{"product_id":"gaming-the-iron-curtain-isbn-9780262549288","title":"Gaming the Iron Curtain","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In \u003ci\u003eGaming the Iron Curtain,\u003c\/i\u003e Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eŠvelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, \u003ci\u003eGaming the Iron Curtain\u003c\/i\u003e tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard.Series Foreword xi \u003cbr\u003ePreface xiii \u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments xvii \u003cbr\u003eA Note on Translations and Pronunciation xix \u003cbr\u003eIntroduction xxi \u003cbr\u003e1 Micros in the Margins: Computer Technology in the State Socialist Society 1 \u003cbr\u003eToward Normalization 3 \u003cbr\u003eBeyond the Quiet Life 5 \u003cbr\u003eA Revolution That Was Normalized 9 \u003cbr\u003eThe State of the Computer Industry 12 \u003cbr\u003eElectronization Programs of the 1980s 15 \u003cbr\u003eMen, Women, and Machines 18 \u003cbr\u003eSide Roads to Micros 21 \u003cbr\u003eWho Needs a Home Computer? 27 \u003cbr\u003eFarm Computers and the Courageous Clone 31 \u003cbr\u003e2 Hunting Down the Machine: Trajectories of Microcomputer Domestication 35 \u003cbr\u003eA Machine That Obeys 39 \u003cbr\u003eWandering Programmers 42 \u003cbr\u003eSpectacle from the West 45 \u003cbr\u003eImporting the Standard 47 \u003cbr\u003eThe Shiny Side of Retail 50 \u003cbr\u003eA Room of Its Own 53 \u003cbr\u003e3 Our Amateur Can Work Miracles: Infrastructures of Hobby Computing 63 \u003cbr\u003eCybernetics for Youth 66 \u003cbr\u003eRepurposing the Paramilitary 71 \u003cbr\u003eActivist Meshworks 74 \u003cbr\u003eTolerating the Man’s World 77 \u003cbr\u003eBuild Your Own Peripherals 81 \u003cbr\u003eAmateur Entrepreneurs 85 \u003cbr\u003eStarting a Computer Fanzine 87 \u003cbr\u003eSamizdat Research Institute 90 \u003cbr\u003e4 Who’s Afraid of Gameplay? Czechoslovak Discourses on Computer Games 99 \u003cbr\u003ePlaying with Computers 102 \u003cbr\u003eForbidden Pleasures 104 \u003cbr\u003eBringing Games under Control 109 \u003cbr\u003eComputer Game Advocates 112 \u003cbr\u003eThe Appreciation of Tomahawk 116 \u003cbr\u003e5 Lighting Up the Shadows: Informal Distribution of Game Software 123 \u003cbr\u003eFrom Yugoslavia with Cracks 126 \u003cbr\u003eThe Unregulated (Non)medium 133 \u003cbr\u003eLightning-Fast Sneakernet 135 \u003cbr\u003eHomemade Tape Culture 139 \u003cbr\u003e(Mis)understanding Games 143 \u003cbr\u003eA Cottage Arcade Industry 147 \u003cbr\u003e6 Bastard Children of the West: Establishing a Domestic Coding Culture 153 \u003cbr\u003eCzechoslovak Homebrew Scene 157 \u003cbr\u003ePorts and Conversions 164 \u003cbr\u003eWhat Became of Flappy 167 \u003cbr\u003eForging the Shooter 171 \u003cbr\u003eSecond Lives of Indiana Jones 174 \u003cbr\u003eHacking Games 178 \u003cbr\u003e7 Empowered by Games: Games as a Means of Self-Expression and Activism 185 \u003cbr\u003eHello World! 190 \u003cbr\u003eAdventure in Your Home 192 \u003cbr\u003eSpreading Unofficial Culture 196\u003cbr\u003eSmall Subversions 199 \u003cbr\u003eA Protest of Sorts 204 \u003cbr\u003eTaking to the Streets 206 \u003cbr\u003eConclusion 215 \u003cbr\u003eBricoleurs and Tacticians 218 \u003cbr\u003eWe Have Always Been Indie 219 \u003cbr\u003eToward Comparative Histories 221 \u003cbr\u003ePreserving the Peripheral 223 \u003cbr\u003eEpilogue: After the Curtain Fell 227 \u003cbr\u003eComputers and Games in Transition 229 \u003cbr\u003eA Belated Cottage Industry 232 \u003cbr\u003eHomebrew Lives On 234 \u003cbr\u003eThe Game Industry Today: Adventures, Army, and Automation 235 \u003cbr\u003eWhere Are They Now? 238 \u003cbr\u003eAppendix: Important Dates 241 \u003cbr\u003eGlossary 243 \u003cbr\u003eNotes 247 \u003cbr\u003eBibliography 315 \u003cbr\u003eIndex 345Jaroslav Švelch is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies at Charles University, Prague, and Lecturer in the Department of Game Design at the Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eGaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304330088677,"sku":"NP9780262549288","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262549288.jpg?v=1767727856","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/gaming-the-iron-curtain-isbn-9780262549288","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}