Arcade Videogame Interface Aesthetics
Kieran Nolan
GV2 Research Group, School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
kinolan@tcd.ie
Abstract
This paper examines the aesthetic and connective properties of
arcade videogame interfaces. It considers the arcade videogame
interface as a communicative and creative link that extends
beyond play orientated input and feedback mechanisms. With
the correct emulation and homebrew tools, videogame
platforms that were originally designed as consumer only
devices become malleable forms that can be interfaced at artist
and developer levels, allowing previously closed hardware and
software systems to function as reconfigurable digital
materials.
Communication within constraints
Videogame interfaces ideally create a symbiotic
connection between the participant human(s) and the
computer that are participating in a digitally centered
game experience. While an interface is not the game
itself, for example a chess game may have a text-based
interface, it does fundamentally affect how the game is
experienced. [1]
This experience encompasses the complete
aesthetic design of the overall product, visually,
physically, sonically, and communicatively. Technically
the host platform will impose a set of affordances and
constraints for the videogame designer, who presents the
results of working within these parameters to the end
user. These factors include graphics resolution, sound
bitrate, processor speed, and the nature of input devices.
The physical styling of the hardware device’s form factor
also bears influence on its game experience, whether
used as a portable, domestic space based, or public
situated play experience.
The communicative aspect of the interface is
critical, as the player must understand the machine, and
vice versa. This is summed up succinctly in Chris
Crawford’s definition of interaction as “an iterative
process of listening, thinking, and speaking between two
or more actors”. [2]
For example, after a player inserts their coin
into a videogame at an amusement arcade, they are
presented with a text prompt through the machines visual
interface to select either single player or two-player
mode. To articulate back their choice of single player
mode, the player selects the button labeled ‘1’. An
audible chime from the speakers and a change in the
visual interface that affirm the chosen option are then
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relayed back to the human as sonic and visual feedback
by the computer. Without this feedback, there is a
disjoint in the communication, and as a result the
interface is rendered defective.
The constraints that govern the flow of this
dialog affect the viewpoints of both the human and
machine participants. From the meatspace occupant’s
point of view, how the computer communicates is
limited by its processing power, the fidelity level of its
graphics and sonic capabilities, alongside any other
feedback mechanism available to it. From its own
vantage point the computer perceives an incomplete
composite of human sensory faculties via the limited
input means assigned to it. If the digital organism’s
senses are augmented through the addition of extra
sensors, for example the ability to detect gestural
movement, this subhuman composite evolves closer to
resembling the complete human being. This hobbled
interpretation of the human in the eyes of the computer
based on it’s restricted sensor capacities provides a view
of an leveled relationship between both parties,
comparable to how humans may interpret a suprahuman
machine intelligence when it emerges.
A videogame’s communicative anatomy
comprises of two elements, input and feedback. The
input side is most commonly associated with the
controller-centric perspective of game interfaces. This
view encompasses manual controllers such as the
keyboard or joystick, alongside glass based gestural
interfaces, in addition to freeform gestural interfaces, for
example, Nintendo’s Wii Controller and Microsoft’s
Kinect. These can be seen as consumer level game
interfaces. The game developer interacts with the host
technology at a more raw and visceral level, where the
inner workings of the computing system are exposed and
directly addressed through code.
Feedback forms the second component of the
transmission loop. This feedback is most commonly
delivered through visual, auditory, or tactile means. The
harnessing of the olfactory senses as feedback targets for
digitally originated feedback in videogaming has yet to
reach consumer level. In game design the vibrating
‘rumble’ feature of game controllers is common method
used to enhance immersion by adding the extra tactile
dimension of haptic feedback. For example, The
Playstation 2 version of Sony’s Rez (2001) uses a
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dedicated tactile feedback called the trance vibrator unit
to provide feedback accompanying its psychedelic
visuals.
In terms of visual feedback, the Graphical User
Interface adds a layer above the ‘developer only’
interface of the command line. This further abstracts
human interaction directly with the metal of the
computer.
