About this Event
160 MEMORIAL DR, Cambridge, MA 02139
Copies of Too Much Fun will be available for purchase at the event from the MIT Press Bookstore.
In this talk, in conversation with CMS/W Professor Nick Montfort, video game theorist Jesper Juul will explore two mysteries about the history of technology and the Commodore 64 computer.
1) The Commodore 64 was the best-selling home computer of the 1980s, with the largest video game catalog, so why is it unmentioned in many game and computer
histories?
2) Given that the Commodore 64 was never upgraded or improved in the 12 years it was produced, (1982-1994) how could it be so many things to so many different people, for so long?
Based on his new book Too Much Fun: The Five Lives of the Commodore 64 Computer (MIT Press), Jesper Juul tells the story of how users reinvented a versatile machine long past its expected expiration date. He will trace the C64’s five lives, from serious computer for BASIC programming, to game computer, to demoscene computer, to its current status as a retro device for new experimentation.
With game and software examples, personal stories of piracy and the demoscene, and interviews with Commodore engineers, this talk offers a new take on the history of technology and the legacy of an iconic machine.
There will also be an opportunity to try an original Commodore 64 with new and historical software.
Jesper Juul is a video game theorist and occasional developer. He works at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen but has previously taught at MIT and New York University. He coedits the MIT Press Playful Thinking series. His previous books include Half-Real, The Art of Failure, and Handmade Pixels. His first computer was a Commodore 64, on which he wrote games and demos.
Nick Montfort develops computational poetry and art, often collaboratively. He is professor of digital media at MIT and principal investigator in the Center for Digital Narrative at the University of Bergen, Norway. His lab/studio, The Trope Tank, has locations in New York City and at MIT. He studies creative computing and seeks to enable learning in many ways. He also devotes himself to computational art and media as an event organizer, curator, editor, and publisher. He lives in New York City with his spouse, Flourish Klink, and their daughter.