Super Power, Spoony Bards, and Silverware

Super Power, Spoony Bards, and Silverware PDF Author: Dominic Arsenault
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262036568
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
How the Super Nintendo Entertainment System embodied Nintendo’s s resistance to innovation and took the company from industry leadership to the margins of videogaming. This is a book about the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that is not celebratory or self-congratulatory. Most other accounts declare the Super NES the undisputed victor of the “16-bit console wars” of 1989–1995. In this book, Dominic Arsenault reminds us that although the SNES was a strong platform filled with high-quality games, it was also the product of a short-sighted corporate vision focused on maintaining Nintendo’s market share and business model. This led the firm to fall from a dominant position during its golden age (dubbed by Arsenault the “ReNESsance”) with the NES to the margins of the industry with the Nintendo 64 and GameCube consoles. Arsenault argues that Nintendo’s conservative business strategies and resistance to innovation during the SNES years explain its market defeat by Sony’s PlayStation. Extending the notion of “platform” to include the marketing forces that shape and constrain creative work, Arsenault draws not only on game studies and histories but on game magazines, boxes, manuals, and advertisements to identify the technological discourses and business models that formed Nintendo’s Super Power. He also describes the cultural changes in video games during the 1990s that slowly eroded the love of gamer enthusiasts for the SNES as the Nintendo generation matured. Finally, he chronicles the many technological changes that occurred through the SNES's lifetime, including full-motion video, CD-ROM storage, and the shift to 3D graphics. Because of the SNES platform’s architecture, Arsenault explains, Nintendo resisted these changes and continued to focus on traditional gameplay genres.

Super Power, Spoony Bards, and Silverware

Super Power, Spoony Bards, and Silverware PDF Author: Dominic Arsenault
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262036568
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book

Book Description
How the Super Nintendo Entertainment System embodied Nintendo’s s resistance to innovation and took the company from industry leadership to the margins of videogaming. This is a book about the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that is not celebratory or self-congratulatory. Most other accounts declare the Super NES the undisputed victor of the “16-bit console wars” of 1989–1995. In this book, Dominic Arsenault reminds us that although the SNES was a strong platform filled with high-quality games, it was also the product of a short-sighted corporate vision focused on maintaining Nintendo’s market share and business model. This led the firm to fall from a dominant position during its golden age (dubbed by Arsenault the “ReNESsance”) with the NES to the margins of the industry with the Nintendo 64 and GameCube consoles. Arsenault argues that Nintendo’s conservative business strategies and resistance to innovation during the SNES years explain its market defeat by Sony’s PlayStation. Extending the notion of “platform” to include the marketing forces that shape and constrain creative work, Arsenault draws not only on game studies and histories but on game magazines, boxes, manuals, and advertisements to identify the technological discourses and business models that formed Nintendo’s Super Power. He also describes the cultural changes in video games during the 1990s that slowly eroded the love of gamer enthusiasts for the SNES as the Nintendo generation matured. Finally, he chronicles the many technological changes that occurred through the SNES's lifetime, including full-motion video, CD-ROM storage, and the shift to 3D graphics. Because of the SNES platform’s architecture, Arsenault explains, Nintendo resisted these changes and continued to focus on traditional gameplay genres.

Nintendo Power

Nintendo Power PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Computer games
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description


Nintendo Power Advance

Nintendo Power Advance PDF Author: Nintendo of America, Incorporated
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781930206212
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description


Mario Titles

Mario Titles PDF Author:
Publisher: PediaPress
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Official Nintendo Power Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire Player's Guide

Official Nintendo Power Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire Player's Guide PDF Author: Nintendo of America, Incorporated
Publisher: Nintendo of America
ISBN: 9781930206311
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Official Nintendo Power Perfect Dark Player's Guide

Official Nintendo Power Perfect Dark Player's Guide PDF Author: Jason Leung
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781930206021
Category : Nintendo video games
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description


Architectural Approach to Level Design

Architectural Approach to Level Design PDF Author: Christopher W. Totten
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351116282
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 547

