RACING THE BEAM: THE ATARI VIDEO COMPUTER SYSTEM

Nick Montfort, Ian Bogost

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A study of the relationship between platform and creative expression in the Atari VCS.

The Atari Video Computer System dominated the home video game market so completely that “Atari” became the generic term for a video game console. The Atari VCS was affordable and offered the flexibility of changeable cartridges. Nearly a thousand of these were created, the most significant of which established new techniques, mechanics, and even entire genres. This book offers a detailed and accessible study of this influential video game console from both computational and cultural perspectives.

Studies of digital media have rarely investigated platforms—the systems underlying computing. This book (the first in a series of Platform Studies) does so, developing a critical approach that examines the relationship between platforms and creative expression. Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost discuss the Atari VCS itself and examine in detail six game cartridges: Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall!, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. They describe the technical constraints and affordances of the system and track developments in programming, gameplay, interface, and aesthetics. Adventure, for example, was the first game to represent a virtual space larger than the screen (anticipating the boundless virtual spaces of such later games as World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto), by allowing the player to walk off one side into another space; and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was an early instance of interaction between media properties and video games. Montfort and Bogost show that the Atari VCS—often considered merely a retro fetish object—is an essential part of the history of video games.

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PUBLICATION DETAILS

LANGUAGE	BINDING	EDITION	ISBN	YEAR	PAGES
English	Paperback		9780262539760	2020	192
English	Hardcover		9780262254939	2009	192
English	eBook		N/A	2009	192

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TAGS

Authors: #IanBogost #NickMontfort

Publishers: #MITPress (The MIT Press)

Languages: #English

Format: #Hardcover #Paperback #eBook

Accessibility: #TextToSpeech #ScreenReader #EnhancedTypesetting

Year: #Year2009

Genres: #GameStudies

Companies:

#Activision (Activision)

#Atari (Atari)

#Imagic (Imagic)

#Mystique (Mystique)

#ParkerBros (Parker Brothers [Parker Bros.])

#WizardVideo (Wizard Video)

Public Figures:

#AlanMiller (Alan Miller)

#BobWhitehead (Bob Whitehead)

#HowardScottWarshaw (Howard Scott Warshaw)

#LarryKaplan (Larry Kaplan)

#NolanBushnell (Nolan Bushnell)

#RayKassar (Ray Kassar)

#RexBradford (Rex Bradford)

#StevenMayer (Steven 'Steve' Mayer)

#TodFrye (Tod Frye)

Games:

#Adventure (Adventure)

#AirSeaBattle (Air-Sea Battle)

#Amidar (Amidar)

#Asteroids (Asteroids)

#AtariAnthology (Atari Anthology)

#AtariArcadeHits (Atari Arcade Hits: Volume 1)

#Barnstorming (Barnstorming)

#BasicMath (Basic Math)

#BasicProgramming (Basic Programming)

#Basketball (Basketball)

#Battlezone (Battlezone)

#Blackjack (Blackjack)

#Boxing (Boxing)

#Breakout (Breakout)

#Combat (Combat)

#DeathRace (Death Race)

#Defender (Defender)

#ET (E.T. The Extra Terrestrial)

#Freeway (Freeway)

#Frogger (Frogger)

#Frostbite (Frostbite)

#GrandPrix (Grand Prix)

#Halloween (Halloween)

#HauntedHouse (Haunted House)

#IndianaJones (Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark)

#Indy500 (Indy 500)

#Kaboom (Kaboom!)

#LunarLander (Lunar Lander)

#PacMan (Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man)

#Pitfall (Pitfall!)

#Pong (Pong)

#PressureCooker (Pressure Cooker)

#RealsportsBoxing (Realsports Boxing)

#RiverRaid (River Raid)

#Seaquest (Seaquest)

#Skiing (Skiing)

#SkySkipper (Sky Skipper)

#SlotRacers (Slot Racers)

#SpaceInvaders (Space Invaders)

#SpaceShuttle (Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space)

#Spacewar (Spacewar)

#StarCastle (Star Castle)

#StarShip (Star Ship)

#StarWars (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Jedi Arena)

#StrawberryShortcake (Strawberry Shortcake)

#StreetRacer (Street Racer)

#Superman (Superman)

#Surround (Surround)

#TheTexasChainsawMassacre (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

#VideoChess (Video Chess)

#VideoOlympics (Video Olympics)

#YarsRevenge (Yars' Revenge)

Misc:

#Atari2600 (Atari VCS, Atari 2600)

#PlatformStudies (Platform Studies)