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Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games (Game Histories) Hardcover – December 25, 2018

by Jaroslav Svelch (Author)

6 ratings

Part of: Game Histories (6 books)

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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.

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.

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.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The MIT Press
Publication date

December 25, 2018
Grade level

12 and up
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
ISBN-10

0262038846
ISBN-13

978-0262038843
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“This fascinating book introduces the reader to the undiscovered lives of microcomputing and gaming communities in 1980s Czechoslovakia. For the first time, Švelch draws up the history of hobbyist gaming clubs that worked under the radar of party authorities. This thoroughly researched and enjoyably delivered story is woven into a tapestry of dynamic changes in politics, technology, foreign trade, agriculture, leisure, and everyday life in a way that will contribute a great deal to a more subtle and less stereotyped image of late socialism.”

―Anikó Imre, Professor of Cinematic Arts, The University of Southern California; author of Identity Games: Globalization and the Transformation of Media Cultures in New Europe

About the Author

Jaroslav Švelch is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies at Charles University, Prague, and Lecturer in the Department of Game Design at the Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He is the author of Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The MIT Press (December 25, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262038846
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262038843
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,034,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,851 in Video & Computer Games
- #4,860 in Computer & Video Game Strategy Guides
- #7,019 in Women in History

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M. L. Gray

Pioneering work that opens up a new way to think about creativity in the former USSR

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 21, 2019

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In this carefully researched, ground-breaking study, Svelch lays out a not-so-underground scene of game designers and computer programmers quietly thumbing their noses at the hard line, conservative Czech government as the USSR was dissolving. What's marvelous about this book is that it manages to show a history that few likely know (aside from those who lived it) and suggests that there are parallel histories of using game creation and play to counter repressive regimes. It's nothing short of inspirational to recognize how art and creativity thrive and the role that gaming has (and can) play in pushing new lines of thinking and acting in the world.

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KAREL TAFT

Great book about the era I experienced

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 8, 2019

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I like the book. Although I remember this era, I have discovered a lot of new and interesting information in the book.

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Amazon Customer

Slow at first, good finish

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 25, 2019

The book starts very much like what it was originally written as - a dissertation. A clean communication of the methodology, sources, and all the other bits and bobs that make for a good work of science. This might be a detriment if you're more of a casual reader, and looking more into the history of computing, rather than as source material for your own derived works. The book takes quite a lot of time to get up to speed, and shake off the somewhat clunky writing of a serious work - something like a fourth or third of the book. But if you endure, you get a beautiful description of computing life in the late communist countries (with most of the focus on Czechoslovakia), the writing improves, and there's loads of input from the people who fell in love with computers back then - usually in their teens.

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