Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

Got my copy today! Look forward to reading it this weekend..

 

 

I didn't realize it was a hardcover book.

 

..Al

 

Wow, does it come along with a CX-40?

[Albert]

Wow, does it come along with a CX-40?

No, if it did the joystick would probably be cleaner.

 

..Al

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

The book is available in Germany for 20€ without CX-40! God, I think we foreigner get always screwed!

[Zwackery]

Mine showed up today, looking forward to reading it this weekend.

[ovalbugmann]

Am not into the tech of the Atari 2600 i just like to play it would one such as myself enjoy this book?

 

 

Am not into the tech of the Atari 2600 i just like to play it would one such as myself enjoy this book?

Same here. Is this book for us?

 

I see Yars' Revenge made the cover of the book.

 

I'm one of those guys that repair their own car, truck, computer etc. and enjoy reading manuals. It's cool to have the feeling of accomplishment after it's done correctly. I used to take things apart when I was a kid and look at what makes them work, if I was better at math I would have persued a different and more scientific career.

 

The above quotes are one of the reasons why software will always make of break a game system. However, I like to know how the hardware works in computers and consoles - what is making the non-physical software code work to run the game I am playing? - you can't have one without the other - hardware & software. If it wasn't for the 2600 hardware no games could be played, and vise versa of course. Many gamers aren't oriented to know what makes things tick in their console to display their videogame software- they are just concerned with having fun playing it. I often think about the wurring of the electrons in the electronics in my consoles. That's fine everybody enjoys different things. For me electronics are quite interesting and I want to know all I can about the components that comprise the system I'm using. So, this book is for me , I already ordered one, and I've been waiting for a 2600 hardware book like this to come out. I'm sure it will be a very enjoyable read! and the collegiate textbook/manual style of writing is the only way to do a book like this to best convey the hardware facts presented.

 

This is a great idea for a book series, that will enlightening and give a new perspective to old platforms, I'm sure. And I'm now wondering what the next old system up for technical review will be.

 

Thanks Ian!

[ibogost]

I see Yars' Revenge made the cover of the book.

 

Yes! I think I took 200 photos of the television to insure we'd get one that looked good. The Yars' neutral zone encapsulates so much of the things we discuss in the book. The horizontality that shows off the line-by-line drawing of the TIA, as well as its many colors. The single playfield register into which those graphics are written, the way the data that creates them is read from the program itself. Great stuff.

 

I'm one of those guys that repair their own car, truck, computer etc. and enjoy reading manuals. It's cool to have the feeling of accomplishment after it's done correctly. I used to take things apart when I was a kid and look at what makes them work ... I like to know how the hardware works in computers and consoles - what is making the non-physical software code work to run the game I am playing? - you can't have one without the other - hardware & software. ...

 

This is definitely one of the itches we hoped the book would help scratch. Even for those who don't normally enjoy the "how does it work?" question, we hope that they will enjoy visiting it on the road back to the games themselves, which is certainly how we organized the book.

 

This is a great idea for a book series, that will enlightening and give a new perspective to old platforms, I'm sure. And I'm now wondering what the next old system up for technical review will be.

 

Indeed, we're already near to a couple more books in the Platform Studies series, and I'd be happy to hear ideas or even entertain proposals from this community. More about the series can be found at http://www.platformstudies.com. We're not just interested in game platforms either -- general purpose microcomputers, programming languages, and other tools are also fair game.

[+SpiceWare]

Mine arrived today (along with my blu-ray copies of Firefly and Serenity )

[Atari2008]

I just finished reading this book, and I highly recommend that everyone pick up a copy. From the moment I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. Montfort and Bogost take you down on a journey, not just down memory lane but through the inner workings of the VCS. I've been a VCS gamer for a long time but I'll be the first to admit that I have no clue how it works. This book does a great job of keeping the technical language yet making it accessible and interesting for the VCS gamer. I've truly gained an appreciation of the VCS and its programmers on a whole other level, and can appreciate games that I simply thought were cool and fun, even those that I thought sucked, on a deeper level as a result.

 

No VCS fan should be without it.

 

I'm definitely itching now to read more video game history books. This is fun!

[ovalbugmann]

Received my copy today - I skimmed it and it looks very interesting -Thanks!

[accousticguitar]

Okay, I'm officially old. The print in this book is tiny, and the Times New Roman font only makes it worse. When will book companies learn about Arial?

