Gaming the Iron Curtain

Table Of Contents

Series Foreword xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
A Note on Translations and Pronunciation xix
Introduction xxi
1 Micros in the Margins: Computer Technology in the State Socialist Society 1
Toward Normalization 3
Beyond the Quiet Life 5
A Revolution That Was Normalized 9
The State of the Computer Industry 12
Electronization Programs of the 1980s 15
Men, Women, and Machines 18
Side Roads to Micros 21
Who Needs a Home Computer? 27
Farm Computers and the Courageous Clone 31
2 Hunting Down the Machine: Trajectories of Microcomputer Domestication 35
A Machine That Obeys 39
Wandering Programmers 42
Spectacle from the West 45
Importing the Standard 47
The Shiny Side of Retail 50
A Room of Its Own 53 
3 Our Amateur Can Work Miracles: Infrastructures of Hobby Computing 63
Cybernetics for Youth 66
Repurposing the Paramilitary 71
Activist Meshworks 74
Tolerating the Man’s World 77
Build Your Own Peripherals 81
Amateur Entrepreneurs 85
Starting a Computer Fanzine 87
Samizdat Research Institute 90
4 Who’s Afraid of Gameplay? Czechoslovak Discourses on Computer Games 99
Playing with Computers 102
Forbidden Pleasures 104
Bringing Games under Control 109
Computer Game Advocates 112
The Appreciation of Tomahawk 116
5 Lighting Up the Shadows: Informal Distribution of Game Software 123
From Yugoslavia with Cracks 126
The Unregulated (Non)medium 133
Lightning-Fast Sneakernet 135
Homemade Tape Culture 139
(Mis)understanding Games 143
A Cottage Arcade Industry 147
6 Bastard Children of the West: Establishing a Domestic Coding Culture 153
Czechoslovak Homebrew Scene 157
Ports and Conversions 164
What Became of Flappy 167
Forging the Shooter 171
Second Lives of Indiana Jones 174
Hacking Games 178
7 Empowered by Games: Games as a Means of Self-Expression and Activism 185
Hello World! 190
Adventure in Your Home 192
Spreading Unofficial Culture 196
Small Subversions 199
A Protest of Sorts 204
Taking to the Streets 206
Conclusion 215
Bricoleurs and Tacticians 218
We Have Always Been Indie 219
Toward Comparative Histories 221
Preserving the Peripheral 223
Epilogue: After the Curtain Fell 227
Computers and Games in Transition 229
A Belated Cottage Industry 232
Homebrew Lives On 234
The Game Industry Today: Adventures, Army, and Automation 235
Where Are They Now? 238
Appendix: Important Dates 241
Glossary 243
Notes 247
Bibliography 315
Index 345