Atari History Book

[+DarkLord]

Well, I thought book 1 was awesome, would buy it again and I can't wait

for book 2 and stepping fully into the ST/Tramiel era. So much I want to

read there.

 

Thanks for such a great effort! (and please let us know if you ever offer

a hardback version).

[joeventura]

I'm not sure how they're irrelevant, those are all people talked about in the book. But you're entitled to your opinion, others haven't agreed and actually were very happy to see the material.

 

Sorry, more specifically the twenty pages of pictures from 769 to 789, if those folks are talked about in the book, I'd love to know who they are (i.e they have no labels) these would be the 20 pages I would have given up for an index. Unless the photos had identifying labels then I would think the opposite. But as it stands, pages 769-789 is a photo album of people only potentially known to you and Curt.

 

Getting back to the index, I see your point, but in it's current state, its a paper book (as opposed to digital) so the index should be in the book. I shouldn't have to read the book with a PC nearby. As I am sure you will agree, this is not just a book, its an experience, its a paper documentary, the lack of index takes away from that experience.

 

Again my opinion, it's your baby and I understand you have to defend everything about it. Again I criticize it as someone who paid for it because even without an index it's a great work. Hoping you take it to greater levels for Volume 2

Edited February 8, 2013 by joeventura

[flashjazzcat]

3-4 months to make an index? I thought word processors generated indexes automatically now, although I guess some forethought is required to put index tags on everything as you go along.

[Retro Rogue]

3-4 months to make an index? I thought word processors generated indexes automatically now, although I guess some forethought is required to put index tags on everything as you go along.

 

A) This is laid out in inDesign, anything indexed in the original Word chapter files would be irrelevant to that. B) Index programs (such as a decent one we also purchased) work off of keywords (which is how we generated the work in progress index at the link above). They can't intelligently group subject matter like a normal index. That's usually done by hand, and with an 800 page book, as stated it would have taken too long. Not to mention the complication of edits and revisions going on continually up until the very last minute.

[flashjazzcat]

Well, I imagined some hand edits would be required. I was just surprised by the 3-4 month estimate, is all. But thanks for the revealing insight. Much more complex than I thought!

[Retro Rogue]

Well, I imagined some hand edits would be required. I was just surprised by the 3-4 month estimate, is all. But thanks for the revealing insight. Much more complex than I thought!

 

Keep in mind, the 3-4 months is also because this is all a part time venture for us. I have a regular day job

 

The whole thing was a learning process really, because of the accelerated time frame the layout and editing stages significantly overlapped. So a lot of times I was applying significant edits to already laid out pages. And then there was the mad dash at the last minute to cut/merge a 100 pages (we were at 900) because we discovered CreateSpace's page limit is 820 pages. Just insane around the clock work for me (luckily I was unemployed at the time and could work on it full time).

[+Allan]

You guys could have made this book 1600 pages with no problem. It was a great read but I felt there was so much left out. That's not your fault of course. There is just so much to write about. Maybe some day you guys can go back and pick a particular system and write a whole book on it.

 

Allan

[WestofHouse]

I got mine from Amazon last week. So far I've only flipped through it but it looks fantastic. I love seeing the old printed ads for the Atari computer systems. Can't wait to read it.

 

A book on the history of Atari was long overdue.

[Retro Rogue]

You guys could have made this book 1600 pages with no problem. It was a great read but I felt there was so much left out. That's not your fault of course. There is just so much to write about. Maybe some day you guys can go back and pick a particular system and write a whole book on it.

 

Allan

 

Well, I can't say much about it, but we may be involved with a certain Atari alumni's book on the designing and creation of the 400/800 PCS.

[WestofHouse]

Well, I can't say much about it, but we may be involved with a certain Atari alumni's book on the designing and creation of the 400/800 PCS.

 

[tschak909]

 

SAME! Dear god, I want to see this written, more than _ANYTHING_... even an exhaustive dump of Ron Milner/Steve Mayer/Joe Decuir's notes for the VCS, would be awesome!

 

-Thom

[WestofHouse]

I just finished the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. My (unsolicited) comments:

 

1) The typos and mistakes that have already been discussed at length in this thread were not exaggerated. I was honestly surprised how many mistakes I found, from using an apostrophe to pluralize to mixing "their" and "there" to simple typos.

 

2) I felt the touted debunking of the infamous E.T. cartridges buried in the desert "myth" fell a little short. After explaining what really happened at the Alamagordo dump and saying they "hope this cleared all that up for everyone" [657], the authors then go on to say those E.T. cartridges (along with others) were actually buried in a dump in Sunnyvale. In other words, the unsold cartridges were buried, but just in a different dump? That's not much of a debunking.

