Retrogame Archeology

Drawing on extensive research, this book explores the§astounding techniques that old computer games used to run on§tightly-constrained platforms. Retrogames are astounding simply considering the§tightly-constrained computing platforms they had to run on. Developers faced§challenges of space, computing power, and the lack of homogenized environments.§This book both documents old development techniques that are being lost, and§highlights contemporary connections. Many of these old techniques have modern§applications in games and other computing practices.§§Using examples from over 100 retrogames, this book examines§the clever implementation tricks that game designers employed to make their§creations possible. These retrogame techniques have both modern analogues and§applications in general computer systems, not just games, and this book makes§these contemporary connections. It also uses retrogames' implementation to§introduce a wide variety of topics in computer systems including memory management,§interpretation, data compression, procedural content generation and software§protection.§§Retrogame§Archeology targets professionals§and advanced-level students in computer science, engineering and mathematics§but would also be of interest to retrogame enthusiasts, computer§historians, and game studies researchers in the humanities.§§