{"product_id":"seeing-red-isbn-9780262045063","title":"Seeing Red","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe curious history, technology, and technocultural context of Nintendo’s short-lived stereoscopic gaming console, the Virtual Boy.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith glowing red stereoscopic 3D graphics, the Virtual Boy cast a prophetic hue: Shortly after its release in 1995, Nintendo's balance sheet for the product was \"in the red\" as well. Of all the innovative long shots the game industry has witnessed over the years, perhaps the most infamous and least understood was the Virtual Boy. Why the Virtual Boy failed, and where it succeeded, are questions that video game experts José Zagal and Benj Edwards explore in \u003ci\u003eSeeing Red\u003c\/i\u003e, but even more interesting to the authors is what the platform actually was: what it promised, how it worked, and where it fit into the story of gaming.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNintendo released the Virtual Boy as a standalone table-top device in 1995—and quickly discontinued it after lackluster sales and a lukewarm critical reception. In \u003ci\u003eSeeing Red,\u003c\/i\u003e Zagal and Edwards examine the device's technical capabilities, its games, and the cultural context in the US in the 1990s when Nintendo developed and released the unusual console. The Virtual Boy, in their account, built upon and extended an often-forgotten historical tradition of immersive layered dioramas going back 100 years that was largely unexplored in video games at the time. The authors also show how the platform's library of games conveyed a distinct visual aesthetic style that has not been significantly explored since the Virtual Boy's release, having been superseded by polygonal 3D graphics. The platform's meaning, they contend, lies as much in its design and technical capabilities and affordances as it does in an audience's perception of those capabilities. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOffering rare insight into how we think about video game platforms, \u003ci\u003eSeeing Red\u003c\/i\u003e illustrates where perception and context come, quite literally, into play.“\u003ci\u003eSeeing Red\u003c\/i\u003e makes good on the promises of media archaeology and platform studies by excavating the roots of an oft-derided 'minor platform' and demonstrating how market failures are viable and valuable objects of media analysis.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Nathan Altice, Associate Teaching Professor of Computational Media at UC Santa Cruz, author of \u003ci\u003eI AM ERROR\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSeeing Red\u003c\/i\u003e offers the best kind of platform study, engaging with the technology, marketing, and afterlife of the Virtual Boy and finding rich sources of insight and knowledge in a platform many consider a ‘failure.’”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Mia Consalvo, Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design, Concordia University, coauthor of \u003ci\u003eReal Games\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eJosé P. Zagal is Professor at the University of Utah’s Entertainment Arts \u0026amp; Engineering program. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eLudoliteracy\u003c\/i\u003e, editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Videogame Ethics Reader\u003c\/i\u003e, and Editor-in-Chief of \u003ci\u003eTransactions of the Digital Games Research Association\u003c\/i\u003e. Zagal has been honored as a DiGRA Distinguished Scholar and a Fellow of the Higher-Education Video Game Alliance for his contributions to games research.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBenj Edwards is a tech historian and journalist. He is currently the AI and Machine Learning reporter for Ars Technica and a tech journalist for publications such as \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic, Wired, Macworld\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePCWorld\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFast Company\u003c\/i\u003e, and other publications. Edwards is also the Editor-in-Chief of \u003ci\u003eVintage Computing and Gaming\u003c\/i\u003e, a contributor to the \u003ci\u003eRetronauts\u003c\/i\u003e podcast, and creator of \u003ci\u003eThe Culture of Tech\u003c\/i\u003e podcast.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303958532325,"sku":"NP9780262045063","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262045063.jpg?v=1767736303","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/seeing-red-isbn-9780262045063","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}