 

I found a mistake on page 38. The book attributes Video Chess to Larry Kaplan when it was actually programmed by Larry Wagner.

 

On the plus side, Nukey Shay was mentioned for his Pac-Man hack.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Okay, I'm officially old. The print in this book is tiny, and the Times New Roman font only makes it worse. When will book companies learn about Arial?

Usually fonts with serifs are considered easier to read on paper. Probably its just the font size.

 

On the plus side, Nukey Shay was mentioned for his Pac-Man hack.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

I think I may have noticed an error in the downloadable chapter about Stella. On page 6 when he's talking about World of Warcraft, he says

 

"You can move your character around using the W, A, S, and D keys, an interface popularized by the fi rst-person shooter Quake"

 

If memory serves me correctly, wasn't Star Wars Dark Forces the first game to use those keys? I know it was the first game to have the gun off-center in your field of view (Doom, Hexen, etc. all had the weapon dead center of the screen) but I think it also had the a,s,d,w key control too. Am I wrong?

[+Stephen]

Got mine in today! Also got the full set of ANALOGs on 2 DVD I have some reading to do this weekend.

 

Stephen Anderson

[ovalbugmann]

I've been jumping around the text - this book makes me want to play my H6er. Isn't it cool to know how the 2600 works to run software? Very Nice book!

 

Now when is the Jaguar version coming out!!

[BSA Starfire]

Just got my copy from play.com. And no work today! Am impressed with the quick flick through I just had, gonna devour this over the day.

[JDecuir]

Hello,

 

I was alerted to this book a couple week's back by Lee Krueger, the leader of the North West Classic Games Enthusiasts.

(I live in the Seattle Area.)

 

I read the whole thing. I am very impressed.

I write as the surviving Stella chip designer.

(That bicycle still works. It is hanging in my garage.)

 

It is too bad I did not know of the book in advance. I would have been happy to contribute.

Examples:

- how we made design decisions

- how we did design tradeoffs between code and chip logic

- design decisions we wish we had made differently

- how Stella (the 2600) influenced the Colleen (Atari 400/800/5200) and Lorraine (Amiga) platforms.

 

They did a decent job of assigning credit where it is due. (e.g. they included Steve Mayer and Ron Milner.)

I see another reader already caught an erratum: Larry _Wagner_ wrote Video Chess, not Larry _Kaplan_.

 

They did allude to an essential theme: that the flexibility of the architecture (putting most of the display in the hands of the programmers) allowed the product to be much more successful than originally envisioned. As Bill Joy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems, fellow Berkeley grad student) later put it "You should design your business on the assumption that not all of the smart people in the industry work for you." We did it because it was cheaper, not because we were far sighted. However, it is then important to capture that theme; future system architects need to use that design principle.

 

I particularly enjoyed the section in the back about architectures for digital media.

(I have been using the OSI model on communications architectures for 3 decades.)

I should go look for other publications from MIT on that subject.

 

Thanks to the authors, and all who contributed!

 

Joe Decuir

Atari 1975-1979

Amiga 1982-1984

 

"Success has a thousand fathers.

Failure is an orphan."

Jay Miner, February 1976

 

PS. does anyone know WHY it assigned me the handle Combat Commando?

If I had any handle at all, Stella Rider would be more accurate...

Lee Krueger had beaten me at Combat on TV.

Edited February 15, 2009 by JDecuir

[+Stephen]

Hello,

 

I was alerted to this book a couple week's back by Lee Krueger, the leader of the North West Classic Games Enthusiasts.

(I live in the Seattle Area.)

 

I read the whole thing. I am very impressed.

I write as the surviving Stella chip designer.

(That bicycle still works. It is hanging in my garage.)

 

It is too bad I did not know of the book in advance. I would have been happy to contribute.

Examples:

- how we made design decisions

- how we did design tradeoffs between code and chip logic

- design decisions we wish we had made differently

- how Stella (the 2600) influenced the Colleen (Atari 400/800/5200) and Lorraine (Amiga) platforms.

 

They did a decent job of assigning credit where it is due. (e.g. they included Steve Mayer and Ron Milner.)

I see another reader already caught an erratum: Larry _Wagner_ wrote Video Chess, not Larry _Kaplan_.

