [online]: GTFO 
Janine Fron, Tracy Fullerton, Jacquelyn Ford Morie, and Celia Pearce. 2007. “The Hegemony of Play.” In Digital Gaming Research Association: Situated Play. Tokyo.
Carly Kocurek. 2016. “Identities” in Debugging Game History, edited by Henry Lowood and Raiford Guins: pp. 237-246.

Week 9: Linearity

Brett Camper. 2009. “Retro Reflexivity: La Mulana, an 8 bit Period Piece” in The Video Game Theory Reader 2, edited by Perron and Wolf: pp. 169-195.

Week 10: Local Histories and National Industries

Wesley Kirinya. "Africa" chapter in Video Games Around the World: pp. 17-28
Alexis Blanchet. "France" chapter in Video Games Around the World: pp.175-191
Melanie Swalwell. "New Zealand" chapter in Video Games Around the World: pp.377-389

Week 11: Materiality in History: Board Games

Mary Flanagan. 2009. “Board Games” in Critical Play: Radical Game Design: pp. 63-116.
(optional) Matthew Kirschenbaum. 2016. “Kriegsspiel” in Debugging Game History, edited by Henry Lowood and Raiford Guins: pp. 279-286. 

Week 12: Materiality in History: Boxes and Museums

Raiford Guins. 2014. “Thinking Outside the (Game Cartridge) Box” in Game After: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife: 167-206. 

Week 13: Afterlives

Mark Guttenbrunner, Christoph Becker, and Andreas Rauber. 2010. “Keeping the Game Alive: Evaluating Strategies for the Preservation of Console Video Games.” The International Journal of Digital Curation vol 5, no 1: pp. 64-90 [http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/ 147/209]

Documentary [online] - Atari: Game Over (2014; 66min)

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