 

3) I love the selection of photos and illustrations, but I would much rather have had them in line with the text rather than in a "review" at the end so you could see examples of what is being written about as you're reading. I found myself flipping to the photo sections repeatedly in the middle of chapters to hunt for an accompanying photo. I'm glad I didn't hold out for the Kindle version of this book or that would have driven me mad.

 

4) I was a bit disappointed that not even a mention was given to William Higinbotham. The book treats what Dabney and Bushnell were doing with CRT control in 1969 as revolutionary when Higinbotham was doing it with an oscilloscope in 1958. Granted the book is a history of Atari and not the history of video games, but a historical footnote at least would have been informative.

 

5) I felt the book was a little lacking in the story behind the founding of Activision. The book seems to suggest that the main reason that group of programmers left Atari was because they were unfairly compensated for their work, but unless I've heard the story wrong all these years the main reason they left was because of a lack of recognition. The book mentions elsewhere that Atari brass felt the programmers didn't deserve credit for their work, but I didn't feel that it tied that together very well with the exodus to Activision. It seemed more about the paycheck and lack of bonuses. Yet I'll never forget seeing the programmers' names and photos displayed prominently in Activision game manuals, finally giving them credit after laboring in obscurity at Atari.

 

None of those issues detracted in the least from my overall enjoyment of the book, however, A thousand thanks to the authors for writing the book that was long overdue. I look forward to the next volumes.

Edited February 24, 2013 by WestofHouse

[Retro Rogue]

Thanks for the review and your thoughts, just a few comments on a couple of your points -

 

2) I felt the touted debunking of the infamous E.T. cartridges buried in the desert "myth" fell a little short. After explaining what really happened at the Alamagordo dump and saying they "hope this cleared all that up for everyone" [657], the authors then go on to say those E.T. cartridges (along with others) were actually buried in a dump in Sunnyvale. In other words, the unsold cartridges were buried, but just in a different dump? That's not much of a debunking.

 

The myth that has been presented for years was that they were all gathered up and buried in the desert in Alamagordo. How is clearing up that they weren't buried in the desert in Alamagordo and what was actually buried there and why not debunking that myth?

 

 

4) I was a bit disappointed that not even a mention was given to William Higinbotham. The book treats what Dabney and Bushnell were doing with CRT control in 1969 as revolutionary when Higinbotham was doing it with an oscilloscope in 1958. Granted the book is a history of Atari and not the history of video games, but a historical footnote at least would have been informative.

 

The book treats what Dabney and Bushnell were doing for VIDEO control in 1969 as revolutionary. CRT != Video. People were using XY monitors and oscilliscopes for direct displays long before Higginbotham as well. The "video" in video games comes from the use of a standard raster TV set and it's video input, something not present in XY monitors and oscilliscopes. Video is defined as "relating to the transmission or reception of a televised image" or "the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion." Or as Webster's defines it - "video (adjective): being, relating to, or used in the transmission or reception of the television image" and "being, relating to, or involving images on a television screen or computer display" (raster computer displays using the same raster or pixel process). A video signal represents an encoding and transmission process of pixels to reproduce, i.e. rasters. The confusion in this case arises that both raster and vector use a CRT, however a CRT does not imply display method or a transmission signal. A vector driven CRT or oscilliscope is not a video display - there is no video signal present, nor signal decoding to generate an image. Rather instead it uses a direct control of the CRT's beam by the computer or electronic device (in the case of an oscilliscope) to generate images like an etch-a-sketch, or what is traditionally called an XY Monitor or "Random Scan" display. Ralph Baer was the pioneer of video technology for gaming purposes, and of course for home gaming purposes. Ted and Nolan independently developed their same technology at a later date, and were the pioneers of it's use in coin-ops. William Higginbotham had zero influence on the people involved, and thruthfully almost no influence in video game history. He did an isolated one off display that nobody would have heard of had it not been later drawn into court as prior work (and summarily dismissed as such because it did not represent prior use of that technology). As such it would have served no purpose to mention him in the book, and would have been unrelated trivia at best.

 

 

5) I felt the book was a little lacking in the story behind the founding of Activision. The book seems to suggest that the main reason that group of programmers left Atari was because they were unfairly compensated for their work, but unless I've heard the story wrong all these years the main reason they left was because of a lack of recognition. The book mentions elsewhere that Atari brass felt the programmers didn't deserve credit for their work, but I didn't feel that it tied that together very well with the exodus to Activision. It seemed more about the paycheck and lack of bonuses. Yet I'll never forget seeing the programmers' names and photos displayed prominently in Activision game manuals, finally giving them credit after laboring in obscurity at Atari.