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Book Description
Written by a game developer and professor trained in architecture, An Architectural Approach to Level Design is one of the first books to integrate architectural and spatial design theory with the field of level design. It explores the principles of level design through the context and history of architecture. Now in its second edition, An Architectural Approach to Level Design presents architectural techniques and theories for you to use in your own work. The author connects architecture and level design in different ways that address the practical elements of how designers construct space and the experiential elements of how and why humans interact with that space. It also addresses industry issues like how to build interesting tutorial levels and how to use computer-generated level design systems without losing the player-focused design of handmade levels. Throughout the text, you will learn skills for spatial layout, evoking emotion through gamespaces, and creating better levels through architectural theory. FEATURES Presents case studies that offer insight on modern level design practices, methods, and tools Presents perspectives from industry designers, independent game developers, scientists, psychologists, and academics Explores how historical structures can teach us about good level design Shows how to use space to guide or elicit emotion from players Includes chapter exercises that encourage you to use principles from the chapter in digital prototypes, playtesting sessions, paper mock-ups, and design journals Bringing together topics in game design and architecture, this book helps you create better spaces for your games. Software independent, the book discusses tools and techniques that you can use in crafting your interactive worlds.

Playing with Power: Nintendo NES Classics

Playing with Power: Nintendo NES Classics PDF Author: Garitt Rocha
Publisher: Prima Games
ISBN: 9780744017779
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A fascinating retrospective on 17 NES classics including complete walkthroughs-- including Super Mario Bros. 3, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda!. A journey through three eras of NES history. Commentary and history from Nintendo visionaries who pioneered this era of gaming. An inside look at the system and game paks. Priceless excerpts from Nintendo Power magazine back issues! Plus maps, character art, and extras!

The Evolution and Social Impact of Video Game Economics

The Evolution and Social Impact of Video Game Economics PDF Author: Casey B. Hart
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498543421
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Today, consumers of video games spend over $22.4 billion each year; using more complex and multi-layered strategies, game developers attempt to extend the profitability of their products from a simple one-time sale, to continuous engagement with the consumer. The Evolution and Social Impact of Video Game Economics examines paradigmatic changes in the economic structure of the video game industry from a media effects and game design perspective. This book explores how game developers have changed how they engage players in order to facilitate continuous financial transactions. Contributors look from the advent of microtransactions and downloadable content (DLCs) to the impact of planned obsolescence, impulse buying, and emotional control. This collection takes a broad view of the game dynamics and market forces that drive the video game industry, and features international contributors from Asia, Europe, and Australia.

I Am Error

I Am Error PDF Author: Nathan Altice
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262534541
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
The complex material histories of the Nintendo Entertainment System platform, from code to silicon, focusing on its technical constraints and its expressive affordances. In the 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System videogame Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, a character famously declared: I AM ERROR. Puzzled players assumed that this cryptic mesage was a programming flaw, but it was actually a clumsy Japanese-English translation of “My Name is Error,” a benign programmer's joke. In I AM ERROR Nathan Altice explores the complex material histories of the Nintendo Entertainment System (and its Japanese predecessor, the Family Computer), offering a detailed analysis of its programming and engineering, its expressive affordances, and its cultural significance. Nintendo games were rife with mistranslated texts, but, as Altice explains, Nintendo's translation challenges were not just linguistic but also material, with consequences beyond simple misinterpretation. Emphasizing the technical and material evolution of Nintendo's first cartridge-based platform, Altice describes the development of the Family Computer (or Famicom) and its computational architecture; the “translation” problems faced while adapting the Famicom for the U.S. videogame market as the redesigned Entertainment System; Nintendo's breakthrough console title Super Mario Bros. and its remarkable software innovations; the introduction of Nintendo's short-lived proprietary disk format and the design repercussions on The Legend of Zelda; Nintendo's efforts to extend their console's lifespan through cartridge augmentations; the Famicom's Audio Processing Unit (APU) and its importance for the chiptunes genre; and the emergence of software emulators and the new kinds of play they enabled.