The CD-ROM as a Digital Game-Changer

The role of CD-ROMs has often been underestimated in the journey towards digitization and media convergence (Jenkins, 2006) by the current state of the art (Schafer, 2022), leading to limited exploration (although we may mention some analysis in game studies, like Therrien, 2019, as well as in the field of cultural heritage, i.e, Lavigne, 2005). However, the discourse on the revolution they brought about was present from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s (see for example press coverage like Cook, 1990; Peyret, 1996, the development of specialized press, the paper by Helgerson, “CD-Rom: A Revolution in the Making”, 1986 and the book by Borrell, The CD-ROM Revolution, 1995).
This presentation aims to delve into this sense of revolution and the CD-ROM’s role in creating and facing transformations and serving as a digital transition. It will focus particularly on the CD-ROM’s place in the media convergence that was unfolding in the 80s and 90s and the imagined and perceived changes brought about by their development. By studying the CD-ROM as a “revolution” in its time, its transformations, and its role in the transition to Internet and Web usage, we aim to reevaluate this artifact in terms of both its physical aspects and content, rethinking its place in the genealogy of computing and digital technology, as well as its legacy and impact on subsequent digital developments.