Atari Age: The Emergence of Video Games in America

摘要

I was born too late to be a part of the "Atari Age," but the epoch explored by Michael Z. Newman in Atari Age: The Emergence of Video Games in America echoes through today. Going beyond the exploration of the technological context of the Atari Video Computer System (VCS or Atari), the book uses the object as a kind of touchstone to examine a wide array of technological, social, and cultural shifts in the United States leading up to the 1980s. Different from Platform Studies from MIT Press, such as Montfort and Bogost's Racing the Beam or Altice's / AM ERROR, Newman examines a cultural and historical period punctuated by the Atari, rather than the particular technological artifact itself.Pitched as "New Media history," Atari Age grapples well with the twists and turns that people had to negotiate during the 1970s. Conceptual frameworks such as media studies and the history of technology and leisure studies help Newman to claim the "Atari Age" as a specific period.