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Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System


Albert

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The sample chapter reads like a high school text book; very dry and academic. Any conclusions seem obvious, sort of like listening to Mr Rogers talk about his sweater.

 

There are a couple ways to look at this book. One is as a paean to a videogame console both Nick and I know and love. Another is as an introduction to an influential machine to those that don't know it as well as many of us do, indeed a machine that many people see as just a retro fetish object. I hope the book can serve both purposes.

 

As for dry and academic, I suppose it's a matter of taste. We wanted to write a professional book with accessible appeal directed at a broad audience. I think those of you who give it a chance will find a large number of observations that go far beyond mere name and number. Indeed, I wonder how anyone could draw conclusions based on the introductory chapter, given that its main purpose is to set up the rest of the book :)

Sorry. After re-reading my post I decided I was little harsh. I guess I was being dry and academic myself. I'd like to add that I did actually read the entire two sample chapters, which I wouldn't have done if it hadn't been interesting. The text is clear and well written, professionally presented, and the price for a hardcover is reasonable (under $16 at Amazon). My comments were referring only to the introductory chapter, not the whole book obviously, since I haven't (yet) read it.

 

I still think it reads like a textbook, though. This is not a criticism; I read a lot of textbooks.

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Sorry. After re-reading my post I decided I was little harsh. I guess I was being dry and academic myself. I'd like to add that I did actually read the entire two sample chapters, which I wouldn't have done if it hadn't been interesting. The text is clear and well written, professionally presented, and the price for a hardcover is reasonable (under $16 at Amazon). My comments were referring only to the introductory chapter, not the whole book obviously, since I haven't (yet) read it.

 

I still think it reads like a textbook, though. This is not a criticism; I read a lot of textbooks.

 

Glad to hear it!

 

Indeed, it is an academic press book (the publisher is MIT Press, and Nick and I are both university professors, although I also make games and he also makes interactive fiction and writes poetry), although Nick and I worked to make the book accessible to a broad readership; still it will read like a fairly serious non-fiction book, which is fine by us. I think it's a good time for such a book, as there have been many books about the Atari or videogame culture more broadly, but most from a pop-culture perspective. Not that we don't embrace the pop-cultural aspects of the VCS, but rather because it is also important to get this lovely machine in the minds of other sorts of readers as well.

 

In academic "game studies" for example, there's almost no focus on the history of videogames, which is absurd. This is one problem we hoped to correct in part with the book.

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In academic "game studies" for example, there's almost no focus on the history of videogames, which is absurd. This is one problem we hoped to correct in part with the book.

I've got about 2 shelves full of scholarly video game books, and I'd say about half do deal with the history of video games to some degree, but what I've encountered is the same information being recycled from source to source. That's why I'm hoping Racing the Beam expands some of the historical perspective.

 

Maybe, hopefully, a potential sequel book could show up? I'd like to see a decent, even-handed treatment of E.T. as that game gets unrightfully pilloried far too often (and usually by people who are just repeating what someone else said).

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In academic "game studies" for example, there's almost no focus on the history of videogames, which is absurd. This is one problem we hoped to correct in part with the book.

I've got about 2 shelves full of scholarly video game books, and I'd say about half do deal with the history of video games to some degree, but what I've encountered is the same information being recycled from source to source. That's why I'm hoping Racing the Beam expands some of the historical perspective.

 

Maybe, hopefully, a potential sequel book could show up? I'd like to see a decent, even-handed treatment of E.T. as that game gets unrightfully pilloried far too often (and usually by people who are just repeating what someone else said).

 

Thanks for dampening my overly zealous comment about history in game studies. I think you're right that there is a "stock" explanation of history that is mostly used as a way to quickly progress to one of the handful of contemporary titles that people seem interested in discussing (WoW, The Sims, GTA, etc.). If nothing else, Nick and I hope that Racing the Beam might fill in one major gap in that work and also inspire other scholars to think about the games and systems that have been forgotten.

 

As for a sequel, certainly Nick and I would love it! We talked a lot about E.T. and I'd still love to write about it. I think it's a misunderstood title that has to be comprehended in its original context, which is also what we tried to do with Pac-Man.

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I thought Joe Decuir (Atari 2600 hardware designer, wrote Combat, Video Olympics) would have been consulted for this book. It seems right up his alley.

 

In any event, he told me he ordered it. I am curious as to what he has to say about the book.

 

-Lee

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I thought Joe Decuir (Atari 2600 hardware designer, wrote Combat, Video Olympics) would have been consulted for this book. It seems right up his alley.

 

In any event, he told me he ordered it. I am curious as to what he has to say about the book.

 

-Lee

 

Awesome! I am curious too :)

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Agree that the first few pages (up through "The Roots of Video Gaming") of the sample chapter are very dry; I confess that I merely skimmed them. But! The last 3/4s of the chapter was very engrossing and well written. :)

 

Hope to get this soon. :thumbsup:

 

I do have a quibble/question, though:

Talking about 1976 or so:

Those at Atari therefore sought

to imitate some features of the nascent personal computer with a home

console that used interchangeable cartridges, allowing the system to

play many games.

