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Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Noah Wardrip-Fruin is professor of computational media in the Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. With Michael Mateas he codirects the Expressive Intelligence Studio, a technical and cultural research group (https://eis.ucsc.edu). His most recent book is Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies (2009), and his next book, currently titled How Pac-Man Eats, is scheduled for 2020—both from MIT Press.
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Abstract
Every field has its “just so” stories, which are easy to repeat uncritically. We are only prompted to stop once the stories are appropriately examined. Sometimes a new examination can be the result of uncovering new evidence, but it can also be the result of looking at familiar evidence through new lenses. This article examines the familiar stories about a group of early video games: Tennis for Two, Spacewar!, Computer Space, and Pong. It looks at them through the lens provided by two concepts not previously used: playable models and operational logics. In doing so, it reveals that a common story in game history—of Computer Space flopping due to its complication, while Pong succeeded due to its simplicity—is at the very least in need of amendment, and more likely should be abandoned. In the process, this article also clarifies the importance of gravity in the two game design spaces explored by these early games. Through this, it underscores the importance of understanding that some early video games were created without general-purpose computation, and that the affordances and limits of television technology are central to this era of the field’s history.