Rewriting History

Keynote address to the 2014 Game History Annual Symposium, Montreal

Authors

  • Tristan Donovan Auteur-e

Keywords:

Video game, Game history, Methodology, Europe, Replay: The History of Video Games

Abstract

In this keynote address, I provide an overview of the thinking and methodology that underpinned my 2010 book Replay: The History of Video Games. I start by explaining the flaws that I felt existed in previous video game histories and how that informed the key goals I had in mind when researching and writing the book. I then outline, with examples, the research methodology I used to try and examine trends in the medium’s history. Finally, I conclude with several lessons for game historians that came out of researching and writing Replay.

Author Biography

  • Tristan Donovan

    Tristan Donovan is a British journalist and the author of Replay: The History of Video Games (2010), Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World (2013) and Feral Cities: Adventures with Animals in the Urban Jungle (2015). He has also contributed chapters on video game history in Video Games Around the World (2015) and The Routledge Companion to British Media History (2014). Tristan's games journalism has appeared in Stuff, BBC News, Eurogamer, Gamasutra, Edge, The Times (of London) and The Guardian. He has also edited the following books: Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood by Jamie Russell (2012) and Death Threats and Dogs: Life on the Social Work Frontline (2013).

References

AMIS Martin (1982), Invasion of the Space Invaders, London, Hutchinson.

CUNNINGHAM Chris (1980), “The games that aliens play”, New Scientist, 18-25 (December), p. 782.

DONOVAN Tristan (2010), Replay: The History of Video Games, Lewes, UK, Yellow Ant.

DONOVAN Tristan (2013), Fizz: How Soda Shook up the World, Chicago, Chicago Review Press.

PARADIS Charles (2014), “Insert coin to play: Space Invaders and the 100-yen myth”, The Numismatist, March, p. 46-48.

Downloads

Published

2015-06-01

Issue

No. Spécial (2015): Cultural History of Video Games

Section

Opening keynote

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.