The term GUI is typically used to describe a
point and click style operating system interface, but in
the videogame context the graphical interface is not
limited to mouse control. A visual interface is delivered
mainly through the screen, but also can refer to other
visual augmentations to a videogaming system, such as
the flashing lights on the APB arcade cabinet (Atari,
1987). In APB the player drives a police car and must
arrest a set quota of criminals and traffic law violators on
each level. The player must also collect doughnuts to
increase their high score. Whenever the player is in
pursuit of a perpetrator’s vehicle, the siren lights on the
cabinet activate, adding to the games immersion.
Galloway cites Vilém who described the screen
as “a two dimension plane with meaning embedded in it
or delivered through it” [3] This meaning can be textual,
image based, both abstract and figurative. Galloway also
uses the term of the intraface to describe the ether that
holds together the various layers of the visual interface,
the interplay of static and diegetic (or dynamic) interface
elements.
Static game interface elements are those that
cannot be interacted with directly, that exist to solely
provide visual feedback. For example, in the game
Asteroids (1979), the static interface elements are the
current score and the number of lives remaining.
Dynamic or diegetic interface elements are feedback
elements that are incorporated into the game
environment itself. In the Grand Theft Auto series,
damage that is visually manifested on the player’s
vehicle provides dynamic feedback to the user on how
effective a driver they are, rather than relying on a
numeric value.
The division between screen based visual
interfaces and the manual interface of the hardware
controller has become less distinct since touchscreen
technology became a viable part of modern consumer
electronics. The screen has become a new form of
tangible surface, despite its limited tangible feedback
capabilities. The ability to reach deep into the screen
physically in commercial video games, in a reverse of
Videodrome’s signature hallucinogenic sequence, can
only be done through virtual rather than physical
augmentation of the visual display. The glass barrier
ensures that games presently remain solid to physical
touch, rendering the play field only malleable through
extension into the digital space visually through a digital
embodiment, or sonically via three-dimensional sound.
While remaining intuitive and clear, a game
interface must engender a sense of challenge. This level
of difficulty is dependent on the audience as well as the
host platform. A casual gamer indulging in a five-minute
game on their smartphone requires simple, intuitive
controls. On the opposite end of the spectrum are those
who thrive from the intrinsic challenge of mastering a
complex experience, taking satisfaction in mastering a
task that requires more rote learning than intuition. Take
for example the text mode visual overload of Dwarf
Fortress, where the player must invest months to master
the game control system, memorising a considerable
number of keyboard shortcuts while navigating and
understanding a myriad of statistic packed status screens.
As technical advances bring the digital closer
and closer to analogue realism, the digital has already
bled through into analogue culture. This essay is
intended as an introduction to the area of videogame
interface aesthetics, reflecting on how the link between
people and low fidelity videogame technology has
manifested through the pixel art, chiptune, retro gaming,
and media art.
Building an interface for play
One of the earliest documented participatory
videogames, and interfacing of the general public with
computers as a mode of leisure took place in 1958 at
Brookhaven National Laboratory, a nuclear research
facility in Suffolk County, Long Island. William
Higinbotham, a nuclear physicist who had worked on the
Manhattan project, and afterwards became a campaigner
for nuclear non-proliferation, led the team that built
Tennis for Two, an interactive exhibit intended for public
engagement. “I knew from past visitor’s days that people
were not much interested in static exhibits, so for that
year I came up with an idea for a hands-on display, a
video tennis game”. [4]
Housed
at
the
display
for
BNL’s
Instrumentation Division, Tennis for Two used a circular
5 inch diameter oscilloscope screen as a visual display.
Auditory feedback was provided through a basic sound
effect that is heard when the ball is batted. The use of an
oscilloscope as Tennis for Two’s graphical display unit
enforced a monochromatic, stripped down line drawn
aesthetic, that can be seen taken in a more intricate form
to the z-axis in Battlezone (1980), and Vib Ribbon
(1999).
