The Game Boy: Making Music Dance to a Different (Chip) Tune | Kenny McAlpine | TEDxAbertayUniversity

Looking at Nintendo’s Gameboy today, more than a quarter-century on from its launch, it is easy to focus on its chunky design and outdated hardware and forget just how profoundly it revolutionised the handheld gaming market. Together with Tetris, its pack-in game, whose perfect blend of simplicity and challenge made it the Gameboy’s ‘killer app’, it gave a gaming experience whose appeal transcended age, gender and skill. A decade after it launched, the Gameboy re-emerged as a portable musical instrument as part of the chiptune scene, giving Nintendo the sort of goodwill that money simply can’t buy: When people are clubbing and partying with your device, your device has become a cultural icon. This talk explores that journey and the Gameboy’s musical legacy.
Dr Kenny McAlpine joined Abertay University as part of the team who developed the university’s degree programmes in Computer Game Technology and Computer Arts in the late 1990s, where he leads teaching and research in sound production and music performance. More than just ‘a bit of a geek’, Kenny’s interest in music and technology has taken him to some interesting and unusual places. He has developed gameplay-based and participatory soundtracks for theatre and a unique digital harpsichord exhibit for the National Trust in London. Kenny performs live from time to time as a jazz organist, and can often be found playing covers of classic 8-bit video game themes, about which he is currently writing a book for Oxford University Press. When he’s not thinking about music, Kenny can generally be found rolling around the hills of Fife on a mountain bike with a GoPro strapped to his handlebars, huffing his way round a marathon course with a GoPro strapped to his chest.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx