La mode rétro: French mystery games – Between nostalgia and historical revisionism (1986–91) | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 13, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1757-191X
  • E-ISSN: 1757-1928

Abstract

This article examines how games set in the past reflect contemporary social and political events without overtly communicating messages. Using a simplified version of Astrid Ensslin’s methodological toolkit, the author studies four critically acclaimed retrospective mystery games produced in France within the 1986–91 period. The research results allow one to externalize a trend marked by ambiguous meanings called , namely a nostalgic re-creation of the past and a simultaneous coming-to-terms with France’s history. The author contextualizes the games examined here in terms of their references to a problematic past – the nation’s wartime stance towards Nazi Germany, and colonialism – and contemporaneous events such as the emergence of the National Front in France. The titles examined here demonstrate how discursively ambiguous computer games are as cultural texts.

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2021-03-01
2024-04-19
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): mystery games; nostalgia; retro games; Second World War; Vichy; video games
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