UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Stabilization, Exploration, and Expression of Computer Game History Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4rn402db Author Kaltman, Eric Publication Date 2017 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ THE STABILIZATION, EXPLORATION, AND EXPRESSION OF COMPUTER GAME HISTORY A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in COMPUTER SCIENCE by Eric Kaltman September 2017 The Dissertation of Eric Kaltman is approved: Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Chair Michael Mateas Henry Lowood Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Eric Kaltman 2017 Table of Contents List of Figures vi List of Tables viii Abstract ix Dedication xi Acknowledgments xii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 On the history of technology . .4 1.2 On the history of software . 10 1.3 On the history of computer games in the history of software in the history of technology . 12 1.4 On preservation . 13 1.5 On knowledge accumulation, exploration and expression in the his- tory of technology . 15 1.6 On an intermediary perspective for the history of games as software 20 1.7 Stabilization . 25 1.8 Exploration . 27 1.9 Expression . 29 2 Appraisal 31 2.1 Compiling the Record . 31 2.2 Appraisal . 33 2.2.1 Related Work . 38 2.3 Prom Week .............................. 41 2.3.1 Choice of Prom Week ..................... 42 2.3.2 Process . 43 2.3.3 Context . 57 2.3.4 Documentary Enumeration . 62 iii 2.4 Conclusion . 79 3 Description 82 3.1 Introduction . 82 3.1.1 A Brief on Controlled Vocabularies . 84 3.1.2 A Course Through the Thicket . 86 3.2 Controlled Vocabularies . 90 3.2.1 A Brief Record Example . 92 3.2.2 Vocabulary and Ontology Best Practices . 97 3.2.3 “Aboutness” of Platform . 106 3.2.4 Levels of Abstraction . 110 3.2.5 Derivation of Terms . 114 3.2.6 Format, Conceptualization and Reasonable Compatibility . 117 3.2.7 Semantic Web Integration . 122 3.2.8 Vocabularies in Institutional Practice . 127 3.3 Future Work . 143 3.4 Conclusion . 146 4 Citation 149 4.1 The Pivot . 149 4.2 Citation . 152 4.2.1 Citation in Use . 153 4.2.2 Citation as Discourse . 155 4.3 Bibliography and Citation in Game Studies . 161 4.3.1 Presupposition of DOOM! . 165 4.4 Reduction and Intertextual Expression . 171 4.5 Types and Examples of Reduction . 175 4.5.1 Video . 176 4.5.2 Visualization . 177 4.5.3 Emulation . 180 4.5.4 Closing . 186 4.6 Back to Citation and Archives . 188 4.7 A Tool for Descriptive and Manifest Citation of Games . 190 4.7.1 Game v Performance . 191 4.7.2 Citation Tool . 193 4.7.3 Command Line . 195 4.7.4 Web Application . 198 4.7.5 Future Work . 206 4.8 Evaluation . 207 4.8.1 Discussion . 208 4.8.2 Improvements and Future Work . 211 4.9 Conclusion . 213 iv 5 Discovery 215 5.1 Intro . 215 5.2 Game Discovery . 217 5.2.1 Forms of Discovery and Their Limitations . 219 5.3 A Goal for Discovery . 224 5.4 A Model for Discovery . 226 5.4.1 Related Work in NLP for Games . 227 5.4.2 Latent Semantic Analysis . 233 5.5 Tools for Discovery . 235 5.5.1 Related Discovery Work . 235 5.5.2 GameNet . 237 5.5.3 GameSage . 238 5.6 Visualizations for Discovery . 239 5.6.1 GameGlobs . 240 5.6.2 Gamespace . 241 5.6.3 GameTree . 241 5.7 Evaluation . 245 5.7.1 Expert Evaluation . 246 5.7.2 Novice Game Designer Evaluation . 249 5.8 Future Work . 253 5.9 Conclusion . 254 6 A Model of Doom 256 6.1 Introduction . 256 6.2 Fractal History . 260 6.3 A Model of Game Software Historical Study . 265 6.4 Doom in Fractal Coherence . 275 6.4.1 Historiographable Target . 278 6.4.2 Reified Object . 295 6.4.3 Technical Expression . 310 6.4.4 Enacted and Tacit Knowledge . 318 6.5 Conclusion . 