CONTEXT IN PRACTICE Investigate the year 1989 and broaden your knowledge of certain events, including social, political and gaming contexts.

1989 GAMING CONTEXT  The fourth generation of gaming  The home video gaming industry received a massive boost, with the introduction of new gen gaming consoles. These were driven by 2 technological innovations, lower cost memory chips and high power 8 bit microprocessors!  The first programmable handheld system was released in 1989, Nintendo’s Gameboy, it was for sell in the states for $100. The Gameboy featured a black and white LCD screen and came pre-packaged with Tetris. The Gameboy still holds the honour today of being the most successful selling game system of all time! The next Gameboy to come out was in 1995 when they released the Gameboy with a coloured case, and then in 1996 when they released a smaller lighter version.  Sega released its first ever game system in the US the Sega master system (SMS). The Master system had 2 cartridge ports.

1989 GAMING CONTEXT CONTINUED  During 1989 a Nightmare On Elm Street was released for the pc dos. This was the most popular game in 1989 according to IMDB. The game was based on the film with the idea of having the gamer enter a dream to kill Freddy before he kills the player!  Other games released during this year were Back to the future, Indiana Jones and Batman. All of these games have one thing in common they are all based on critically acclaimed films from the 80’s.  One of the main game releases during 1989 was Tetris. This in my opinion is the most famous release, this is due to versions of the game still being created today.  In 1989 Prince of Persia was released by Brøderbund and designed by Jordan Mechner. It was a puzzled based game that was seen as being a huge leap forward in animation.

1989 ART CONTEXT  In 1989 the completion of restoration works on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling.  The Keith Haring Foundation is established; Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980’s by expressing concepts of birth, death and war. His imagery has become a widely recognized visual language of the 20 th century.

1989 FILM AND TV CONTEXTS  Horror cinema was big in the 80s, films released include A Nightmare On Elm Street: The Dream Child, Halloween 5 and The Women In Black.  The Australian soap home and away made its debut on British television (ITV).  Baywatch was also shown on television this year in America!  The movie rain man won an Oscar for best picture.  Sky TV began broadcasting, this was the first satellite TV service in Britain.

1989 SOCIAL CONTEXTS  I was born in 1989 (Rebecca Churches)!!!  A memorial service was held for 270 people that died in the Lockerbie disaster. Margaret thatcher and other political leaders attended this.  Disney's MGM Studios theme park opens in Orlando, Florida for the first time.  January the 8 th 1989: Kegworth air disaster, a British midland Boeing 737 crashed onto the M1 motorway when approaching the East Midlands Airport killing over 40 people.  John Cleese won a libel case (this is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual, amongst other things such as businesses). The Daily Mirror described Cleese as becoming like his character in Faulty Towers in his day to day life.  15 th April The Hillsborough disaster took place, 94 fans died by being crushed and around 300 others were taken to hospital. This was during the FA cup semi final in Sheffield, between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.

1989 POLITICAL CONTEXTS  Maggie Thatcher became a grandmother on March 3 rd for the first time when her daughter in law gave birth to a son in Dallas, Texas. She also celebrated her 10 th year as Prime Minister  In March Britain’s unemployment level was below 7%, this was the first time in 8 years. Just over 2 million people were now unemployed.  On 6 th April, the government announced an end to legislation which effectively guaranteed secure work for more than 9,000 Dockers over the rest of their working lives.  16 th April Dennis Howell, a former sports Labour minister, pressed for the FA cup final to go ahead this season even though the Football Association wanted it to be cancelled due to the recent Hillsborough disaster.  The 9 th November is the official date for the Berlin wall falling.

 Muslims demonstrated in Bradford against the Satanic Verses (this was Salman Rushdie’s fourth novel), they burnt copies of the book in the streets of the city. This lead to Iran breaking off diplomatic relations with the UK on 7 th March.  At the time the Supreme Ruler of the Islamic republic of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini, had issued a ‘fatwa’ calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie.  In the West the fatwa was condemned by world governments on the grounds that it violated the universal human rights of free speech and freedom of religion.  This order shook UK – Iranian relations causing a lot of tension between the two countries.  Hitoshi Igarashi, a Japanese translator for the book was the only victim of …………………this order POLITICAL CONTEXTS CONTINUED