Brookhaven National Laboratory’s mainframe
computers were imposing machines that filled entire
rooms. From the general public’s point of view, the fact
that these new and largely technologies were housed at a
nuclear research facility during the cold war added to
their ominous nature. Indeed the computer used was an
analog computer, programmed laboriously through
punch cards. It was a machine built by computer
scientists for computer scientists.
By building Tennis for Two, Higinbotham
introduced play to early human computer interaction,
easing any misgivings felt by humans interacting with a
new technology for the first time. A vital characteristic
of a gaming interface is that it establishes a
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communicative link between player and machine, which
can be measured through user engagement. The
successful dialog accomplished by Higgenbotham’s team
was made evident by the long lines of people who waited
in line to play the game during the 1958 BNL visitor’s
day. However, Higgenbotham didn’t seek to
commercialise his invention, and Tennis for Two
remained largely unknown until 1985 when Nintendo
cited Bayer’s Tennis for Two as the original tennis
videogame in response to been sued by Magnavox.
Videogame interface anatomy
Tennis for Two is important in the early lineage of video
gaming as it set out the basic template for a two-player
arcade game interface. The game’s two manual
controllers were built using industrial potentiometer
knobs for onscreen paddle movement alongside a serve
button, each of which was encased in stainless steel
boxes connected via cables to the computer. Alongside
the laboratory oscilloscope and the bulk of the analog
computer, the physical visage of the machine is very
much representative of the cold war military industrial
complex that is was born from. Its gameplay mechanic
and dual controller physical interface, alongside the
audio and visual feedback elements were later echoed by
Ralph Bayer’s TV Game System (1966). Bayer’s
invention was later commercialised for the mass market
as the Magnavox Odyssey (1972).
In 1985 Japanese game manufacturer Nintendo
manufactured and sold their own videogame tennis
system, and were sued for patent infringement by
Magnavox. Nintendo responded by calling Higinbotham
as a witness, arguing that Tennis for Two was the
original tennis video game. The judge ruled that the since
the oscilloscope display was not receiving a standard
video signal, it therefore could not be considered a
‘videogame’. At the time, a mixture of naivety and legal
obfuscation was enough to ensure this minor technicality
exempted Tennis for Two from falling under the
definition of videogame. However, signal transfer
technologies for video display continue to evolve, from
the analog radio frequency cable to the binary datastream
of digital and internet based television. Despite the
judge’s ruling in the Mangnavox Vs Nintendo case, the
Tennis for Two computer was indeed sending
instructions to the oscilloscope, and although it did not
meet the same technical specifications as a televisual
video signal sent to standard nineteen seventies cathode
ray tube television set, it nonetheless defined and
updated the visual display on the unit.
Atari’s Pong (1971) took the TV tennis concept
and translated it to the amusement arcades, it also
(predictably) resulted in Atari been sued for copyright
infringement by Magnavox. It was also the second
commercially sold coin-operated arcade videogame. The
first of which was Computer Space (1971), which was
also produced by Nolan Bushnell before starting Atari.
Similar to Pong it was a close copy of an existing game,
a lab experiment called Spacewar! that originated in
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1962 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a tech
demo and experiment for the DEC PDP-1 computer. The
extravagant molded fibreglass body of the cabinet
reinforced the science fiction scenario of the game, even
making an appearance in the film Soylent Green (1973)
as a futuristic home fixture. Despite high production
values, Computer Space failed to translate to the public
space. It’s control console and onscreen display elements
did not communicate their function clearly to the user,
and the game demanded more time to learn than a single
play would allow. Computer Space had an interface that
preformed all of its functions correctly from an
engineer’s point of view, there was a button for each
action required of the player. Unfortunately, the visual
mapping of the buttons and the lack of a pre existing
visual language for videogames that the layperson could
connect with, lead to Computer Space failing
commercially.
