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Journal of Visual Culture
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journal of visual culture

The Remembering and the Forgetting of Early Digital Games: From Novelty to Detritus and Back Again

Melanie Swalwell

Victoria University of Wellington, melanie.swalwell{at}vuw.ac.nz

This article addresses the shifting, multiple and contradictory reception of early digital games technology. It reflects on the changing fortunes of early digital games in terms of the shifts in esteem they undergo: from novelty to detritus, to partial recuperation as nostalgia item, based on the author's research into the history of such games in New Zealand. Drawing inspiration from Tom Gunning's analyses of the interrelation between technological novelty and the existence of a discourse that makes it possible to express such novelty, the author argues that while the present collector-led valorizing of game artifacts is significant, and the mercantile marketing of games from back-catalogues useful, there is an urgent need for discourses reflecting on digital games in relation to broader shifts in visual culture.

Key Words: collectors • digital history • discourse • early computers • nostalgia • preservation • videogames

Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 6, No. 2, 255-273 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1470412907078568
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M. Swalwell
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