School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Research Publications

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    'Hail to the King!' – the return of doom
    NDALIANIS, ANGELA ( 2004-12)
    It was back in 1993 that the horror was unleashed in the form of the DOOM: EVIL UNLEASHED. Developed by the Texas-based company id Software, this computer game was to introduce radical innovations not only to the First Person Shooter (FPS) genre, but also to the soft and hardware technology that drove gaming. In 1994, the sequel DOOM II: HELL ON EARTH was to push the envelope further still. Drawing upon the science fiction and horror conventions of cinematic examples like ALIEN (Ridley Scott, 1979), ALIENS (James Cameron, 1986) and EVIL DEAD II (Sam Raimi, 1987), both DOOM games upped the ante in game culture by transferring experiences familiar to the horror and science fiction film spectator over to the gamer. Discussing DOOM's influences, Jay Wilbur, the then chief executive officer of id stated that id ‘wanted to make an ALIEN-like game that captured the fast-paced action, brutality and fear of those movies’, while also amplifying the action and horror with EVIL DEAD II, whose ‘chainsaws and shotguns are an unbeatable combination’. It would not be an understatement to say that these two games are up there with the most popular and influential games in game history. Significantly, one of the concerns of the games’ creators – John Carmack and John Romero – was to transfer the dread, suspense and terror that was familiar to film audiences into the game environment. Fast forward to 2004: a new breed of game horror is born again in the form of the PC-game DOOM 3 (to be released in December 2004 on X"Box). Like its addictive predecessors, DOOM 3 introduces an even greater ‘filmic’ quality to its game space and, yet again, a new standard of gaming aesthetics and technology is created. Todd Hollenshead, head of id Software has stated that ‘DOOM 3 is a video game experience unlike any before it… From the cinema quality visuals and the incredible 5.1 sound, to the terrifying atmosphere and hyper-realistic environments, the whole game screams “interactive horror film”.’ In particular, the DOOM games typify a strong tendency amongst game developers towards fetishizing the film object, and what is perceived as the cinema’s convincing illusion of ‘realism’. But the cinema is by no means the only media form that has impacted upon games. Through an analysis of DOOM 3 and its heritage, this essay will address the question of games and their history, arguing that their reliance on past sources does not detract from their uniqueness. The creators of games like DOOM 3 deliberately place their creations within a rich, diverse tapestry of media history not in an admission of their lack of originality, but rather so that they can flag their innovation. In fact, as will be argued below, the ways in which John Carmack (Lead Programmer of the DOOM trilogy) and the rest of the production team at id Software arrange and reshape their influences has a story to tell us about how these games situate themselves within the arena of competing entertainment media.
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    Architectures of the senses: neo-baroque entertainment spectacles
    NDALIANIS, ANGELA (MIT Press, 2003)
    It was sometime in November 2000. I was walking along an Arabian street, taking in the rhythms of the arabesque decorations and the spectacular, multi-colored buildings; being entertained by the exotic street musicians; and occasionally being lured into various bazaars that offered the temptations of products ranging from Persian rugs and glassware, to Versace gowns and DKNY accessories. At one point, I found myself at a pier. I looked up at the sky and, while soft, fluffy clouds punctured its blue (yet somewhat solid) surface, it seemed like it was going to be a beautiful day. But what do I know? No sooner had I thought this than the rumbling sounds of thunder vibrated through the air and flashes of lightning lit up the now-transformed dark and ominous clouds. And the rain came pouring down, creating restless ripples in the previously still waters near the pier. So I left Arabia and walked across the road to Lake Como, where I took in the sights of the palazzo Bellagio as it stood majestically in the background. Initially, the enormous lake reflected the palazzo in its tranquil waters, then thousands of small tubes began to puncture its surface, and the first bars of music suddenly filled this vast space. I recognized the tune Frank Sinatra's "Lady Luck" - and it was, indeed, a toe-tapper. As hundreds flocked around balconies overlooking the lake, the lake's water began to magically take on a life of its own: spurts of water swayed left and right, back and forth in perfect unison with the rhythms of Sinatra's crooning. And the audience continued to look on, mesmerized by the spectacle they witnessed, astounded by the rhythmic motions of water, which included stretches of up to fifty meters erupting to heights that exceeded one hundred meters.
