Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System

[Cebus Capucinis]

What's the Amiga book going to cover?

 

The Commodore PET, I'm sure.

 

 

I wonder if the Amiga book will overlap with some of the recent stuff you guys have been finding out about development? That would be cool!

[ibogost]

We've got a Wii book coming next year, and an Amiga book too,

 

What's the Amiga book going to cover?

 

The Amiga book, by Jimmy Maher, focuses on that computer's role in the invention of multimedia computing. It covers a ton of stuff, the Boing demo, DeluxePaint, SSG, NewTek, Cinemaware, and lots more, with all the juicy technical details you find in Racing the Beam, presented in an equally accessible way.

 

The manuscript has been through review--among the reviewers was Joe Decuir--and the author is working on revisions. Publication date is probably sometime in 2012.

[Retro Rogue]

We've got a Wii book coming next year, and an Amiga book too,

 

What's the Amiga book going to cover?

 

The Amiga book, by Jimmy Maher, focuses on that computer's role in the invention of multimedia computing. It covers a ton of stuff, the Boing demo, DeluxePaint, SSG, NewTek, Cinemaware, and lots more, with all the juicy technical details you find in Racing the Beam, presented in an equally accessible way.

 

The manuscript has been through review--among the reviewers was Joe Decuir--and the author is working on revisions. Publication date is probably sometime in 2012.

 

Sounds good. My only concern is that the correct material regarding any involvement of Amiga with Atari Inc. and Atari Corp. gets in there if any of that is covered in there vs. the usual regurgitated RJ Mical misinformation on that subject.

Edited May 19, 2011 by wgungfu

[8bitgamer]

My first book has a boatload of information on specific Atari 2600 games (ALL the official U.S. releases, in fact).

 

You can read excerpts here:

 

http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/contents-2.php?id=978-0-7864-3226-4

 

Ordering info here:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786432268/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=atariage&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0786432268

[Keatah]

I figured this *might* be the thread to ask if the TIA had any hardware revisions from its first use in the early heavy sixes to the last of the vaders and the 2600jr. ?? I'm referring to hardware revisions or "steppings" as applied to modern microprocessors. Or did the design stay the same from its inception?

[Keatah]

I've never heard of any changes.

[high voltage]

Man the world screems out for an Apple 2 book, after all it was the most important 8 bitter

Edited December 28, 2011 by high voltage

[Keatah]

There's just too much about the 2 series to put into one book. There's also a lot of good info out there already. For starters read the Understand the Apple II by Jim Sathers. It covers the basics in hardware and why some things were done.

 

And forget about doing any interviews with Woz. Ever since he crashed his airplane he has been incapable of doing any logical thought processes related to engineering. Some sort of brain damage.

[ClausB]

...To meet the programmers' needs, I wrote the CHRST subroutine. Given a binary horizontal position, it figures out how to issue a reset at the right time (running a 15 color clock cycle loop), and then perform the correct Hmove (+/- 7 color clocks). The programmers liked it, so we left the hardware alone....

 

Has anyone ever posted the source code for the CHRST subroutine? Or a disassembly of its use in an early Atari game?

 

In his presentation (http://www.atariarch...v/CGEXPO00.html) Mr. Decuir implies it is used in COMBAT but it does not appear in the "definitive" disassembly (http://www.atariage...._asm/index.html).

[rbudrick]

Reviving a bit of an oldie. I'm almost finished with this book and after the first chapter, it does get a lot easier to read. However, most of the more technical things in the book a non-programmer simply can't understand. I think many of the tricks the programmers used that "upped the game" for games that came later could have been explained better. Also, I believe I saw on one page it mentioned Zelda came out in 1985, when it was 1987, though I believe a later page stated the year correctly.

 

-Rob

[high voltage]

another mistake is the Exus jogging mat, which came out in 1983, the book mentions it came out in 87.

 

The mat came out 4 years before the Nintendo mat (Nintendo fanboys claiming on Wiki being the first with a mat, which is of course wrong and those Wiki idiots won't let you correct it)