Racing the beam the Atari video computer system

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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Montfort, Nick
Other Authors: Bogost, Ian
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press 2009
Series:Platform studies
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: MIT Press eBook Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 02946nmm a2200397 u 4500
001 EB002069611
003 EBX01000000000000001209701
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 220922 ||| eng
020 |a 0262261529 
020 |a 026225493X 
020 |a 9780262261524 
020 |a 9780262254939 
050 4 |a TK6681 
100 1 |a Montfort, Nick 
245 0 0 |a Racing the beam  |h Elektronische Ressource  |b the Atari video computer system  |c Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost 
260 |a Cambridge, Mass.  |b MIT Press  |c 2009 
300 |a xii, 180 pages  |b illustrations 
653 |a DIGITAL HUMANITIES & NEW MEDIA/General 
653 |a Video games / Equipment and supplies 
653 |a Atari 2600 (Video game console) 
653 |a SOCIAL SCIENCES/Media Studies 
653 |a GAME STUDIES/General 
653 |a Computer games / Programming 
653 |a Video games / United States / History 
700 1 |a Bogost, Ian 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b MITArchiv  |a MIT Press eBook Archive 
490 0 |a Platform studies 
028 5 0 |a 10.7551/mitpress/7588.001.0001 
776 |z 9780262012577 
776 |z 026201257X 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/7588.001.0001?locatt=mode:legacy  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 794.8 
520 |a 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