By contrast, the zen like simplicity of the Pong
interface ensured it’s success. Pong’s arcade cabinet
design is minimal with clean typography, the wooden
veneer body and stainless steel control panel striking a
balance between the industrial and 1970s home decor. A
single line of instructions that reads ‘Avoid missing ball
for high score’ was placed on the front of each cabinet
between the two rotating potentiometer controllers. The
mapping of the physical controllers to their respective
onscreen paddles is made obvious to the player, while
turning each knob clockwise or anti-clockwise generated
an immediate and appropriate response, changing the
vertical position of the player’s onscreen paddle. Simple
audible tones accompany the sound of hitting the ball,
and also missing the ball. The ball itself isn’t round, but
square, the beginnings of the pixel aesthetic. Pong sold
heavily, generating more royalties for Magnavox than
the Odyssey console had.
Looking inside of a Pong cabinet we see the
interface construction laid bare. The circuit board hangs
attached to the side of the cabinet, with wires reaching
outwards to the television monitor, controls, power
supply, and coin mechanism. It is unembellished and
utilitarian, a nod back towards the industrial feel of
BNL’s Tennis for Two. The outward face of the game
presents a polished visage in comparison to the exposed
raw components that power it. In effect the cabinet front
is a boundary both physically and visually, separating the
player from the electromechanical and computational
processes that power the interactive game experience.
This view behind the curtain is denied to the general
public, with only the game technicians and the arcade
owner making contact with the core mechanics of the
system. While the developer uses machine code writes
directly to the metal, here the coin-op owner or
technician physically views and interacts with the
machine circuitry.
Following on from the Pong arcade game was
the home television console version of Pong, which in
turn inspired further copies and adaptations of the TV
tennis concept. A simple and refined game interface had
kickstarted both the home and arcade videogame
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markets. This new form of digital engagement would
influence the formation of creative and cultural
movements in the digital and analog spaces, bringing
computer technology from the science laboratory to the
domestic space, while influencing thought on speculative
scenarios involving the merging of both domains.
The emulator as interface
The original Pong arcade machines are now in museums
and private collections. If a visitor to the
Computerspeilmuseum in Berlin wants to play Pong they
need to arrive at a set time where they will be allowed to
play the delicate artefact with supervisor assistance. For
someone who doesn’t have access to the original Pong
hardware, the next best option for experiencing the
original game is through an emulator. An emulator is a
piece of software or hardware that recreates a computer
system through a different computing platform. For
example, the Commodore 64 home computer can be
recreated in software form on a modern Apple Macintosh
using the emulator VirtualC64.
Most classic videogame consoles and home
computers exist in emulated form, which are usually
created by enthusiasts without any official backing from
the original machine creators. Legal difficulties do exist,
and to circumvent these issues most emulators are
distributed without core proprietary code. Users are
typically asked to sign a disclaimer stating that they are
going to fill the gap by legally extracting the code from
the rom chips or system disks of their own working
machine. Yet in practice most users will simply conduct
a web search to find the missing files for free through a
less than legal source.
Pong is one of the few anomalies in videogame
emulation since it wasn’t actually programmed but
‘built’ electronically as an analogue circuit. In regular
emulation, the original program code is ‘dumped’ as a
rom file taken direct from the original game circuitry in
the case of a cartridge or arcade PCB system, or
extracted from the original tape or disc. This program
rom is then loaded into an emulator for the chosen
classic system, just as an original disk or cartridge is
loaded into the original hardware. Recreating an
analogue videogame through code is directly comparable
to the creation of virtual analogue synthesizers, where
the circuit and the voltage flow through its components
are modeled through code. DICE is one such program
that simulates the original Pong arcade games on a home
computer.
Modern pixels are too square
It is necessary to archive and preserve digital culture that
has not already been committed to the online space.
Physical machines and data storage mediums are not
impervious to time and wear. Bitrot, the phenomena of
magnetic storage mediums losing vital sectors of their
information due to degradation of their physical makeup,
proves that the digital world is not impervious to the
environmental forces of the analogue world. However,
recreating a classic arcade game on a modern computer
works to the extent that an ebook can recreate a print
book. Using an original tangible controller with an
emulator through a custom adaptor, for example the
Atari 2600 paddle control with the Atari 2600 emulator
Stella, can closer approximate the original experience of
using 2600 as it was originally played.