That just seems odd to me. First, was there even enough of the "nascent" PC market in 1976 to even imitate?

From here, in 1975:

December 31

 

* To date, MITS has sold 2,000 Altair 8800 systems. IMS Associates has shipped 50 IMSAI 8080 systems. [176.54] [1702.18] (5,000 [1298.187])

The Apple I wasn't even sold, as kits, until mid 1976.

 

And also - did any early PCs even extensively use cartridges? I thought most used cassette tapes or disks.

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I thought Joe Decuir (Atari 2600 hardware designer, wrote Combat, Video Olympics) would have been consulted for this book. It seems right up his alley.

 

A clarification on this: we did consult Decuir, via his many published documents and articles about the development of the VCS. We did some interviews, but interviews weren't our only (or really even primary) sources. One of the things Nick and I tried to do with the book was to interpret the events of the early days of the console in light of things that came later. I hope it will turn out to be a useful perspective.

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Ordered my copy yesterday--should have it in time for the weekend. :)

 

post-3-1233168190_thumb.png

 

..Al

 

I ordered my copy on the 23rd. Received a note saying that it shipped yesterday with an expected arrival of today. However, considering all of the snow and ice we've had over the past 24 hours, it will probably still take another day or two.

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I do have a quibble/question, though:

Talking about 1976 or so:

Those at Atari therefore sought

to imitate some features of the nascent personal computer with a home

console that used interchangeable cartridges, allowing the system to

play many games.

That just seems odd to me. First, was there even enough of the "nascent" PC market in 1976 to even imitate?

From here, in 1975:

December 31

 

* To date, MITS has sold 2,000 Altair 8800 systems. IMS Associates has shipped 50 IMSAI 8080 systems. [176.54] [1702.18] (5,000 [1298.187])

The Apple I wasn't even sold, as kits, until mid 1976.

 

And also - did any early PCs even extensively use cartridges? I thought most used cassette tapes or disks.

 

Well, we're not saying that PCs used cartridges and that the Atari VCS imitated that. Rather, the Atari wanted to gain some of the generality of computers -- the ability to run many different programs -- in its VCS, rather than creating a custom circuit that played one game or a small set of games. There were some precedents for cartridge-based consoles at this time, of course, notably the Odyssey (whose circuit cards didn't contain game programs, but only flipped jumpers to select a game) and the Fairchild Channel-F, which just predated the VCS.

 

It's true that there were few personal computers at this point; the inspiration may have come more from mainframe and minicomputers than the few hobbyist computer kits that were available. But personal computing was starting up as the VCS was being developed.

 

I can see why you'd find this passage misleading, in that it might suggest that PCs prompted VCS development, which probably isn't true. But I do think it's true, though, that both VCS development and PCs were pursuing a common goal, creating general-purpose machines to run many programs.

Edited by ibogost
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Well, we're not saying that PCs used cartridges and that the Atari VCS imitated that. Rather, the Atari wanted to gain some of the generality of computers -- the ability to run many different programs -- in its VCS, rather than creating a custom circuit that played one game or a small set of games. There were some precedents for cartridge-based consoles at this time, of course, notably the Odyssey (whose circuit cards didn't contain game programs, but only flipped jumpers to select a game) and the Fairchild Channel-F, which just predated the VCS.

 

It's true that there were few personal computers at this point; the inspiration may have come more from mainframe and minicomputers than the few hobbyist computer kits that were available. But personal computing was starting up as the VCS was being developed.

 

I can see why you'd find this passage misleading, in that it might suggest that PCs prompted VCS development, which probably isn't true. But I do think it's true, though, that both VCS development and PCs were pursuing a common goal, creating general-purpose machines to run many programs.

Thanks for the response. I'm looking forward to reading the whole book. ;)

Edited by vdub_bobby
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The book arrived today and I am overjoyed! :D This is incredibly good stuff! Great job, guys!

 

Many, many thanks. Obviously we hope anyone interested in the Atari might appreciate the book, but there is a special place in our geeky hearts for the impressions of AA members. :)

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Damn, it isn't being released in Canada until the end of March. :(

 

The end of March date is a catalog date, which just means that's the release date our publisher attached to the books in print data. I checked with MIT and they told me that stock in Canada usually arrives a couple weeks after the States, so mid-February at the latest. Thanks for your interest!

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I thought Joe Decuir (Atari 2600 hardware designer, wrote Combat, Video Olympics) would have been consulted for this book. It seems right up his alley.

 

A clarification on this: we did consult Decuir, via his many published documents and articles about the development of the VCS. We did some interviews, but interviews weren't our only (or really even primary) sources. One of the things Nick and I tried to do with the book was to interpret the events of the early days of the console in light of things that came later. I hope it will turn out to be a useful perspective.

 

Referencing published documents is not the same as consulting in person. In this regards, according to your definition, I've consulted Einstien and many other scientists in my publications.

 

In any event, it will be interesting to see what Joe's take on the book is.

 

I look forward to my copy.

 

Thanks,

-Lee

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