 

We interviewed both sides extensively about the meeting (Kassar and all the 2600 programmers - who all left at different times and did not summarily leave to form Activision), and it went down as we said. Their reasons for the meeting and then later leaving were a mixture of what they felt was unfair payment and credit. What you've most likely heard or are confusing is the repeated overgeneralization by books and media over the years, because the credit part is simply a better story. The promised royalties were a common theme for everyone we talked to, not just the Activision guys, and if you were less familiar with that aspect of the story then we did our job exposing you to it. Our goals with stories such as these were to "even them out" and portray them in a more realistic and factual light with all the details present vs. just glossing over in a one sided manner like has been routinely done with much of Atari's history in the past.

 

None of those issues detracted in the least from my overall enjoyment of the book, however, A thousand thanks to the authors for writing the book that was long overdue. I look forward to the next volumes.

 

Thanks! We've started on book 2. You and everyone will be able to regular blog updates at our newly relaunched website (http://ataribook.com). Likewise, many of the typos and other mistakes from book 1 have already been fixed for a future revision.

[WestofHouse]

The myth that has been presented for years was that they were all gathered up and buried in the desert in Alamagordo. How is clearing up that they weren't buried in the desert in Alamagordo and what was actually buried there and why not debunking that myth?

 

I don't wish to get into an argument, but since you asked...

 

The problem is that the legend has never been that specific. The legend has always been that Atari's excess combined with the crash in the market led them to bury thousands of E.T cartridges "somewhere in the desert." That they actually buried them in Sunnyvale is only a slight alteration. All we're talking about is semantics regarding location. That's like saying "It's a myth that the people of Victorian London threw their trash out their front windows onto the streets. In reality they threw their trash out their back windows."

 

People were using XY monitors and oscilliscopes for direct displays long before Higginbotham as well.

 

Perhaps, but none had made a game of it. The fact that Higinbotham's "Tennis for Two" turned out to be the progenitor of Pong may be only trivia, as you call it, but IMO still worthy of mention. I guess we'll agree to disagree.

 

He did an isolated one off display that nobody would have heard of had it not been later drawn into court as prior work (and summarily dismissed as such because it did not represent prior use of that technology).

 

If I'm not mistaken it wasn't dismissed -- it was settled out of court. I could be wrong, however. I do not remember where I read that. And obscurity != irrelevance when it comes to history. If you'd added a footnote a third as long as your reply to me that would have covered it. Heh. And as I said, since the book is a history of Atari and not a history of video games it isn't a huge deal.

 

We interviewed both sides extensively about the meeting (Kassar and all the 2600 programmers - who all left at different times and did not summarily leave to form Activision), and it went down as we said.

 

That makes sense. I appreciate the explanation.

Edited February 25, 2013 by WestofHouse

[Retro Rogue]

I don't wish to get into an argument, but since you asked...

 

The problem is that the legend has never been that specific. The legend has always been that Atari's excess combined with the crash in the market led them to bury thousands of E.T cartridges "somewhere in the desert."

 

I'm sorry, but I think you're confusing what you personally may have heard or not heard about the legend with what the actual legend is. That is not one in the same.

 

In books,

 

http://books.google....ved=0CDwQ6AEwAw

http://books.google....o atari&f=false

http://books.google....ved=0CF4Q6AEwCA

 

And news,

 

http://nl.newsbank.c...ackval=GooglePM

http://news.google.c...ew mexico&hl=en

http://www.nytimes.c...5hero.html?_r=0

 

It's always been about the Alamogordo, New Mexico dumping. We simply did not pull that out of the air, and there's an entire thread of people here on Atari Age that's been around for years discussing just thd topic of this dumping.

 

That they actually buried them in Sunnyvale is only a slight alteration.

 

No, it simply is not. Atari specifically burrying millions of E.T.s in Alamagordo because it was a bad game vs. Atari emptying most of it's stock across warehouses (of many games including E.T.) because they had too much stock and burrying them in Sunnyvale is hardly semantics.

 

 

Perhaps, but none had made a game of it.

 

Not true, the fact that academia was making games on early mainframe displays (including XY displays) is more than documented.

