Game Genie Poems

Game Genie Poems takes the limited set of letters available in the Game Genie cheat code cartridge to its poetic extreme. Selecting only from words compatible with the code entry system, Stebner has crafted a collection of poems that treat topics as diverse as politics, gastronomy, sex, and literary formalism with rigorous precision and ribald humour. This volume presents photographs of Stebner’s code words entered into the Game Genie interface alongside textual versions to give readers an idea of the laborious process, not only of composing these poems, but of entering them letter-by-letter into a 1980s video game console.

“Using a truncated alphabet found in the digital wild, Kevin Stebner constructs outlandish texts from Game Genie cheat codes, employing only six to eight letter words. The limits of this language are the limits of an uncanny but resonant world, with poems provoking us and unlocking ideation.”

—Nick Montfort

Below you will find a small selection of pages excerpted from Game Genie Poems. Limited edition books are available in paperback from The Blasted Tree’s online store, and you can download the project in PDF format HERE.

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