An in-depth exploration of a neglected video game platform of the
1990s and a reflection on the way we construct the cultural history of
video games.
In The Media Snatcher, Carl Therrien offers an in-depth exploration of
NEC's PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, a little-studied video game platform
released in the late 1980s. The PC Engine was designed to bring
technological expandability to the world of game consoles; The Media
Snatcher's subtitle evokes some of the expansions and the numerous
rebranded versions of the system released by NEC, including the first
CD-ROM add-on in video game history. The platform makers hoped that
expandability would allow its console to remain at the cutting edge and
even catch up with such perceptually rich media as cinema and anime.
More than a simple shape-shifter, the PC Engine became a media snatcher.
Therrien examines the multidirectional interactions of video game
technologies, commercial structures, and cultural dynamics. He
considers, among other things, hyperbolic marketing and its impact on
how we construct video game history; glitches, technological
obsolescence, and the difficulty of conducting media archaeology of the
recent past; the emergence of male-centered power fantasies through
audiovisual rewards; the rise of original genres such as visual novels;
and the sustained efforts to integrate PC Engine software in the
sprawling media landscape of Japan (where the PC Engine found much of
its success). Avoiding the usual techno-industrial glorification,
Therrien recounts the bold technological aspirations of the platform
makers and the struggles to make the actual technology realize its
potential.
