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2016 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Playfulness and the Advent of Computerization in Spain: The National Club of ZX81 Users

Author : Ignasi Meda-Calvet

Published in: History and Philosophy of Computing

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The beginning and later widespread use of the early microcomputers and home computers in the 1980s were strongly related to the emergency of the first computer games. However, this important episode has traditionally focused on accomplishments that identify key moments in the past such as identifying important firsts and successful corporate innovators. According to this, we may neglect the valuable contributions of other very different actors, such as politicians, programmers, designers, distributors, software and hardware stores, hobbyists, and fan communities. Thus, this paper is concerned with some of these myriad other subjects, including also their everyday practices. By giving voice to them, we start revealing a diverse set of activities and roles that collectively contributed to the shaping of computing technology, gaming practices and even the gaming industry in their respective local contexts.

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Footnotes
1
A fanzine is a nonprofessional or nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon. Normally, fanzines are non-lucrative and they aim to share with their members, all kind of information, interests and opinions related to the topics that the members are engaged with.
 
2
‘ZX Spectrum’ originally cost £125–175, with prices later dropping to £99–129 [5].
 
3
In addition, the Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) argues that agencies need to be constantly built or remodeled through complex correlations with mediators [11]. This means, according to Theodoros Lekkas, that there is no specific and consolidated framework for the relationship between the technical and the social domains [12, p. 90].
 
4
I would also like to draw attention to the different faces of the users, depending on what they are doing with their computers: see, for example, how the user on the right side is quite excited while he plays at a type of ‘Space Invaders’ game.
 
5
Skinner says that Clive Sinclair was often credited with establishing and expanding the hobby market in Britain even though he was actually slow to see its potential [4, p. 167].
 
6
I would also like to stress other reasons here such as the difficulties that computer users had to finding out computer programs in Spanish language at that time. As Lekkas puts it, computers were not really global machines with universal applications as popular rhetoric would have it. In many non-English speaking countries, individual users had to adapt the computer and its software to their local or national specifications [12, p. 81]. Thus, it is also necessary to shed some light on the negotiations and terms of usage within different local contexts.
 
7
Skinner claims that the use of mail order advertising in the mainstream press was a crucial early step in the development of home computer retailing [4, p. 175].
 
8
Skinner explains that large store chains had to be convinced of the viability of the computer as a mass consumer good. He also adds that ‘shops displayed the products and the activities of computing not only to those already involved but to the uninitiated. The high street became the place where the computer and the cultures of computing were most visible’ [4, p. 176].
 
9
This survey was conducted shortly before the publication of the first bulletin of the fanzine, in 1982. Some of its partial results are referenced in the section ‘Áreas de interés’ [Main Areas] of this bulletin, on page 4.
 
10
Graeme Kirkpatrick analyzed computer gaming as a codified male practice in the UK by the mid-1980s [24]. Regarding male computing accesses in the USA, see Nathan Ensmenger [25].
 
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21.
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Ensmenger, N.: The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise. MIT Press, Cambridge (2010)CrossRef
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Metadata
Title
Playfulness and the Advent of Computerization in Spain: The National Club of ZX81 Users
Author
Ignasi Meda-Calvet
Copyright Year
2016
Book
History and Philosophy of Computing

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47285-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-47286-7

Copyright Year: 2016

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47286-7_16

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