Keza MacDonald Audiobooks

Super Nintendo: the machine that shaped a generation of players, told in full

1 audiobook reviewed

★ 4.6/5 average

23 listener ratings

Who is Keza MacDonald?

Some hardware becomes cultural shorthand. Keza MacDonald has written about the Super Nintendo, a machine whose grey plastic and coloured buttons still function as a password among people of a certain age, and our catalogue files the result under heritage every bit as much as technology.

That double filing is the correct one. Writing seriously about video games means treating them as objects with a history: made by people, sold into a particular moment, and remembered by players who were changed by them. Over eight hours allows for the sort of detail a magazine retrospective never has room to carry.

MacDonald also narrates, which in cultural writing of this kind keeps the enthusiasm attached to the person who did the research.

Keza MacDonald in audiobooks

Self-narrated across eight and a half hours, this is the sound of somebody talking about something they know intimately, which is the ideal register for cultural history.

The early response has been warm, though the number of ratings remains small enough that the average should be read as a promising start rather than a settled judgement. There is no required order and no prior reading; arrive with whatever memories you have of the console and the book will meet you there. Anyone interested in how games became a subject worth writing about properly should find plenty to chew on. Explore what is listed below.