About

I am a Leeds United supporter… “Until The World Stops Going Round” MOT/ALAW/WACCOE

For my side-hustle I am Chair and Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the Media School, Indiana University.  I also co-edit the MIT Press Game Histories Book Series with Henry Lowood.

I have written the following books: Feeling Leeds: Notes on Loving a Football Club from Afar (Pitch Publishing, 2022); Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020); Game After: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife (MIT Press, 2014); Edited Clean Version: Technology and the Culture of Control (University of Minnesota Press, 2009); and co-edited EA Sports FIFA: Feeling The Game (with Henry Lowood and Carlin Wing, Bloomsbury, 2022); Debugging Game History: A Critical Lexicon (with Henry Lowood, MIT Press, 2016); The Object Reader (with Fiona Candlin, Routledge, 2009); and Popular Culture: A Reader (with Omayra Zaragoza Cruz, Sage, 2005).

My writings on game history appear in many journals and magazines including: American Journal of Play, Cabinet, Design Issues, Design and Culture, Game Studies, Journal of Design History, Journal of Visual Culture, and Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture.  Many of my articles can be downloaded via academia.edu

Please note: I’ve grown bored writing articles in academic journals and will probably never do so again. Such a lame way to spend one’s time in life. Not too mention receiving zero compensation for one’s labor when presses grow fat from all of those institutional subscriptions. Such a scam. I prefer writing books.

Books due out 2023 include:

• Replayed: Essential Writings on Software Preservation and Game Histories (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023) *I served as the general editor for this collection on Henry Lowood’s works. Matt G. Kirschenbaum provides the book’s Foreword and TL Taylor conducts an interview with Henry. Pure gold!

Future writing plans include a  book on football games co-written with Henry Lowood. We’ll two-foot tackle Tipp-Kick and Subbuteo along with card games, board games, pinball, coin-op, computer, console, and mobile. Liquid Football!

I’m also kicking around the idea of writing another contribution to my research on the design history of video games. This one will tackle the development of home consoles and the industry crash of 83-84. In a nutshell, I want to argue that the crash was a design issue.

In addition to published research, my creative labor also takes the form of consultancy work for museums that collect and exhibit games.

I am also the co-founder of Crossbar Records, an independent vinyl only record label for punk – oi! – mod – hardcore. Check out: crossbarrecords.com

My leisure time (yeah, right!) consists of collecting vinyl records, playing EA Sports FIFA, and educating my son on the art of goal keeping.