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"Pixel Cowboys and Silicon Goldmines: Videogames of the American West"

Wills, John (2008) "Pixel Cowboys and Silicon Goldmines: Videogames of the American West". Pacific Historical Review, 77 (2). pp. 273-303. ISSN 0030-8684. (doi:10.1525/phr.2008.77.2.273) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:11347)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/phr.2008.77.2.273

Abstract

This article explores representations of the American West in computer and videogames from the late 1970s through 2006. The article reveals how several titles, including the early Boot Hill (1977), invoked classic nineteenth-century western motifs, employing the six-shooter, wagon train, and iron horse to sell late twentieth-century entertainment technology to a global audience. Such games allowed players, typically adolescent males, to recreate a version of history and to participate actively in the more violent aspects of the “Wild West.” The arcade Western emerged as a subgenre within computer entertainment, offering a distinctive, interactive amalgam of popular frontier-based fictions, including the nineteenth-century dime novel, Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show, and the modern Hollywood western. Computer technology thus served established myths surrounding the “Wild West,” even as New Western History was challenging their authenticity

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1525/phr.2008.77.2.273
Subjects: E History America > E151 United States (General)
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User: John Wills
Date Deposited: 15 Apr 2009 12:57 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:50 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/11347 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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