The increasing speed of delivery technologies correlates with an increase in inertia for the user of the audiovisual. Employing Virilio’s concept of dromology, the first part of this paper introduces Virilio’s key concepts of speed and inertia upon the perception of space and time by the users of a range of technologies. It is argued that the privileging of ‘time-saving’ ravages traditional notions of space, and generates an additional ‘digital’ space which is at once expansive and also convexed towards the user. Having established the effects of speed and inertia, the main part of the paper extends Virilio’s theory of dromology to provide a context for analysis of a variety of seminal videogames from the 1980s, where driving is a key component. These games of dashboards and vehicles, wars and (wind)screens illustrate Virilio’s central concerns that societies that are addicted to speed are also those which are the most tightly surveilled and controlled
