<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><font face="times new roman, serif">Delighted to hear, Jaroslav! I warmly recommend it and mean every bit of this blurb: </font><br><br><div class="gmail_default"><font face="times new roman, serif">“At once necessary and original, disciplined and deliberately disorienting, informative and crackling with gamer intelligence, <i>Gaming the Iron Curtain</i> expertly guides the reader through the peripheral thickets of gaming subcultures in Czechoslovak hobby computing in the 1980s. Švelch sketches the political complexities of Czechoslovak computing cultures and uncovers how unknown Central European homebrewers dreamt up new meanings of 'Hello, world!' in the Soviet bloc. A welcomed and pioneering work.”</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="times new roman, serif"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="times new roman, serif">Benjamin Peters, Associate Professor, University of Tulsa; author of <i>How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet</i></font></div></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 1:16 PM Jaroslav Švelch <<a href="mailto:jaroslav@svelch.com">jaroslav@svelch.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div lang="CS"><div class="gmail-m_-2238034948909040142WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NO-BOK">Dear colleagues,<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NO-BOK"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NO-BOK">I have mostly been just a lurker on this list, mainly because I have never been to a SHOT conference and don’t know most members in person. This might change next year, as I’m planning to come to Milan.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NO-BOK">However, I would like to </span><span lang="EN-US">announce the release of my book Gaming the Iron Curtain: </span>How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">The book tells a social history of computer games in 1980s Czechoslovakia in seven chapters, starting with technology policies and hardware manufacturing, and ending with activist games about the 1988-89 demonstrations that led up to the Velvet Revolution. Along the way, I peek into paramilitary youth clubs, arcades on wheels, and bedrooms and kitchens of computer enthusiasts. I also dicuss informal software distribution, gaming fanzines, DIY joysticks, illegal arcade machine manufacturing, ports and conversions, and some very local computer game genres. I’m hoping the book will be of interest not only to game scholars, but also to <span lang="NO-BOK">historians of computing and technology in general.</span> Also, it has cool photos!<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The book is coming out December 18 with MIT Press in the Game Histories series: <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain" target="_blank">https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain</a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">If you’d like to ask for a review copy, please contact David Ryman at MIT Press: <a href="mailto:dryman@mit.edu" target="_blank">dryman@mit.edu</a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Best,<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Jaroslav</span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">An official summary follows:<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">================================================<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">GAMING THE IRON CURTAIN<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Claimed the Medium of Computer Games<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Jaroslav Švelch<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain" target="_blank">https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain</a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">================================================<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Summary<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">------------------<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In Gaming the Iron Curtain, Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Švelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, Gaming the Iron Curtain tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">------------------<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="NO-BOK"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt">Jaroslav Švelch, Ph.D.<br>New media and digital games scholar (<a href="http://svelch.com" target="_blank">http://svelch.com</a>)<br>Postdoctoral fellow, University of Bergen<br>Games and Transgressive Aesthetics project: <a href="http://gta.b.uib.no/" target="_blank">http://gta.b.uib.no/</a><br>Assistant professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague (on leave)<br>________________________________________________________<br>My book GAMING THE IRON CURTAIN: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games<br>Coming out December 2018 with MIT Press, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain" target="_blank">https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain</a><br><br>Phone: +420 773 988 425<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div id="gmail-m_-2238034948909040142DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br> <table style="border-top:1px solid rgb(211,212,222)">
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This email is relayed from members at <a href="http://sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">sigcis.org</a>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</a> and you can change your subscription options at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org</a></blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="times new roman, serif" size="2">Benjamin Peters</font></div><div><span style="font-family:"times new roman",serif;font-size:small"><br>Associate Professor, Media Studies, the University of Tulsa</span><br></div><div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><font face="times new roman, serif" size="2">Affiliated Fellow, the Information Society Project, Yale Law School<br></font></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><font size="2" face="times new roman, serif">Recent books on the (2018 Computer History Museum & 2017 Vucinich Prizes) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Network-Nation-Information/dp/0262034182/" target="_blank">Soviet Internet</a> and</font><span style="font-family:"times new roman",serif;font-size:small"> </span><a href="http://amzn.to/1ToHD4v" style="font-family:"times new roman",serif;font-size:small" target="_blank">Digital Keywords</a><span style="font-family:"times new roman",serif;font-size:small"> </span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-family:"times new roman",serif;font-size:small">Benjaminpeters.org</span><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><font face="times new roman, serif" size="2">Tweet @bjpeters</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>