How do I hold this thing? Controlling reconstructed Q*berts

What is it about?

Preserving historical video games requires special consideration of touchable interfaces, which are never simply "intuitive." Using the 1982 arcade hit "Q*Bert" as a case study, this paper shows how touchable interfaces can be reconstructed through intertextual reference to a variety of written secondary texts.

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Why is it important?

This paper brings recent haptic media studies scholarship into conversation with game studies and software preservation. It also compares a number of competing approaches to the preservation of touchable interfaces.