How did computers invade the homes and cultural life of 1980s Britain?Remember the ZX Spectrum? Ever have a go at programming with its stretchy rubber keys? How about the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, or Commodore 64? Did you marvel at the immense galaxies of Elite, master digital kung-fu in Way of the Exploding Fist or lose yourself in the surreal caverns of Manic Miner?For anyone who was a kid in the 1980s, these iconic computer br...

Bloomsbury presents Electronic Dreams by Tom Lean, read by Mark MeadowsRemember the ZX Spectrum? How about the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, or Commodore 64? Did you marvel at the immense galaxies of Elite or master digital kung-fu in Way of the Exploding Fist?For anyone growing up in the 1980s, these iconic computer brands are the stuff of legend. In Electronic Dreams, Tom Lean tells the story of how computers invaded British homes for the ...

Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed The Innovators is a “riveting, propulsive, and at times deeply moving” (The Atlantic) story of the people who created the computer and the internet.What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did som...

**A New York Times BestsellerFrom one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the twelve technological imperatives that will shape the next thirty years and transform our lives**Much of what will happen in the next thirty years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our li...

Discover the history of computing through 4 major threads of development in this compact, accessible history covering punch cards, Silicon Valley, smartphones, and much more.In an accessible style, computer historian Paul Ceruzzi offers a broad though detailed history of computing, from the first use of the word “digital” in 1942 to the development of punch cards and the first general purpose computer, to the internet, Silicon Valley, and smartphones and social net...

'Tom Chatfield's Fun Inc. is the most elegant and comprehensive defence of the status of computer games in our culture I have read, as well as a helpful compendium of research ... The numbers surrounding the sector are certainly thudding. By the end of 2008, annual sales of video games - not including consoles or devices - was $40 billion, comfortably outstripping the movie business. In the same year, Nintendo's employees were more profitable per head than Google's. The sheer perv...

From the N64 and SNES to the Atari 2600 and Intellivision, this book covers all the classic hardware from days gone by. With in-depth features and lists of the top ten games, this comprehensive guide will take you back to the golden age of videogames.

There is a companion web site asssociated with the book (http://vsicomputer.wordpress.com/). It contains chapter summaries, links to relevant material and posts about items of news relevant to the book's contents. Computers have changed so much since the room-filling, bulky magnetic tape running monsters of the mid 20th century. They now form a vital part of most people's lives. And they are more ubiquitous than might be thought - you may have more than 30 computers in your home: not just ...

Writers, musicians, filmmakers, gamers, lawyers and academics talk about why copyright matters to them – or doesn't.We expect to be able to log on and read, watch or listen to anything, anywhere, anytime. Then copy it, share it, quote it, sample it, remix it.Does this leave writers, designers, filmmakers, musicians, photographers, artists, and software and game developers with any rights at all? Have we forgotten how to pay for content? Are big corporations...

In the beginning, there was the computer. And it was big. As big as a room. Sometimes as big as a house. Early computers required teams of white-coated scientists to keep them running, yet one of those giant behemoths could not match the computing power of a single microchip today. From the first massive computers to today's nanotechnology, DIGITAL REVOLUTIONARIES offers a guided tour of the history of computers and a celebration of the human ingenuity that led the world from ENIAC to iMAC...

Our society is shaped by our media – now more than at any time in history. They play a crucial role in culture, commerce and politics alike. The Ascent of Media is the first book to look at the new digital era in the context of all that has gone before, and to build on the past to describe the media landscape of the future. Roger Parry takes us on a journey from the earliest written story – the Legend of Gilgamesh etched on clay tablets – to the Gutenberg press, and from the theatres of At...

Join videogame industry veteran Michael Thornton Wyman on a series of detailed, behind-the-scenes tours with the teams that have made some of the most popular and critically acclaimed videogames of the modern era. Drawing on insider's perspectives from a wide variety of teams, learn about the creation of a tiny, independent game project (World of Goo), casual game classics (Diner Dash, Bejeweled Twist), the world's most popular social game (FarmVille) as well as the world's most popular MM...