Seeing Red

The curious history, technology, and cultural context of Nintendo's short-lived stereoscopic gaming console, the Virtual Boy.With glowing red stereoscopic 3D graphics, the Virtual Boy cast a prophetic hue: Shortly after its release in 1995, Nintendo's balance sheet for the product was "in the red" a...

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Главные авторы: Zagal, José P., Edwards, Benj
Формат: Online
Язык:английский
Опубликовано: The MIT Press 2024
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Online-ссылка:ONIX_20241025_9780262380669_159
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author Zagal, José P.
Edwards, Benj
author_browse Edwards, Benj
Zagal, José P.
author_facet Zagal, José P.
Edwards, Benj
author_sort Zagal, José P.
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description The curious history, technology, and cultural context of Nintendo's short-lived stereoscopic gaming console, the Virtual Boy.With glowing red stereoscopic 3D graphics, the Virtual Boy cast a prophetic hue: Shortly after its release in 1995, Nintendo's balance sheet for the product was "in the red" as well. Of all the innovative long shots the game industry has witnessed over the years, perhaps the most infamous and least understood was the Virtual Boy. Why the Virtual Boy failed, and where it succeeded, are questions that video game experts José Zagal and Benj Edwards explore in Seeing Red, but even more interesting to the authors is what the platform actually was: what it promised, how it worked, and where it fit into the story of gaming.Nintendo released the Virtual Boy as a standalone table-top device in 1995—and quickly discontinued it after lackluster sales and a lukewarm critical reception. In Seeing Red, Zagal and Edwards examine the device's technical capabilities, its games, and the cultural context in the US in the 1990s when Nintendo developed and released the unusual console. The Virtual Boy, in their account, built upon and extended an often-forgotten historical tradition of immersive layered dioramas going back 100 years that was largely unexplored in video games at the time. The authors also show how the platform's library of games conveyed a distinct visual aesthetic style that has not been significantly explored since the Virtual Boy's release, having been superseded by polygonal 3D graphics. The platform's meaning, they contend, lies as much in its design and technical capabilities and affordances as it does in an audience's perception of those capabilities. Offering rare insight into how we think about video game platforms, Seeing Red illustrates where perception and context come, quite literally, into play.
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publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
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publisherStr The MIT Press
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1467812024-10-25T13:20:47Z Seeing Red Zagal, José P. Edwards, Benj Virtual Boy Nintendo 1990s 3D Stereo Mario Wario thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UD Digital Lifestyle and online world: consumer and user guides::UDX Computer games / online games: strategy guides thema EDItEUR::W Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure::WC Antiques, vintage and collectables::WCW Antiques, vintage and collectables: toys, games, dolls and models thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies::JBCT3 Media studies: advertising and society The curious history, technology, and cultural context of Nintendo's short-lived stereoscopic gaming console, the Virtual Boy.With glowing red stereoscopic 3D graphics, the Virtual Boy cast a prophetic hue: Shortly after its release in 1995, Nintendo's balance sheet for the product was "in the red" as well. Of all the innovative long shots the game industry has witnessed over the years, perhaps the most infamous and least understood was the Virtual Boy. Why the Virtual Boy failed, and where it succeeded, are questions that video game experts José Zagal and Benj Edwards explore in Seeing Red, but even more interesting to the authors is what the platform actually was: what it promised, how it worked, and where it fit into the story of gaming.Nintendo released the Virtual Boy as a standalone table-top device in 1995—and quickly discontinued it after lackluster sales and a lukewarm critical reception. In Seeing Red, Zagal and Edwards examine the device's technical capabilities, its games, and the cultural context in the US in the 1990s when Nintendo developed and released the unusual console. The Virtual Boy, in their account, built upon and extended an often-forgotten historical tradition of immersive layered dioramas going back 100 years that was largely unexplored in video games at the time. The authors also show how the platform's library of games conveyed a distinct visual aesthetic style that has not been significantly explored since the Virtual Boy's release, having been superseded by polygonal 3D graphics. The platform's meaning, they contend, lies as much in its design and technical capabilities and affordances as it does in an audience's perception of those capabilities. Offering rare insight into how we think about video game platforms, Seeing Red illustrates where perception and context come, quite literally, into play. 2024-10-25T13:20:45Z 2024-10-25T13:20:45Z 2024 book ONIX_20241025_9780262380669_159 9780262380669 9780262045063 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/146781 eng Platform Studies image/jpeg n/a https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11213.001.0001 The MIT Press The MIT Press 10.7551/mitpress/11213.001.0001 10.7551/mitpress/11213.001.0001 ae0cf962-f685-4933-93d1-916defa5123d 9780262380669 9780262045063 The MIT Press 184 Cambridge open access
spellingShingle Virtual Boy
Nintendo
1990s
3D Stereo
Mario
Wario
thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UD Digital Lifestyle and online world: consumer and user guides::UDX Computer games / online games: strategy guides
thema EDItEUR::W Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure::WC Antiques, vintage and collectables::WCW Antiques, vintage and collectables: toys, games, dolls and models
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies::JBCT3 Media studies: advertising and society
Zagal, José P.
Edwards, Benj
Seeing Red
title Seeing Red
title_full Seeing Red
title_fullStr Seeing Red
title_full_unstemmed Seeing Red
title_short Seeing Red
title_sort seeing red
topic Virtual Boy
Nintendo
1990s
3D Stereo
Mario
Wario
thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UD Digital Lifestyle and online world: consumer and user guides::UDX Computer games / online games: strategy guides
thema EDItEUR::W Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure::WC Antiques, vintage and collectables::WCW Antiques, vintage and collectables: toys, games, dolls and models
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies::JBCT3 Media studies: advertising and society
topic_facet Virtual Boy
Nintendo
1990s
3D Stereo
Mario
Wario
thema EDItEUR::U Computing and Information Technology::UD Digital Lifestyle and online world: consumer and user guides::UDX Computer games / online games: strategy guides
thema EDItEUR::W Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure::WC Antiques, vintage and collectables::WCW Antiques, vintage and collectables: toys, games, dolls and models
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCT Media studies::JBCT3 Media studies: advertising and society
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