329 7 Conclusion 333 7.1 The Conditions of a History for Games and Software . 335 7.2 The Network Contingency and its Implications on Practice . 338 7.2.1 Problems of the Network Contingency . 340 v List of Figures 1.1 Intermediary Accumulation . 16 1.2 Intermediary Exploration and Expression . 18 1.3 Full Historical Process . 19 1.4 Mapped Historical Process . 21 3.1 Platform Abstraction Diagram . 111 3.2 Basic Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) Diagram . 124 3.3 SKOS Terminology Hierarchy . 125 3.4 Region and Version Compatibility . 126 3.5 Information Sheet Example . 145 4.1 GISST components and pipeline. 194 4.2 Basic CLI Pipeline . 197 4.3 Data Flow to GISST Indexer . 198 4.4 Network Diagram for Loading a Game into the Indexer . 201 4.5 Network Diagram for Loading a Save State into the Indexer . 202 4.6 Network Diagram for Saving a Save State. 202 4.7 Network Diagram for Video Recording . 203 4.8 Indexer User Interface . 204 5.1 GameNet Search and Results for Wall Street Kid . 237 5.2 GameSage Query for Non-Corpus Game . 238 5.3 GameGlobs Showing 20 Clusters . 242 5.4 GameSpace Intro Screen and Main Space . 243 vi 5.5 GameSpace Game Selection with Wikipedia and Youtube . 244 5.6 GameTree with Racing Game Branch Highlighted . 245 6.1 Two Versions of Historical Analysis . 265 6.2 Basic Software Historical Model in Four Layers . 268 6.3 “T” of Omissions in Historical Model . 273 6.4 Opening of Doom ........................... 279 6.5 Opening of Hovertank 3D ...................... 284 6.6 Opening of Catacomb 3D ....................... 286 6.7 Opening of Wolfenstein 3D ...................... 287 6.8 Version Tree of Doom . 302 7.1 Growth of Network Contingent Games 1950 to Now . 343 7.2 Growth of Network Contingent Games Into Future . 343 7.3 Network Distribution 1950 to Now . 344 7.4 Network Distribution Now Into Future . 345 vii List of Tables 2.1 Prom Week File Formats and Dependent Programs . 68 3.1 Star Raiders Entry from Cabrinety Collection Finding Aid . 94 3.2 Aggregated Number of Potential Platforms and Formats Per Col- lection . 116 3.3 Example Research Entry for a Platform (Before Disambiguation) 116 4.1 GISST Supported Resources . 198 6.1 Comparison of id Games’ File Structures . 298 6.2 Comparison of Doom Image Contents 0.2 to 1.25 . 307 6.3 Comparison of Doom Image Contents 1.4 to The Ultimate Doom 308 viii Abstract The Stabilization, Exploration, and Expression of Computer Game History by Eric Kaltman Computer games are now a significant cultural phenomenon, and a significant artistic output of humanity. However, little effort and attention have been paid to how the medium of games and interactive software developed, and even less to the historical storage of software development documentation. This thesis borrows methodologies and practices from computer science, the history of science and technology, and information science, and brings them to bear on the historical study of computer games. It posits that in order to understand and reconcile the place and effects of cultural software in society, new means of stabilizing software outputs, exploring their contents, and expressing their histories must be created. The thesis’s contributions are tied to a model of scholarly process, in which software practitioners — in this case specifically game developers — produce doc- umentation that is then explored by historians and expressed — through scholarly works — to other scholars and lay audiences. That is, the accumulation of his- torical records about games and software needs to be filtered through stabilizing processes before historians can make use of them. Furthermore, the subsequent expression of those records.