The kindle ebook reader provides an
immaculate paper white screen, and the ability to store
many books in a compact physical form. Subjectively
this can be interpreted as convenience at the expense of
character. A paper based book takes up more room, it
can be easily torn and the paper fades and changing
colour over time. Whether or not these weaknesses of
paper books are seen as a hindrance or welcome quirk,
they remain a part of the experience of interacting with
that medium. Similarly, when a game intended for
original viewing through a cathode ray tube based screen
is viewed on the immaculate high resolution of a modern
computing system, convenience is added, but also part of
the original medium’s essence is lost.
Admittedly, CRT screens are inconvenient on
several levels. Compared to flatscreen monitors, they are
bulky in size and weight, and their low resolution makes
it difficult to focus on smaller details onscreen.
Additionally, the scanline interlace flickering of tube
base video screens can induce eyestrain. Also when
using an analog signal, if a lower quality video
connection cable is used that doesn’t separate the red,
green, and blue component video signals, the image
becomes less defined.
Game designers have positively and creatively
harnessed these imposed constraints and colourations.
An example of this in effect is shown in the transparent
waterfall graphics in Sonic The Hedgehog on the Sega
Megadrive, made possible by blurring two shades of
light grey into a semi-opaque effect. When viewed
through an emulator without CRT simulation the effect is
lost. [5]
In comparison to Sega’s Megadrive, the Atari
2600 was extremely limited in it’s visual display options,
and was originally designed to display only two player
objects on screen at once, in addition to ‘bullets’. A
machine engineered to play Pong derivatives. To
overcome the system’s limited sprite display capabilities,
programmers relied on the ghosting effect of CRT
phosphor and the human eyes persistence of vision. By
switching images on and off quickly onscreen, it was
possible to create the effect of multiple characters
onscreen.
In 2009 a team of developers from Georgia
Tech developed a software filter for the Stella emulator
that simulates a cathode ray tube screen. [5] The
parameters of the CRT effect can be adjusted to change
the images curvature and blur, distorting the outputted
video signal to the viewer’s own requirements. This
destructive yet aesthetically enhancing form of image
filtering can be paralleled to the glitch art movement. If
bitrot is the random encroaching of analog
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environmental variables into the digital world, then the
creation of distortion and glitches is a deliberate
unsettling of the predictability of digital code execution.
Emulation, the ROM hack, and vintage platform
enhancements
Aside from recreating the features of a vintage
computing platform, many emulators add extra
functionality that serve to expand the recreated platform
beyond it’s original uses, making direct to metal
processes open to the consumer that in turn enable them
as creators. NESticle version x.xx (1998) by Bloodlust
Software emulates the Nintendo NES system. [6] When
a .NES rom file is loaded into the emulator it can be
viewed in tile mode. Tile mode displays the component
graphical elements of the loaded game rom, alongside
the HEX values for their assigned memory locations and
other binary variables such as their colour palette. If the
rom file for Super Mario Bros. is loaded and the tile
view is enabled, it is possible to locate the graphic tiles
that are used to compose the sprite for the game’s main
character, Mario, and redraw his appearance using the
emulator’s built in image editing tools. The edited rom
file, known as a rom hack, can then be saved and ran as a
normal game. It is also possible to take a hacked rom
image and transfer it to a physical rom chip, allowing the
modified code to run on the original system hardware.
Through NESticle and other rom hacking tools,
it is possible to edit and experiment with the visual
interfaces and control systems of classic video games.