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    Paul Verhoeven and his hollow men
    NDALIANIS, A (La Trobe University, 2001)
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    The rules of the game: Evil dead II . . . meet thy doom
    NDALIANIS, ANGELA (Duke University Press, 2002)
    Interdimensional doorways finally make possible space travel between the two moons of Mars: Phobos and Deimos. The Union Aerospace Corporation's research into interdimensional travel is a success. Or is it? In a climactic series of events, things start to go terribly wrong. Some people sent through the gateways disappear. Others return from Mars's moons as zombies. Then the moon Deimos vanishes without a trace. Enter the hero-leader of a specialized team of space marines. He sends his troops ahead of him through the interdimensional gateway; armed with a Space Marine Corporation gun, he follows them through, but once on Phobos his worldview changes. The space marines have vanished. Instead, dark surroundings envelop him, and eerie, atmospheric music accentuates the suspense-filled moments. The marine leader begins to scour the corporate installation in search of any living human being ... but it's not the living who come to greet him. Seemingly out of nowhere, an array of bizarre creatures charge down dim-lit corridors and through automatic doors: zombified humans, demons, imps, minotaur-like forms, evil spirits. And so it begins. He must explore the installation to find out what happened, then get the hell out of there at any cost! Picking up weapons along the way, he attacks the monsters like a man gone berserk-with fists, chainsaw, gun, rifle, and missile launcher. His body takes a beating, but his victims also pay the price. Hundreds of those demonic bodies audibly erupt, explode, and splatter before him-and he revels in every gory detail. A sequel to Aliens: Aliens Meets the Demons of Hell? Or perhaps Evil Dead II in outer space? This is no film space. The horror of this story belongs to the cult computer game released by id Software in 1993: Doom: Evil Unleashed.
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    The frenzy of the visible: spectacle and motion in the era of the digital
    NDALIANIS, ANGELA ( 2000-02)
    During my first viewing of The Matrix (Wachowski Brothers, 1999) I found my vision bombarded by imagery and sensations more akin to theme park rides like the Spiderman attraction at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure in Florida. My visual and aural faculties were plunged into a state of disorientation that constituted a physical assault on my senses. Not only was an array of framing effects and camera movements employed - from high velocity pans, tracks and fast paced edits, to 360° camera somersaults - but there was motion and there was lots of it! Bodies, cameras, sound and visual effects - everything moved and it moved fast, even when 'bullet-time' speed was visualised through slow motion techniques. Here's a film that's dictated above all by the speed of the image: within the filmic space (with its economically ordered narrative and fast paced action); within the production space (with its special effects and high velocity stylistic techniques); and within the audience's space (in the capacity the film has in affecting us on a highly charged sensory level).
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    Television and the Neo-Baroque
    Ndalianis, A ; HAMMOND, M ; MAZDON, L (Edinburgh University Press, 2005-05-04)
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    The Wonder of Digital Worlds
    NDALIANIS, A (RMIT University, 2004)
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    Tomorrow's world that we shall build today
    NDALIANIS, A ; Pepperell, R ; Punt, M (Rodopi, 2006)
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    Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment
    NDALIANIS, A (MIT Press, 2004)
    Tracing the logic of media history, from the baroque to the neo-baroque, from magic lanterns and automata to film and computer games. The artists of the seventeenth-century baroque period used spectacle to delight and astonish; contemporary entertainment media, according to Angela Ndalianis, are imbued with a neo-baroque aesthetic that is similarly spectacular. In Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment, she situates today's film, computer games, comic books, and theme-park attractions within an aesthetic-historical context and uses the baroque as a framework to enrich our understanding of contemporary entertainment media. The neo-baroque aesthetics that Ndalianis analyzes are not, she argues, a case of art history repeating or imitating itself; these forms have emerged as a result of recent technological and economic transformations. The neo-baroque forms combine sight and sound and text in ways that parallel such seventeenth-century baroque forms as magic lanterns, automata, painting, sculpture, and theater but use new technology to express the concerns of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Moving smoothly from century to century, comparing ceiling paintings to the computer game Doom, a Spiderman theme park adventure to the baroque version of multimedia known as the Bel Composto, and a Medici wedding to Terminator 2:3D, the book demonstrates the logic of media histories. Ndalianis focuses on the complex interrelationships among entertainment media and presents a rigorous cross-genre, cross-historical analysis of media aesthetics.