Games and Cathode Rays: Discourses on a New Medium in the Italian Specialized Magazines (1981-1988)

Diego Cavallotti's study examines how Italian specialized magazines framed video games between 1981 and 1988, arguing that the medium's cultural acceptance in Italy was shaped jointly by its material forms and the discourses that surrounded it. Drawing on Albera and Tortajada's "dispositive" framework, the analysis positions early Italian periodicals such as Video Magazine, Video, Sperimentare con l'elettronica e il computer, and Videogiochi as central to legitimizing games, well before the later success of the British magazine Zzap! Video Magazine, for instance, ran regular game columns from 1981 and split them into news and reviews in 1983, reflecting a steadily institutionalizing coverage.

The study finds that the Italian market continued to expand in 1983 and 1984 even as the American industry contracted sharply, with magazines presenting video games as one element of a broader video and home-electronics ecosystem. Publications catered to distinct implicit readerships, ranging from non-expert consumers seeking buyers' guides and sales charts to technically skilled bricoleurs who built their own joysticks and interfaces. Alongside official commerce, a grey market of cracked games circulating through clubs emerged as a recognized cultural practice within the community.

The analysis also examines reviewing conventions, using assessments of titles such as Ultimate's Underwurlde and Activision's River Raid to show how critics weighed gameplay against release timing and porting delays. Videogiochi, launched in January 1983 as Italy's first dedicated video game magazine, treated games as an autonomous part of a wider mediasphere spanning arcade, console, and home computer formats, before shifting toward home computers in 1985. Its readership later drifted toward a youth audience, and its 1986 relaunch failed, with the magazine closing in May 1987. The study concludes that a distinct Italian discourse on video games was forming from the early 1980s, portraying players as pioneers of a complex media practice rather than merely young enthusiasts, well before the Nintendo NES made gaming a mass phenomenon in late 1987.