On a Silver Platter : : CD-ROMs and the Promises of a New Technology / / ed. by Greg M. Smith.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Archive eBook-Package Pre-2000
• MitwirkendeR: Bukatman, Scott,; Cartwright, Lisa,; Friedman, Ted,; Gack, Vanessa,; Jarmon, Leslie,; Jenkins, Henry,; Kelly, Brian,; Murray, Janet,; Ndalianis, Angela,; Smith, Greg M.,; Trope, Alison,; Wilson, Pamela,
• HerausgeberIn: Smith, Greg M.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [1998]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 1998
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

When the new medium of CD-ROMs emerged, industry figures and critics alike proclaimed their virtually unlimited potential. Adapting material from well-established media like television and film, CD-ROMs have quickly transformed genres such as science fiction and horror. At the same time, the realities of actual CD-ROMs often fall short of their utopian visions. On a Silver Platter marks a "coming of age" for CD-ROMs as a commercially and aesthetically significant medium demanding critical attention. Greg Smith brings together media scholars such as Lisa Cartwright, Henry Jenkins, Janet Murray, and Scott Bukatman to analyze how CD-ROMs offer alternatives to familiar places—to museums, to cities, and especially to classrooms. Examining specific CD-ROM titles, including, Sim City, Civilization, and Phantasmagoria, the contributors argue that CD-ROMs are complex texts worthy of close consideration, both for how they have changed our understanding of space and genre, and for how they will impact the development of future media. By examining particular CD-ROM texts and contexts, On a Silver Platter probes this new medium for insight and understanding into the current state of multimedia and into the future of technology.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- 1. Introduction: A Few Words about Interactivity -- 2. Before the Holodeck: Translating Star Trek into Digital Media -- 3. ‘‘To Waste More Time, Please ClickHere Again’’: Monty Python and the Quest for Film/CD-ROM Adaptation -- 4. ‘‘Evil Will WalkOnce More’’: Phantasmagoria— The Stalker Film as Interactive Movie? -- 5. Busy Box Interface: The Pleasures of Winding -- 6. Civilization and Its Discontents: Simulation, Subjectivity, and Space -- 7. Museum (Dis)Play: Imagining the Museum on CD-ROM -- 8. Virtual Kinship in a Postmodern World: Computer-Mediated Genealogy Communities -- 9. Fantasies of Mastery or Masteries of Fantasy? Playing with CD-ROMs in the 5th Dimension -- 10. Showing and Telling: Developing CD-ROMs for the Classroom and Research -- 11. Doing Theory in Hypermedia Practice: A Case Study of the HyperHistory Video Project -- Contributors -- Index