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Analysis of institutional authors

Alvarado, AcCorresponding Author

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September 27, 2022
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Archaeology of interactivity: the pop-up book as the forerunner of video games

Publicated to:Artnodes. 2018 (21): 119-126 - 2018-06-01 2018(21), DOI: 10.7238/a.v0i21.3183

Authors: Alvarado, AC

Affiliations

Univ Rey Juan Carlos, Fac CC Comunicac, Dept Ciencias Comunicac & Sociol, Camino Molino S-N,2894 Campus Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain - Author

Abstract

This paper focuses on a scarcely explored field: the cultural background of the video game. Notwithstanding the relationship to traditional games, sports and board games, digital and even mechanical technologies which are shown as direct forerunners (computers or pinball games), the video game responds to a long tradition that has its roots in popular 18th- and 19th-century performances. Its birth as a medium with a great capacity for cultural hybridisation has a parallel with the pop-up book. The traditional book developed as a means to combine new forms of entertainment such as the panorama, the phantasmagoria, puppet shows and automatons, the peep show, dioramas and the optical illusions of zoetropes or magic lanterns. The new technique of paper engineering, which emulated the mechanics of the automaton, broke the immobility of the image and allowed for the first animations of characters associated with a story and the construction of a three-dimensional explorable space. For the first time, the reader was involved in the narrative process, interacting with the moving parts and composing a world of fiction based on their activity and on the new relationships between text and image, unlike those in illustrated books. Also for the first time, it created a fun artefact different from the traditional toy, in a process very similar to the one that would give rise to electronic games one hundred years later. The evolution of both resources led to similar development solutions in terms of animation techniques, creation of the point of view and the relationship between narration and interaction. This paper ultimately reveals the permanent link between video games and the legacy of 19th-century entertainment, and how this influence feeds into the idea of performance via virtual reality

Keywords

InteractivityMedia archaeologyMovable booksVideo games

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Artnodes due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Dialnet (Dialnet Métricas). In the year of publication of the work, 2018, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil).

Notably, the journal is positioned classified as A in other national agencies such as CIRC, classified as B by the agency AGUAR.

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-08-12:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 13.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 17 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 0.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Cuadrado Alvarado, Alfonso) and Last Author (Cuadrado Alvarado, Alfonso).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Cuadrado Alvarado, Alfonso.