Dr. Iskandar Zulkarnain lecture: Gaming under the New Order: Atari, dingdong and the emergence of Indonesian video game cultures

In this lecture, Dr. Zulkarnain will discuss the emergence of video game culture in Indonesia under the New Order regime by focusing on two case studies: the introduction of Atari as a new form of entertainment medium and the popularity of dingdong, a local term for video arcades in the country. From gleaning print media and advertisement coverage of both Atari and dingdong, Zulkarnain will demonstrate that the introduction of these two gaming playscapes to the Indonesian public represents an interesting dynamic between the discourse of public and private spaces, the New Order regime’s desire to control media in all forms, access to entertainment based on class status, Atari’s transnational business strategies, youth identity construction and the excitement and anxiety held for a new medium. Eventually, tracing the history of Indonesian video game cultures through the case of Atari and dingdong offers a compelling and complex picture that is useful to better understand the richness of global gaming cultures beyond the confines of a western-oriented discourse.