Atari Age - The Emergence of Video Games in America

266 Pages·2017·9.17 MB·English

by  Michael Z. Newman

Atari Age

Atari Age
The Emergence of Video Games in America
Michael Z. Newman
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Newman, Michael Z., author.
Title: Atari age : the emergence of video games in America / Michael Z.
Newman.
Description: Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016028476 | ISBN 9780262035712 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Video games--United States. | Video games industry--United
States.
Classification: LCC GV1469.3 .N484 2017 | DDC 794.8--dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028476
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments  vii
Preface  xi
Introduction: Early Video Games and New Media History 1
1 Good Clean Fun: The Origins of the Video Arcade 19
2 “Don’t Watch TV Tonight. Play It!” Early Video Games and
Television 45
3 Space Invaders: Masculine Play in the Media Room 73
4 Video Games as Computers, Computers as Toys 115
5 Video Kids Endangered and Improved 153
6 Pac-Man Fever 183
Notes  203
Select Bibliography  231
Index  243

Acknowledgments
So many people have helped me produce this book and I am grateful for
many kinds of support from institutions, friends, family, and even people
on the Internet I barely know.
For sharing their ideas, suggestions, research, or even just the name of
someone else who might know the answer to a question, thank you Megan
Ankerson, Catherine Baker, Anthony Bleach, Will Brooker, Rachel Dono-
hoe, Christine Evans, Kevin Ferguson, Raiford Guins, Thomas Haigh, Carly
Kocurek, Melanie Kohnen, David McGrady, Stuart Moulthrop, Sheila
Murphy, Laine Nooney, Rebecca Onion, Tommy Rousse, Phil Sewell, Kent
Smith, Colin Tait, Jacqueline Vickery, Ira Wagman, and Mark J. P. Wolf.
Anonymous readers for the MIT Press offered outstanding feedback.
I am so happy to have found communities of scholars on Facebook and
Twitter who answer questions and give advice. On Tumblr, I am thrilled to
follow hundreds of people I do not know “in real life” who share images,
videos, GIFs, and links. Even if I don’t know you personally, your presence
in my networks enriches my knowledge and experience every day.
Thanks are also due to a number of institutions and people who serve
them. Ellen Engseth and other University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee archi-
vists helped me get my hands on a treasure trove of department store cata-
logs. The Interlibrary Loan office of my campus library is doing God’s work,
and I owe them more than I can offer here. UWM’s Center for 21st Century
Studies and its former director, Richard Grusin, were essential in helping
me shape this project when it was getting started and giving me time to
work on it. I could not have completed this work without an Arts & Human-
ities Travel Grant and a Graduate School Research Committee Award, and I
am grateful for those forms of support. Librarians, archivists, and support
staff at the International Center for the History of Electronic Games at The
Strong, UCLA Film and Television Archive, and the Library of Congress
aided me in many ways. Thanks in particular are due to J. P. Dyson, Thomas
viii  Acknowledgments
Hawco, and Lauren Sodano of The Strong/ICHEG, and Mark Quigley of
UCLA.
At the MIT Press it has been my pleasure to work with Susan Buckley,
Susan Clark, Judy Feldmann, Pamela Quick, and Doug Sery.
I want to acknowledge some of the sources of information that we
all rely on and tend not to cite in our scholarly publications: Google
Books, Google Scholar, Amazon “look inside,” and Wikipedia. I use these
constantly to look things up. I often go to them even when sources I need
are on the bookcase next to my desk or stored on the hard drive of my com-
puter. Wikipedia in particular is so useful because so many volunteer editors
have given generously of their time and knowledge, and anyone who ever
wants facts quickly owes them their thanks.
In spring 2012 I taught a seminar on video games to graduate students,
and I learned an amazing amount from its participants. Stephen Kohlmann,
Alexander Marquardt, Pavel Mitov, Max Neibaur, Carey Peck, Leslie
Peckham, and David Wooten, thanks for all of your contributions to our
collective understanding of games and their history.
My colleagues in the Department of Journalism, Advertising, and Media
Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are supportive in many
ways. I want in particular to acknowledge the generosity of David Allen,
Rick Popp, Jeff Smith, and Marc Tasman. Elana Levine is a wonderfully
helpful colleague and spouse.
I presented portions of this book as work in progress to audiences at
UWM; Marquette University; more than one Console-ing Passions Interna-
tional Conference on Television, Video, Audio and New Media; conferences
of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and the American Studies
Association; the Fun with Dick and Jane: Gender and Childhood confer-
ence at the University of Notre Dame; and the Interplay conference at
Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. Thanks to all who
organized these conferences and in particular to the Interplay conference
participants and organizers, including Reem Hilu. Thanks to my audiences
for your attention and your questions and feedback.
Allan Zuckerman and Ron Becker were sources of old game consoles and
cartridges. Some of these were also passed down from the collection of my
late father-in-law Elliott Levine.
I am grateful to every friend and acquaintance who told me where in
their childhood home the video games would be found. I also want to
acknowledge my childhood friends and friends of friends in whose base-
ments I played Atari, Intellivision, and Colecovision as a child, and with