During the 1950s, space adventures loomed large in American pop culture as authors, comic book illustrators, and movie directors entertained the public with a steady diet of space epics. Bizarre aliens, laser beams, and spacecraft of all shapes and sizes mesmerized children and adults alike. In the early 1960s, President Kennedy fueled public interest in…
It’s not that I play too much, quite the contrary. The Guitar Hero game I’ve had at home since last Christmas is still wrapped in cellophane. I just can’t bring myself to buy the guitar controller required to play the game. My reluctance is not a reflection of the game, which is by all measures…
“You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door.” “There is a small mailbox here.” These words introduced me to computer games, though I didn’t actually read the words on a computer screen—I read them in stacks of perforated, green-and-white-striped printouts that my older brother, Chris,…
To everyone who came out to the inaugural TEDx Rochester—and especially to those who stopped by to play an arcade game or two in the lobby of host Geva Theater Center—I would like to send my deepest thanks. It was an honor to be part of this event and to speak about the rich…