 

The fact that Higinbotham's "Tennis for Two" turned out to be the progenitor of Pong

 

It was in no way, shape or form a progenitor to PONG. And that's exactly what I meant by it being an isolated one off. There is absolutely no direct link between Tennis for Two and the Odyssey's Tennis or Atari's PONG. Progenitor means "A person or thing from which a person, animal, or plant is descended or originates; an ancestor or parent." Neither of the two games mentioned are descendants, there is no direct connection or influence. Tennis For Two literally had zero influence on the industry or it's creation. It is precisely because of this fast and loose playing with the facts, such as with the NY Times article you cited which is just a Brookehaven PR piece, that historians such as myself remain vigilant on the issue. I repeat again, no direct link, no matter how much Brookhaven has tried to promote as such in recent years or apply the pop culture definition of "video game" in hindsite (which comes off as rather unscientific for a science lab).

 

 

If I'm not mistaken it wasn't dismissed -- it was settled out of court.

 

How is evidence settled out of court? As I stated, in every case it was brought up as prior work to try and invalidate Sanders/Magnavox's position (and there were many cases over three decades), Tennis For Two was thrown out because of what I mentioned in the previous post, it's technology had no bearing (it involved zero video technology) and even then it's lack of use of user controlled objects did not show prior work to invalidate the rest of the video game patents in question.

 

I think you're confusing the lawsuits, (the first of which is covered in the book - Sanders/Magnavox vs. Atari/Midway/et al.) with the fact that Tennis For Two was brought in as evidence during those lawsuits as prior work. Atari/Midway/etc. were all trying to collectively invalidate Sanders' (Ralph & company's) landmark patents in order not to have to license from Magnavox. Atari wound up dropping out and settling out of court by going through with the license, the others wound up loosing the case. Likewise in every subsequent case over the next two decades (Magnavox vs. Midway again, Magnavox Vs. Nintendo, and more) each time Tennis For Two was also invalidated as prior work for the same reasons stated.

 

 

And obscurity != irrelevance when it comes to history.

 

Obscurity exactly means irrelevance when talking about any sort of relationship the game had to said games: PONG and/or the Odyssey's Tennis game. If we were doing a generic video game history book and said the earliest known electronic tennis game was Tennis For Two, then certainly. If you expanded that to some how imply that it then had some connection to PONG beyond both just being electronic representations of a tennis game, you would be 100% historically inaccurate.

 

Regardless, I'm glad you enjoyed the book and feel free to help out with the community sourced book index project we're doing.

[WestofHouse]

 

Note to self: Do not offer feedback on the next book.

Edited February 25, 2013 by WestofHouse

[Retro Rogue]

Just received a short but sweet five star review from noted "Ultimate History Of Video Games" author Steven L. Kent on Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Atari-Inc-Mr-Curt-Vendel/product-reviews/0985597402/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

[GoodByteXL]

Just received a short but sweet five star review ...

Hm,

Can't do any review since we at ABBUC e.V. did not get the promised sponsor's copy until today. Contacted Curt about this and he promised to check. This was on July, 15, but no feedback or delivery so far. And, we are not the only sponsor waiting.

 

Any information available?

Edited August 6, 2013 by GoodByteXL

[accousticguitar]

You're not alone. There are still kickstarter supporters waiting too.

[Fletch]

I had preordered the book on Amazon when it was first announced, but never received it. I finally broke down and bought it on my iPad through Apple iBooks. I've been enjoying it quite a bit. However, the grammatical issues and misspellings often make me reread parts to understand what is being conveyed.

 

That being said, I'm 3/4 of the way finished and think it is rather entertaining.

[devwebcl]

I had preordered the book on Amazon when it was first announced, but never received it. I finally broke down and bought it on my iPad through Apple iBooks. I've been enjoying it quite a bit. However, the grammatical issues and misspellings often make me reread parts to understand what is being conveyed.

 

That being said, I'm 3/4 of the way finished and think it is rather entertaining.

 

I never received it either, although I contacted Syzygy Press, and told me that it will be sent anyway...

Pity, I won't buy it again.

[Mark Wright]

I kept meaning to leave a review of this book somewhere and the thread-bump here has just reminded me!

 

The copy I received here in the UK was fulfilled by Amazon. My order was placed just a couple of days after it showed up as available on the site and it arrived super-quick.

 

It's not Curt's fault that Amazon sent me a battered copy - looked like it had been kicked around a bit - but nevertheless, I was obviously disappointed at its condition given the cost. Oh well, too much hassle to chase postal services/Amazon, and I really wanted to get stuck straight in, so I decided that the contained text was more important and valuable than its superficial appearance.

 

First impressions: it was a lot bigger and thicker than I expected. It's pretty much the shape and size of an old-school telephone directory, which makes for uncomfortable reading over a long-ish period of time. Maybe I have puny arms, but holding it aloft caused arm-ache within minutes - it was necessary to take breaks just to have a rest! Despite its thickness it's also very flimsy. The paper (especially the cover card) seems to be of low-grade stock. With the exception of the cover, all included text and photographs/diagrams/pictures are monochrome. there is no special colour section.

