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Jamie Lendino

Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation Paperback – March 16, 2017

by Jamie Lendino (Author)

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Atari 8-bit computers are the first machines that truly bridged the divide between video game players and home computer enthusiasts. The Atari 400 and 800 signaled the start of a new era in computing. Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation is the first book to cover what made Atari's groundbreaking computer line great: its excellent graphics and sound, flexible programming environment, and wide support from the burgeoning home computer community.

For those of us coming of "gaming age" in the 80s, Atari games were simply amazing—and you'll find out what made over 100 titles so much fun to play. Breakout also explores the Atari 8-bit platform as it stands today, with a robust enthusiast and modding community, the increasing value of Atari computers and peripherals, and how to get started with one now or get your old one working again.

Jamie Lendino is the Editor-in-Chief of ExtremeTech.com. Previously, he managed the consumer electronics reviews team for PCMag.com, and has written for the print and digital versions of PC Magazine for over 10 years. He's also had articles published in Popular Science, Electronic Musician, Sound and Vision, and on CNET.com and ConsumerReports.com.

Print length

291 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 16, 2017
Dimensions

6 x 0.73 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0692851275
ISBN-13

978-0692851272
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ziff Davis (March 16, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 291 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0692851275
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0692851272
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.73 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #799,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #214 in Computing Industry History
- #1,606 in Video & Computer Games
- #1,920 in Computer & Video Game Strategy Guides

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Jamie Lendino

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Jamie Lendino is an author, editor, mix engineer, and technology enthusiast. In addition to his books about vintage computers and video games, he has written for PC Magazine, Popular Science, ExtremeTech, Electronic Musician, Consumer Reports, Sound and Vision, and CNET. Jamie has also appeared on NPR's All Things Considered and other television and radio programs across the United States. He lives with his wife, daughter, and two bonkers cats in Collingswood, New Jersey.

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Indy Thinker

SysOp wants to chat!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 18, 2017

Verified Purchase

When I saw a blog post about this book I had to get it. When I was in 7th or 8th grade I got my first Atari. It was an 800 XL. I had it connected to a small Sony TV, had a 1050 Floppy drive, a MPP 300 Baud modem, and an Atari thermal printer. Eventually I upgraded my 800 XL with the 256KB Rambo chip, had four Happy1050 drives, got an Okidata printer, and had a 1200 baud modem where I ran my Atari BBS (Sorcery in the 707 area code). I started the BBS on FoReM (which he talks about), but later moved to Carina and then Oasis, before I ended my BBS days. My neighbor was a pilot in the Air Force and he is the one who got me into Atari. I had a 2600, but the games on the 800XL were much better, and drew me in. I subscribed to Antic magazine, tried programming in Basic, but my real passion was phone phreaking and calling remote BBS systems all over the US for free with Sprint dial up card numbers that were shared on many of the pirate boards. This book brought back all those memories of my teen age years and the nefarious things that I thought I was doing. As mentioned in the book, I got my Mom to buy the Atari 5200, which I thought was awesome, but short lived. Near the end of high school I bought an Atari 520 ST and I remember driving down to San Jose to visit the local ATARI only computer shops just to buy software and new accessories for the struggling system. I am saddened that I got rid of all my Atari devices. I know I donated my ST, I don't remember what I did with my 800, I think I gave it to my neighbor when we moved. I am not completely done with the book, I just made it to the chapters that talk about games, which I may skip over (except for Ultima, which was my favorite game for Atari, along with Castle Wolfenstein and a few others). I will say, scanning through that section I did notice games I had totally forgotten about.

I enjoyed the first part of the book where he goes into the history of Atari, and the development of the systems and the various personalities at Atari. That was really interesting. I did notice, however, when he introduces the Atari 1200, the image on the page shows the 1200, but the caption says Atari 800XL. That's a misprint I noticed.

Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who owned and loved their Atari! ATASCII for life! I also bought that Atari Game Art book a while ago, that is highly recommended as well.

16 people found this helpful

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E. G.

More of a personal memoir, less of an in-depth journalistic history

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

I had great expectations for this book, and they weren't really met.

First, this isn't a bad book. The author probably does a fine job telling a personal story of his life experience with 8-bit Atari computers to a generation of people who haven't used them (although it's not clear to me why this audience would pay to read a 250 page black and white book over the many YouTube videos that cover the topic.)

Where the book falls short to me is that it is more of a set of personal reflections by the author, than any sort of well-researched journalism. I found the author’s extended life anecdotes far less interesting than I would have found high-quality original journalism exploring in-depth the topic of the book.

Where it has the chance to go deep and be interesting, it doesn't. For example, the author talks about how he “found it strange how the newer Commodore 64’s SID chip is more widely recognized today.” To me, this is the essence of what’s missing in the book: it reduces complex, interesting topics to low-substance soundbites that feel more to be a reflection of the author’s lack of adequate domain research.

It’s hard to credibly argue Bob Yannes’s SID chip wasn’t vastly superior as an actual music synthesizer than POKEY was. — and the lion’s share of standout 1980s chiptune music was written primarily for SID. So, yes, of course, the SID chip naturally gets the lion’s share of attention, as well.

It’s a shame the author settles for shallow statements like these, when the deeper substance would have been so much more interesting.

Similarly, the author had the missed opportunity to do interesting, original journalism when dedicating substantial book space to the Atari games. For example, in mentioning the anonymous “programmers” of Draconus who generated drum sounds — I couldn’t help but wonder why the author didn’t credit the composer by name (Adam Gilmore) or perhaps reach out to him for a few words about how he realized he could use a low-pass filter to achieve that effect?

For a book whose title promises to answer "how Atari 8-bit computers defined a generation", I would have appreciated original journalism actually answering that. How did the product actual influence the way people think about technology 30-40 years later? For example, I understand (anecdotally) that the SIO interface in part inspired modern USB. But nothing like that is captured in this book.

There’s also just a few bits of sloppy editing. For example, a photo of a 1200XL is used when it’s captioned as an 800XL. And the book printing isn’t great quality — it feels a bit print-on-demand.

As a final nitpick, whereas Art of Atari set the bar high for recreating the aesthetic experience — this book doesn’t. Even though so much of the book is about presenting classic video games - and the importance of the Atari's advanced color graphics for its era - it's particularly disappointing that there is not a single color photo in the entire book.

Glad the author wrote it, but I can’t say I’d have bought it again.

19 people found this helpful

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G. Terrell

A complete love fest for Atari 8-bit fans!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

A complete love fest for Atari 8-bit fans and that's ok for this geek. This is clearly a book for fans of the Atari 8-bit line of computers. Commodore users need not stop to browse, just keep moving. Seriously a really nice book that details the history - rise and fall of the Atari 8-bit line of computers - from the Nolan Bushnell pre-computer era to Warner Communications to Jack Tramiel. For most die-hard Atari fans there is nothing new in this book but it's a great item to have in your library. The middle section of the book covers off a great number of pivotal games for the Atari 8-bit line, including titles from the 1990's and later. Each game is described in detail and while it can be a bit of a long read if you don't remember or care about that particular game, what I found happening is dashing to the basement to pull out my collection of software from back in the day to see how many games I actually had. The hit rate was very high thanks to the large amount of software I collected via friends and other sources. Everyone will find the list doesn't contain several of their favorites. What no "Preppie"? Come on, that game rock and the music was superb! The last third of the book contains information about emulation, current mods, and sources of information. Again nothing you couldn't find on your own, but a good reference all in one place. Like most books about Atari, this will leave you wondering "what if...". So many wrong turns for Atari and it's frustrating to know that they could have been so much more than what they turned out to be. I highly recommend this for any person who had or still has that Atari 400/800/1200Xl,600XL, 800XL, 65XE, 130XE, XEGS or that one lucky bastard who has the mythical 1450XLD.

7 people found this helpful

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Brian G.

Great book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 15, 2022

Verified Purchase

Well written information about the background of 8 bit Atari computers.

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Mr Parker

Outstanding!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 21, 2019

Verified Purchase

A great book about the most advanced 8-bit machine. Super tips and advice. Very well written and informative. A must buy if you ever owned an 8-bit Atari.

Lee Oades

Loved my Atari 800 and Atari 800 XL

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

Nostalgia city. Loved my Atari 800 and Atari 800 XL. Looks like the author did too.

One person found this helpful

Jim

Interesting read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

Some interesting info. I wish there was more info regarding how to acquire hardware modernize the unit and how to do it, in easy to understand wording. Atarieze is not easy to understand, well no computeeze is...

David J. Widmann

Ah, the memories

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

A fun read. I was introduced to computers through the Atari 8-bit line, and this book rekindled a lot of memories.

The Kindle edition would have received at least one more star but for one aggravation: the photos and screenshots were the size of postage stamps. It would have been nice to be able to see the pictures of the computers and games I used to love so much.

Le Shu

Enfin un livre (en anglais) sur la gamme Atari 8 Bits

Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on June 9, 2017

Verified Purchase

Le livre est structuré de cette façon :

- une partie sur l'historique des Atari 8 Bits, bien documenté et riche en anecdotes.
- une partie sur le software de ces machines (programmes, jeux)
- un dossier sur "comment on émule" ces machines
- et une partie collection / réparer ces vieux ordi

L'auteur donne son avis (et ça reste que très léger) uniquement sur la partie software. Ce n'est pas présent à chaque page (voir à chaque ligne comme j'ai pu le lire sur des livres en français).

Si vous êtes habitué au bouquins à 50€, l'austérité du livre va vous surprendre. Pas de photos couleur (quelques photos et captures d'écran en noir et blanc) et beaucoup de texte. Mais justement, ce que je j'attends de ce genre de livres c'est du texte. Le principe même des ouvrages sur le jeu vidéo devrait être basé sur le texte plutôt que baser le contenu sur des artworks.

Concernant l'écriture, c'est bien écrit. Fluide, pas besoin d'un niveau en anglais élevé. Peu de répétitions et on sens que l'auteur est un passionné de ces machines.

Le livre coûte pas bien cher, je ne saurai que trop vous le recommander si bien entendu vous maitrisez l'anglais rien que pour l'originalité du sujet. Ça change des livres "SEGA ; Nintendo ; Sony" auxquels les maisons d'éditions françaises nous habituent (voir nous conditionnent).

J'ai mis 4 étoiles car bien qu'intéressant j'en suis venu à bout un peu trop rapidement mais sans doute car le sujet m'intéressait.

4 people found this helpful

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