Some rom hacks are purely functional and address
existing issues in the game, for example, making a
Japanese language only game accessible to a wider
audience by replacing the original dialog with English
language substitutions. Other rom hacks go down a more
conceptual route; Super Mario Clouds [7] by Cory
Archangel is a seminal example of the rom hack as
media art. Super Mario Clouds is a rom hack of the game
Super Mario Bros. (1985), reducing the game down to a
minimal level, where all visual interface elements are
rendered invisible, apart from the sky and clouds.
The early home computer systems such as the
Commodore 64 presented the command line of the
BASIC programming language as their initial start up
interface, encouraging users to creatively code for their
machines, however the game consoles were intended
solely as playback devices. Emulators recreate this core
software interface, but also expand on it.
In the cases of Nintendo and Sega, only licensed
developers were permitted to develop for their systems.
Another factor that made creating for these platforms so
exclusive was that specialist development systems were
required for the task, which were not on sale to the
general public. In addition, the game cartridges for
console systems were developed strictly under license
from Nintendo or Sega, although bootleg cartridges and
pirate ‘backup’ copy devices existed on the grey market.
As with the emulator scene, modern
development systems for classic videogame hardware are
made by enthusiasts with detailed and often self-taught
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knowledge of the software and hardware architecture of
the original platforms. These software interfaces provide
access to previously inaccessible aspects of the console
platform, and ease the development process for the
classic computer systems. For example, VirtualC64
presents a series of advanced debug options that allow a
programmer to examine and modify a game as it is
running.
Complimentary to software emulation and
homebrew development kits, vintage gaming hardware is
augmented into the modern age through the addition of
third party peripherals. These devices add functionality
such as USB file storage, network connectivity, and high
definition enhanced audio and visual output. The HD
output options contradict the aesthetic ideal of the CRT
software filter, showing that the phosphor blur is a
nostalgic as much as aesthetic preference.
Emulators and homebrew software development
kits, alongside modern hardware additions for classic
videogame systems ensure the continued survival of
vintage computer gaming platforms. Authenticity is a
prized attribute in emulation, whether exemplified as the
fuzzy RF visuals on a tube based television set
approximated in Stella, or the unseen but consciously
valued process of analog circuitry simulation in the
DICE Pong recreation. In these instances, the interface
effects of platform constraints are embraced, but
expanded beyond when necessary for creative purposes.
Homebrew videogame music interfaces
In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy portable
gaming console. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, it was an
evolutionary step beyond Nintendo’s Game and Watch
series of LCD based portable games, a videogame
equivalent of the Sony Walkman, allowing access to a
library of interactive games on the go. The system’s
most basic revision, the Model DMG Game Boy (Dot
Matrix) is equipped with four sound channels (two pulse
waves, a 4-bit wave channel capable of playing samples,
and a noise channel).
Apart from the nostalgic view, there are several
reasons that the Game Boy, and low fidelity computer
music sound has been embraced by modern musicians.
One is the appeal of working within constraints rather
than navigating a bewildering interface of feature bloats
in modern music software. Another factor is that the
Game Boy provides an affordable alternative to pricey
electronic music equipment. Finally, the sound from
Nintendo Game Boy has a raw, unfiltered edge. This
primitive level of sound synthesis is immediately
associated with vintage videogames, and has been
adopted into the high-end systems that it rebels against.
Visually it can display four colours onscreen
simultaneously, and is controlled through a simple four
way directional pad alongside four action buttons. While
the visual display was improved in clarity over a series
of system revisions up to the Game Boy Color (1998),
the basic control and audio system remained the same.
For over twenty years, the system has endured as a pop
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culture motif to the point that custom cases are available
for high-end smart phones that camouflage them into the
likeness of the original Game Boy.
Inevitably the Game Boy has become a popular
machine for homebrew software and hardware
development, and has received wider embracement as a
musical instrument. Although Nintendo has produced it’s
own music creation programmes, for example the
Trippy-H sequencer included with the Game Boy
Camera, the platform’s abilities as a music creation tool
have been pushed largely due to the efforts of the
homebrew development community. The two most
prolific of these creative tools are Little Sound DJ, also
know as LSDJ, and Nanoloop.