 

It's set-out in the most illogical way, with photos and illustrations of interest not accompanying the supporting text, but appearing at the end of chapters in great swathes. You'll find your mind tripping up over what you've just read chronologically when you hit the photo sections that upset and contradict bits of what you've just taken in. Disappointingly, given the archival importance and hard work that's clearly gone into sourcing many of the fascinating illustrations, many are reproduced poorly. I kept wondering whether they add anything to the "story" given their clumsy juxtaposition against the text. No footnotes. No index.

 

My major criticism is reserved for the text itself. Yes, there are some truly compelling passages in the book, where you find yourself just *having* to read to the end of an engaging anecdote, and the result is enjoyably satisfying. However, there are literally *hundreds* of sloppy, first-draft howlers that pull you out of stories and away from the narrative. I personally found it frustrating to keep hitting these "WTF?" moments as I was forced to re-read paragraphs, start sentences again, turn the page only to have to go back a bit to parse the syntactic meaning before moving on. Tenses confusingly change all the time, the posessive apostrophe suffers major schizophrenia throughout and the tone jerks between scholarly and matey, often mid-paragraph.

 

You might say that's nit-picking, considering that this book represents its authors desire to share reams of extensive and exclusive detail with the reader. I say that this once in a generation opportunity to create a definitive and fact-checked accurate account of "Atari History" is, if not wasted, at least embarassingly marred. I can remember reading posts from willing volunteer sub-editors and proof-readers here on AA prior to the book's (delayed) release, upon seeing worryingly illiterate proofs. It's a terrible shame that the vanity and defensive attitude of the book's authors seemingly prevented them from taking on board the pre-release constructive criticism aimed at the text.

 

That said, if you're willing to put up with the erratic layout and are forgiving towards the constant crimes against grammar, there are countless exciting nuggets of information in this book. Beyond the shadowy picture sections, every few pages of text yields a snippet of new information, a revealing insight or provocative comment from a contributor. Make no mistake, if you're a real connoisseur then this is an essential purchase. It's one of a kind and does genuinely contain fresh, definitive and revealing information that will be new to you. A long-held myth entertainingly debunked there, a persistent rumour finally surprisingly confirmed there...

 

What a shame then that, for whatever reason, the final coat of gloss was not applied. I won't be holding my breath for a revision or indeed the promised next installment.

Edited August 7, 2013 by Mark Wright

[accousticguitar]

I never received it either, although I contacted Syzygy Press, and told me that it will be sent anyway...

Pity, I won't buy it again.

I was supposed to receive an advance copy with the autographs of the authors since I contributed a large amount to the kickstarter campaign. It's been over a year now since the book was scheduled for release and I still have not received it. I even emailed Curt about it but that didn't do any good. I finally broke down and bought a used copy. I made sure not to buy a new copy because I did not want to give the authors any more of my hard earned money.

 

As far as the review goes, I agree that the present tense nonsense is incredibly lame and distracting. I was not quite as disappointed in the text written in the past tense. Sure, there are grammatical errors and a few places where I had to read it a couple times to figure out what was trying to be said, but for the most part it's a decent read when written in the correct tense. And no, I won't be holding my breath for a revision or sequel either.

[Fletch]

I finished the book yesterday. Moved on to the Atari Book 40th Anniversary. I'm always impressed with the quality of UK magazines and so far this one is no exception.

[Curt Vendel]

Its all good points Joe and understandable - the back was more for the former Atari employees than for the readers.

 

We are going to issue a 2nd Edition, I know it doesn't help someone who's bought the current book, but the 2nd Edition we will put the Index in vs. adding more content. What we will end up doing is also on ataribook.com is to post a PDF of the Index for anyone to download and print to keep with their 1st Edition book.

 

 

Sorry, more specifically the twenty pages of pictures from 769 to 789, if those folks are talked about in the book, I'd love to know who they are (i.e they have no labels) these would be the 20 pages I would have given up for an index. Unless the photos had identifying labels then I would think the opposite. But as it stands, pages 769-789 is a photo album of people only potentially known to you and Curt.

 

Getting back to the index, I see your point, but in it's current state, its a paper book (as opposed to digital) so the index should be in the book. I shouldn't have to read the book with a PC nearby. As I am sure you will agree, this is not just a book, its an experience, its a paper documentary, the lack of index takes away from that experience.

 

Again my opinion, it's your baby and I understand you have to defend everything about it. Again I criticize it as someone who paid for it because even without an index it's a great work. Hoping you take it to greater levels for Volume 2