 

They did allude to an essential theme: that the flexibility of the architecture (putting most of the display in the hands of the programmers) allowed the product to be much more successful than originally envisioned. As Bill Joy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems, fellow Berkeley grad student) later put it "You should design your business on the assumption that not all of the smart people in the industry work for you." We did it because it was cheaper, not because we were far sighted. However, it is then important to capture that theme; future system architects need to use that design principle.

 

I particularly enjoyed the section in the back about architectures for digital media.

(I have been using the OSI model on communications architectures for 3 decades.)

I should go look for other publications from MIT on that subject.

 

Thanks to the authors, and all who contributed!

 

Joe Decuir

Atari 1975-1979

Amiga 1982-1984

 

"Success has a thousand fathers.

Failure is an orphan."

Jay Miner, February 1976

 

PS. does anyone know WHY it assigned me the handle Combat Commando?

If I had any handle at all, Stella Rider would be more accurate...

Lee Krueger had beaten me at Combat on TV.

Welcome Joe! Care to stick around for a while and tell some stories about the early days at Atari? There's quite a few people here that are still reverse engineering the custom chips in the 8-bit Atari computers. There are new graphics modes and some amazing sounds coming from PoKey now, as well as 8-channel digi-music from GTIA. Great to see another Atari legend make it over here.

 

Stephen Anderson

Edited February 15, 2009 by Stephen

[ovalbugmann]

Wow! It's REALLY great to hear from you Joe! I'm really surprised the authors didn't attempt to contact you for input or if they did it's too bad they weren't successful. I'm sure anything you may have added would have contributed to the book immensely.

 

Now that your here at Atariage, it would be great to gleen any insights you might have, and there is no-one else better qualified to present such information to us Atari VCS fans. When I was a kid playing the VCS and thinking about the electronics inside it, that make my games work(even back then as young teenager), I never thought I would be able to converse with an original 2600 designer, what a pleasure!

 

If you have time could you expand on two of the things you mentioned, I would be VERY interested!!!(even if it's very general)

 

 

1. design decisions we wish we had made differently

 

2. - how we made design decisions

 

Thanks again for finding this site and stopping by!!! :cool:

 

[Almost Rice]

PS. does anyone know WHY it assigned me the handle Combat Commando?

If I had any handle at all, Stella Rider would be more accurate...

Lee Krueger had beaten me at Combat on TV.

 

I think it is only based on the number of posts you have. The more posts the more joysticks and the handle changes at something like 100,250,1000, etc. I am not to sure about the exact delineation, but you get the picture. You can add your own at the top of the avatar by going to click"My Controls" at the top, click"Edit Profile Information" and put something in Custom Status.

[Wickeycolumbus]

Welcome Joe! Hope you decide to stay for a while!

[+Stephen]

PS. does anyone know WHY it assigned me the handle Combat Commando?

If I had any handle at all, Stella Rider would be more accurate...

Lee Krueger had beaten me at Combat on TV.

 

I think it is only based on the number of posts you have. The more posts the more joysticks and the handle changes at something like 100,250,1000, etc. I am not to sure about the exact delineation, but you get the picture. You can add your own at the top of the avatar by going to click"My Controls" at the top, click"Edit Profile Information" and put something in Custom Status.

Wasn't there a custom status for VIPs? I would definitely say he qualifies

 

Stephen Anderson

[+Philsan]

Hi Joe.

In my Italian language website dedicated to 8-bit Atari computers I have credited you as one of the designers of SIO and USB: http://www.santellocco.com/atari/info.htm

 

I would be glad to hear all the interesting things you know, in particular

- how Stella (the 2600) influenced the Colleen (Atari 400/800/5200) and Lorraine (Amiga) platforms.

Thank you very much for what you have done.

Edited February 15, 2009 by Philsan

[Bryan]

Mr. Decuir,

 

It's great to see you here! So many people create great designs that fade into obscurity so it must be rewarding to have taken part in creating products that are still inspiring people 30+ years later! We'd love to hear whatever stories you have even if they don't make it into this particular book.

 

My first computer was an Atari 800 (I was 11) and it's the machine I always come back to. I can't imagine something being more before its time.

 

-Bry

[Mirage]

I'd like to join in saying thank you Mr. Decuir, for designing machines that truly have souls. They're well beyond mere computers/games. They've been nearly personal friends to me for three decades now, so... thank you.

Edited February 15, 2009 by Mirage1972

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...mp;hl=rob+fulop

 

Edited February 15, 2009 by iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin