Moondust (video game)

Moondust
Box art
Publisher(s)Creative Software
Designer(s)Jaron Lanier
Platform(s)Commodore 64
Release1983
Genre(s)Music game, art game
Mode(s)Single player

Moondust is a 1983 generative music video game created for the Commodore 64 by virtual reality pioneer, Jaron Lanier. Moondust was programmed in 6502 assembly[1] in 1982,[2] and is considered the first art video game.[3][4][5] Moondust has frequently been used as an art installation piece in museum exhibitions[6] from Corcoran Gallery of Art's 1983 "ARTcade"[7] to the Smithsonian's 2012 "The Art of Video Games".[8][9] It has also been used by Lanier and others in papers and lectures as an example to demonstrate the unexpected ephemerality of digital data.[10][11][12][2]

Moondust is also considered to be the first interactive music publication,[13][14] and it sold quite successfully.[15] With the profits from Moondust[16] and additional funding from Marvin Minsky,[17] Lanier formed VPL which would later go on to create the DataGlove and the DataSuit[18] and to become one of the primary innovators of virtual-reality research and development throughout the 1980s.

  1. ^ "Brief Biography of Jaron Lanier". Homepage of Jaron Lanier. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  2. ^ a b Manes, Stephen (7 April 1998). "Time and Technology Threaten Digital Archives . . ". Science. New York Times.
  3. ^ Pease, Emma. CSLI Calendar Of Public Events. Stanford Center for the Study of Language and Information. 14 May 1997.
  4. ^ Jaron Lanier. KurzweilAI.net entry. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  5. ^ Thomsen, Michael. "Super Mario Turns 25: How Nintendo redefined everything before and after." IGN. 18 October 2010.
  6. ^ Amirkhanian, Charles. New Music in the Bay Area Archived 2011-02-22 at the Wayback Machine. KPFA Folio KPFA FM94, Listener-Sponsored Pacifica Radio program guide. October 1983
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference blakeman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Thomsen, Michael. "Review: The Smithsonian Celebrates Video Games - America's first art museum and The Art of Video Games." IGN. 30 March 2012.
  9. ^ Thomsen, Michael. "Culture Clash: How Video Games Are Crashing the Museum Party." Gamasutra. 22 May 2012.
  10. ^ Neumann, Horst. How Long Will Digitised Data Last? Archived 2009-01-05 at the Wayback Machine. The Journal of the Launceston Computer Group Inc. Volume 1, Issue 3. April 2005.
  11. ^ Van der Reijden, Anna Denise. Authenticity in Internet Art Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine. University of Utrecht masters thesis. August 2008.
  12. ^ "Clockthoughts". Homepage of Jaron Lanier. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  13. ^ Demarinis, Paul. Review of Jaron Lanier’s Moondust. Computer Music Journal Volume 08, No. 2 (Summer 1984), p. 61
  14. ^ Donovan, Tristan. "Inside Music Games - Let's face the music and dance." Eurogamer. 10 August 2011.
  15. ^ Chesher, Chris. Colonizing Virtual Reality - Construction of the Discourse of Virtual Reality, 1984-1992 Archived 2008-12-05 at the Wayback Machine. Cultronix. Volume 1, Number 1. Fall 1994.
  16. ^ Burr, Snider. Jaron. Wired. May/June 1993.
  17. ^ Virtual reality: spreadsheets for industry - tutorial. RELease 1.0. 8 October 1990.
  18. ^ Hamilton, Joan O'C. Going Where No Minds Have Gone Before. 5 October 1992.

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