Writing this book has taken a number of years, and although I’ve been alone in penning the words, the long journey of ideas, from vague intuitions to rough shaping to constant chiseling and their final stonecast presence, could never have happened without the excellent people who have surrounded me through these years. I want to thank everyone who has engaged with my hypotheses, listened to my ramblings, and offered support in every way possible. In particular, and although mortally afraid to forget someone, I’d like to thank first Andréanne and Nathan, for being there for me and putting up with me while I rattled away at my keyboard for impossible hours; my close friends and colleagues in the Montreal game studies community, whom I always look forward to seeing, even if that doesn’t happen enough: Bernard Perron, for his friendship, support, encouragements and wise advice; Maude Bonenfant, for the inspiring discussions and rich exchanges we keep having; Carl Therrien, Guillaume Roux-Girard, and Simon Dor, for their sustained, positive presence through the years; Martin Picard, for sending me charts and news and sharing ideas during writing (and beyond); Gabrielle Trépanier-Jobin, Louis-Martin Guay, and Danny Godin, for the all-too-rare occasions to meet and their ongoing friendship; Andréane Morin-Simard and Marc Joly-Corcoran, for their almost daily presence in the office and pleasant exchanges, as well as our academic collaborations; my LUDOV colleagues and friends Hugo Montembeault, Pascale Thériault, Mikaël Julien, and Francis Lavigne; my research assistants of Team INTEGRAE Audrey Larochelle, Pierre-Marc Côté, and Sacha Lebel, who were tremendously helpful, dedicated, and perspicacious and who gave an additional dimension to my initially modest research project; MITP acquisitions editor Douglas Sery for his initial support and ongoing understanding and patience in making this project a reality; series editors Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost for their openness, support, and insightful comments on my initial pitch and first draft (I’d say your comments were pure silver!); the two anonymous peer reviewers, whose excellent and generous work has been incredibly helpful in powering up this book from the initial draft; MITP manuscript workflow assistant Elizabeth Agresta for her keen eyes that saved the figures in chapter 7; Devin Monnens and John Szczepaniak for offering connections and encouragements; Akinori Nakamura and Koichi Hosoi for their kind and positive responses to my probably impolite emails; Dana Plank and Julianne Grasso for revising some of the music-oriented statements in the book (and for headbanging with me to the Final Fantasy Mystic Quest soundtrack); David Viens and Hubert Lamontagne of Plogue Art et technologie for revisions on audio technology; the Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Société et Culture (FRQSC) for funding my research project on innovation and graphical technologies in the video game industry; and finally the hordes of anonymous individuals and communities all over the Internet who have provided me innumerable references, trails to follow, and points to argue. I can’t retrace all my digital footsteps, but I want to underline in particular the following portals: Wikipedia, the VGSales Wikia, VGchartz, N-Sider, SNES Central, Chris Covell, gamepilgrimage, MobyGames, 1up.com, Kotaku, the Super Nintendo Development Wiki, and the NESDev Forums.