Little Sound DJ and Nanoloop are not endorsed
by Nintendo, although Nintendo seemingly tolerates
their existence since no legal threats have been made
against the application developers. In order to use LSDJ
or Nanoloop with an original Game Boy console, the
user must first obtain a grey market ‘backup’ cartridge,
and then transfer the downloaded rom image from their
computer to the cartridge. These cartridges have the
advantage of allowing the user to save their compositions
onto their computer for backup purposes, as well as
allowing them to playback and interchange music
sequences between Game Boy software emulations and
the original hardware.
The first cartridge versions of Nanoloop were
released by German art student Oliver Wittchow in 1999.
Nanoloop transforms the Game Boy into a music
composition and performance instrument, but instead
presents the user with a minimal, graphical based
interface. This visual interface is based upon a 4 x 4 grid
of squares, the user interacts with these shapes using the
directional pad and control buttons, tweaking the sound
parameters of each of these steps in the loop. Changes
made to a square’s properties are reflected visually as
well as sonically, and the overall interface feel is more
exploratory than LSDJ. A fine level of control detail is
compromised through the graphical interface while
improving accessibility.
In 2001 Stockholm based Johan Kotlinski
released the first cartridge version of Little Sound DJ. As
with any rom image, the program can also be used on
other portable gaming systems and computers through
emulation software, although the creator cautions “Keep
in mind that sound emulation can never be 100%, mostly
because the low-grade hardware used in Game Boys
adds some characteristic noise”. [8] Indeed, the original
DMG model is the preferred device for live performance
and recording of gameboy based tunes.
Little Sound DJ uses a tracker based interface,
maximising the level of granular control that the
composer has of the Game Boy’s music architecture,
while fitting comfortably within the visual confines of
the platform’s 160 x 120 pixel resolution and 4 colour
pallet. This level of miniaturisation is made possible
through the numeric shorthand of the hexadecimal
number system, allowing values above 99 to fit within a
two-character space. Navigation is accomplished through
the systems four way directional pad and four buttons,
although custom peripherals allow further manual
control options of the application’s sound parameters.
The learning curve associated with LSDJ is steep in
comparison to its nearest rival Nanoloop, but
perseverance in mastering the text heavy interface opens
up a high level of granularity and control.
Both LSDJ and Nanoloop are further augmented
through hardware hacks, modifications, and custom
peripherals. These mods enhance and expand the Game
Boy’s hardware interface by adding features such as
professional level audio out jacks, backlit screens for
improved visibility, and MIDI interfacing to enable the
connection of music control devices. The LED hack is an
aesthetically as well as functionality motivated mod. It
provides useful visual feedback, flashing in
synchronisation with the current BPM rate of the device,
while enhancing the visual appearance of the Game Boy
in when used for playing music live.
In 2003 chiptune music received a boost of
mainstream press recognition when Malcolm McClaren,
the manager of Sex Pistols, who had been around at the
inception of the Punk and Hip Hop subcultures, was
interviewed about his involvement with New York’s
burgeoning chiptune scene. McClaren waxed lyrical
about this ‘new’ subculture in interviews with Wired,
and The Guardian. However his attachment to this scene
was soon questioned online through an open letter by
GW3M, a member of the Micromusic forum.
“Whilst micromusic.net welcomes interest from
the music industry we feel that Malcolm's statements
have been at least inaccurate, certainly without
acknowledgement of the 25 years of chip music history,
and possibly even using ideas and concepts taken from
us.” [9]
It is indeed important to note that chiptune
music didn’t begin in the early twenty first century, nor
is it confined to the Nintendo platform. Chiptune music
has existed as long as the hardware to create it has
existed, just existing under different names. The
originators include computer game soundtrack
composers like Martin Galway and Jonathan Dunne,
renowned for their work written for the Commodore 64
SID chip. Music composition on vintage computing
platforms has also been pushed on since the early days
by game hackers who removed copy protection from
commercial video games, then redistributed cracked
versions incorporating their own signature theme tunes
and ‘greetz’ to their hacking cohorts in the introduction.
The level of technical proficiency needed to compose on
a Commodore 64 in the mid-1980s was considerable:
“To have a clearer picture we have to add that
those times there were no music composer programs yet.
Their tracks were composed as an assembly language
program, they mixed sounds “by hand” and coded all
filters effects themselves. One can imagine the patience
and experience it needed” [10].
The game hacking scene is closely linked to the
demo scene. Demos are audiovisual presentations where
teams of coders, artists, and musicians work together to
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Part I. Full Papers (peer-reviewed)
produce the most technically and aesthetically
impressive presentation possible within the constraints of
their host vintage platform. For demos that use modern
hardware, the restrictions are imposed, for example the
64-kilobyte memory limit imposed for the Breakpoint
2010 demo contest.
What links the aforementioned three videogame
music subcultures, and separates them from the artists
using LSDJ and Nanoloop, are the interface methods
employed to create their music. The early computer
game musicians, demo coders, and hack intro / hacktro
creators all had programming knowledge at their
disposal, either individually or as part of a team. The
new generation of chiptune music makers benefit from
constantly evolving interfaces harnessed to established
and deeply explored creative mediums, allowing content
creation, while negating the necessity to interface with
the platform at developer level.
5. Ian Bogot, A Television Simulator. Available at:
http://www.bogost.com/games/a_television_simulator.shtml.
6. Nathan Altice, 2012. Emulate the Emulators. Meteopal.
Available at: http://metopal.com/2012/03/15/emulate-theemulators/.
7 Cory Arcangel, Super Mario Clouds (Cory Arcangel’s
Official Portfolio Website and Portal, 2002) Available at:
http://coryarcangel.com/things-i-made/supermarioclouds/.
9. gwEm, Open Letter to Malcolm McLaren by gwEm.
(Micromusic.net, 2004) Available at:
http://micromusic.net/public_letter_gwEm.html.
8. Johan Kotlinski, Little Sound Dj (2015), Available at:
http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/.
10. Támar Polgár, Freax, (CSW-Verlag, 2005), 90.
Interface aesthetics and authenticity
In 2012, Disney released the videogame culture inspired
movie Wreck-It Ralph. The film centers around Ralph,
an antagonist character in fictional classic era arcade
game Fix-It Felix. Ralph is a non-player controlled
character, a feature of the game’s dynamic interface. He
travels outside of his normal environment across
multiple videogame platforms and genres on a quest to
find his true self. In an opening scene, the arcade cabinet
for Fix-It Felix Jr. is shown in an amusement arcade,
alongside actual historic cabinets such as Pong.
This manufactured association with videogame
history is reinforced in the physical space by Disney’s
creation of a limited number of Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade
coin-ops. These cabinets provide an experience that
simulates the early 1980s arcade videogame, including
tactile arcade microswitch controls, an authentic CRT
screen with imperfect blurry scanlines, limited audio
resolution, and even the character building battle damage
of a game presented as a 30 year old museum piece.
Through the manifestation of an interactive
artefact, the movie narrative is anchored concretely in
our physical universe. The Fix-It Felix Jr. cabinet is an
emulation of a game that never existed, successfully
employing the functionally superfluous, but aesthetically
authentic constraints of classic videogame interface
aesthetics to enhance the credibility of its claimed
vintage. The interface is not the actual game, but it
undoubtedly affects how the game is experienced.
References
1. Nick Montfort & Ian Bogost, Racing the Beam: The Atari
Video Computer System (MIT Press, 2009), 143.
2. Tom Igoe & Dan O’Sullivan, Physical Computing: Sensing
and Controlling the Physical World with Computers, (Premier
Press, 2004), 21.
3. Alexander Galloway, The Interface Effect, (Polity Press,
2012), 30.
4. Van Burnham, Supercade: A Visual History of the
Videogame Age 1971-1984 (MIT Press, 2003), 28.
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Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.