Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

History Of Gaming Featured In New Media Book/CD-ROM

Posted by simoniker on from the wumpus-rumpus dept.

nickmontfort writes "The New Media Reader is out now from MIT Press. The book tries to shed light on how people have used computers to create and communicate. Also included is a cross-platform CD with original programs from the past four decades, some documented, some running in emulation." With a book and CD including vintage articles and classic titles like Spacewar!, Hunt The Wumpus, Yar's Revenge, and Karateka, this is an interesting, if quite theory-skewed look at computer interactivity - check out excerpts at the official website.

10 comments

  1. Simoniker? WHO THIS FUCK IS THAT? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    When I think of dirty old men, I think of Ike Thomas and when I think about Ike I get a hard-on that won't quit.

    Sixty years ago, I worked in what was once my Grandfather's Greenhouses. Gramps had died a year earlier and Grandma, now in her seventies had been forced to sell to the competition. I got a job with the new owners and mostly worked the range by myself. That summer, they hired a man to help me get the benches ready for the fall planting.

    Ike always looked like he was three days from a shave and his whiskers were dirty white, shaded by the brim of his battered felt fedora.

    He did not chew tobacco but the corners of his mouth turned down in a way that, at any moment, I expected a trickle of thin, brown juice to creep down his chin. His bushy, brown eyebrows shaded pale, gray eyes.

    The old-timer extended his hand, lifted his leg like a dog about to mark a bush and let go the loudest fart I ever heard. The old fellow then winked at me, "Ike Thomas is the name and playing pecker's my game."

    I thought he said, "Checkers." I was nineteen, green as grass. I said, "I was never much good at that game."

    "Now me," said Ike, "I just love jumping men . . ."

    "I'll bet you do."

    ". . . and grabbing on to their peckers," said Ike.

    "I though we were talking about . . ."

    "You like jumping old men's peckers?"

    I shook my head.

    "I reckon we'll have to remedy that." Ike lifted his right leg and let go another tremendous fart. "He said, "We best be getting to work."

    That summer of 1941 was a more innocent time. I learned most of the sex I knew from those little eight pager cartoon booklets of comic-page characters going at it. Young men read them in the privacy of an outside john, played with themselves, by themselves and didn't brag about it. Sometimes, we got off with a trusted friend and helped each other out.

    Under the greenhouse glass, the temperature some times climbed over the hundred degree mark. I had worked stripped to the waist since April and was as brown as a berry. On only his second day on the job and in the middle of August, Ike wore old fashioned overalls. Those and socks in his high-top work shoes was every stitch he wore. When he bent forward, the bib front billowed out and I could see the white curly hairs on his chest and belly.

    "Me? I just love to eat pussy!" Ike licked his lips from corner to corner then sticking his tongue out far enough that the tip could touch the end of his nose. He said, A man's not a man till he knows first hand, the flavor of a lady's pussy."

    "People do that?"

    He winked. "Of course the taste of a hard cock ain't to be sneezed at neither. Now you answer me, yes or no. Does a man's cock taste salty or not?"

    "I never . . ."

    "Well, old Ike's willing to let you find out."

    "No way."

    "Just teasing," said Ike. "But don't give me no sass or I'll show you my ass." He winked. "Might show it to you anyway, if you was to ask."

    "Why would I do that?"

    "Curiosity, maybe. I'm guessing you never had a good piece of man ass."

    "I'm no queer."

    "Now don't be getting judgmental. Enjoying what's at hand ain't being queer. It's taking pleasure where you find it with anybody willing." Ike slipped a hand into the side slit of his overalls and I could tell he was fondling and straightening out his cock. "Now I admit I got me a hole that satisfied a few guys."

    I swallowed, hard.

    Ike winked. "Care to be asshole buddies?"

    ***

    We worked steadily until noon. Ike drew a worn pocket watch from the bib pocket of his loose overalls and croaked, "Bean time. But first its time to reel out our limber hoses and make with the golden arches before lunch."

    I followed Ike to the end of the greenhouse where he stopped at the outside wall of the potting shed. He opened his fly, fished inside, and finger-hooked a soft white penis with a pouting for

  2. fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    fp

  3. Other books on history of gaming by lightspawn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    (please post opinions if you've read them)

    Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984

    The Ultimate History of Video Games

    Arcade fever

    High Score! The Illustrated History of Electronic Games

    I only own the first one, and it's visually striking; as much an art book as a history book.

    1. Re:Other books on history of gaming by veganjay · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I've got the first three, and am going to order the fourth.

      Overall, I like all the books, as each of them is good in a different way:

      "Supercade" has some a wide amount of pictures, however, sometimes the quality isn't too happening. It features pictures of arcade games, as well as home consoles: Odyssey, Pong, Channel F, Home PCs.

      "The Ultimate History" is aptly named; it is mostly text, and covers the history of the video game industry. I enjoyed reading about the history of Atari, Nintendo, etc. Good book.

      "Arcade Fever" covers mostly Arcade machines. There is a good mixture of pictures and text, and the layout looks cool. It is a good coffee table book. The arcade cabinets and screenshots (taken from MAME) are very clear.

      "High Score" is another good one; I look at it everytime I'm in the bookstore, but haven't picked it up yet.

      You can also check out:

      Phoenix, the rise and fall of VideoGames
      Game Over (History of Nintendo)

      --
      jason

  4. h0l : Please try not to post crap like this again. by Real+World+Stuff · · Score: -1

    I'm not gay or anyhing but that Ol' Ike gets the pulse going.

    --
    If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
  5. HUNT DA WUMPUS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What a great name for a game.

    1. Re:HUNT DA WUMPUS! by JamPaladin · · Score: 1
      Ahh, Hunt the Wumpus. That was a fairly interesting game. You were stuck in a maze, in which every room ahd three exits. Being in the same room as the whumpus killed you, so to beat it you had to find the room next to it, and shoot an arrow in the right directioon (You knew you were adjacent, but never which direction) Incidentillay, the whumpus was some kind of animal/beast type thing.

      I remember ereading in a book discussing programming games for some old apple computer a description of suggestions for games. There was one in which you had to defeat a wizard, which was identical to the game.

  6. This purple "Games" themes is ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    flame me, but this part of slashdot looks like it build by a young teenager.

    Just reading the comments will burn your fucking eyes out.

  7. note, this is dated 1984 by Khopesh · · Score: 1

    so it can't talk about tetris, doom, civilization, simcity,
    or compare with console games (nintendo came out when, 1986?).

    so when it discusses violence, think violent like pac-man.

    --
    Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
  8. Good C64 books? by CPD · · Score: 1

    I have High Score! and it's a visually striking book, there's a photo of the original Space War machine - cool! However there is alot of material to cover in the history of gaming and it glosses over quite alot in an attempt to cover everything.

    What I'd really love to see is a book detailing the history of gaming on the Commodore line of computers. Specifically the 64, 128 and the Amiga. Does such a thing exist?