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Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System (Platform Studies) Hardcover – January 1, 2009

by Nick Montfort (Author), Ian Bogost (Author)

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Book 1 of 11: Platform Studies

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A study of the relationship between platform and creative expression in the Atari VCS.

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.

Book 1 of 11

Platform Studies
Print length

180 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Mit Pr
Publication date

January 1, 2009
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

026201257X
ISBN-13

978-0262012577
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nick Montfort is Assistant Professor of Digital Media at MIT. He is the author of Twisty Little Passages: A New Approach to Interactive Fiction and the coeditor of The New Media Reader, both published by The MIT Press. Ian Bogost is Assistant Professor in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture, at Georgia Institute of Technology and Founding Partner, Persuasive Games LLC. He is the author of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogame Criticism and Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism, both published by the MIT Press.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mit Pr; 2nd ptg edition (January 1, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 180 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 026201257X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262012577
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,422,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #356 in Computing Industry History
- #1,000 in Game Programming
- #4,972 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences

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189

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Nick Montfort
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Nick Montfort develops computational art and poetry, often collaboratively, and studies creative computing of all sorts. He is professor of digital media at MIT, also teaches at the School for Poetic Computation, and lives in New York and Boston.
In addition to his books, Montfort has done digital media writing projects including the ppg256 series of 256-character poetry generators; Sea and Spar Between (with Stephanie Strickland); the interactive fiction system Curveship; Ream, a 500-page poem written on one day; the group blog Grand Text Auto; Implementation, a novel on stickers (with Scott Rettberg); The Electronic Literature Collection Volume 1 (co-edited with three others); and several works of interactive fiction: Book and Volume, Ad Verbum, and Winchester's Nightmare. He directs the lab/studio The Trope Tank.
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Ian Bogost
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Dr. Ian Bogost is an author and an award-winning game designer. He is Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies and Professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he also holds an appointment in the Scheller College of Business. Bogost is also Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC, an independent game studio, and a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, where he writes regularly about technology and popular culture.
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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

189 global ratings

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LouieGee

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2024

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This is a great book that details the history of video games and the technical part of how the Atari 2600 produced video output. It's a fascinating read.

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Thomas Kite

Not quite enough meat for the geeks (but still worth a read)

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2014

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This book is not quite what I expected, but I enjoyed it just the same. I'd been expecting a thorough description of the VCS hardware, hopefully down to the (tiny) memory map, and at least a few code examples showing how the screen is generated, sprite multiplexing, etc. There is much more information at this level online, so you can learn about it; just don't expect much more than a cursory examination from this book.

With that, the book has a few aims. One is to show how the restrictions imposed by the VCS hardware led to extraordinary leaps of creativity to produce playable and, in some instances, graphically impressive games. The authors do a nice job here of balancing the presentation of the dry technical aspects with sheer reverence for the programmers and designers.

Another aim is more long-reaching: showing how some VCS games were the genesis (or an important part) of game genres that still exist today. This might be more of a stretch. There was a lot of arcade video game activity at the same time that the VCS ruled the living room, and many of the VCS titles were ports, i.e. they contributed little to moving the field forward.

The book is part of a series called 'Platform Studies'. I'm not a media type, so I don't really know what this means. There's a fair amount of lip service paid to this concept in the book, but it seems a little contrived, as if the editor insisted that 'Platform Studies' be mentioned a certain number of times. Is the VCS an object lesson in platform studies? I don't know. What I do know is that it is probably the simplest programmable gaming system one could imagine. It's a brilliant design that offloaded all the difficult jobs onto the programmers to keep the hardware cost as low as possible. As such it deserves to be recognized for the milestone that it was, and this book does that, and in an enjoyable way.

12 people found this helpful

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T. Ryan Arnold

I can't wait for "Platform Studies" to come to my local City College, what an amazing book.

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2009

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This book is written as the first in a Series of "Platform Studies". Essentially the authors are applying an academic codification to the study of video games wherein they determine how games are shaped by their platforms as well as looking at how games evolve over time to take advantage of and get more out of the hardware.

They take a look at 10 games that are what they view as the best examples of games the 2600 platform. There is so much interesting information in this book on how and why so many of these classic games were produced that it is a must have for any retro gamer. For example, the author's discussion of how 2600 sprites were built with scan lines instead of pixels was something I was totally unaware of and found very intriguing. This book is well written and informative. I hope its the first in a long line of such books on Platform Studies

One person found this helpful

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JP Burke

Very interesting, wish it was better written

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2009

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I really wanted to like this book. I'm a big fan of video game history and was thrilled at the prospect of learning more about one of the early relics of the industry, the Atari 2600. While the book didn't disappoint in terms of useful information and historical context, it was just poorly written. Sentences would start on one topic and drift onto a completely different one. Entire paragraphs were seemingly dedicated to simply listing modern video games with ridiculous comparisons. For instance (this is not a direct quote) there were comparisons like "'Combat' was similar to 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' because both involved sprites."

If you can set aside the school paper quality writing you'll find a book full of fascinating technical details about the video game industry's early life. You'll quickly learn that just about every Atari 2600 game is a major hack and required multiple clever tricks just to get anything working at all.

I would still recommend reading this book if you are interested in video game history, but be ready for some confusing trains of thought. I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the Platform Series but hope a little more consideration is given to the writing.

10 people found this helpful

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..::Arman

Wrangle the raster. Seize the day. BUY THIS BOOK before ready player 1 makes it too cool to own or sues for 80s infringement

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2017

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I still own my original Atari 2600 and never bothered to learn about the secrets of its inner workings (the exception being joystick repair), despite it launching a lifelong interest in software, graphics, and electronics. I picked up this book on impulse after the finely tuned A.I. software of amazon recommendations discovered the algorithm to target 'human nostalgia'. When it arrived it I could not put it down... definitely a great read for anyone interested in the history of gaming regardless of your technical level. The book goes beyond tech as it touches on the market, the companies and personalities involved, the social and consumer norms of the times.

Of particular interest (to myself) were the hardware design choices made that confound and make you cringe by today's standards. 'Racing the Beam' gives you the insight to understand these choices by providing the financial limits, competitive landscape, design goals, and technological context present at Atari's release. It is still hard to believe that developing back then was more than just heavy hardware and software constraints (128 *bytes of RAM* and this review is well over 1500 bytes)... The developers were often a one-man team juggling programming, art direction, UX/UI, screenwriting, sound design, and project management while devising logic tricks for precious source compression. No physics APIs or game platform builder or asset store to save the day, oops, I meant deadline. This is real insight on the Pioneering spirit.

There is a whole chapter dedicated to Adventure. Very cool! Would be a good primer for those eagerly waiting to read Warren Robinett's Annotated Adventure. Yars Revenge (my favorite) and Pitfall is in there too. This was my first taste of a platform studies book and I look forward to picking up I Am Error: The Nintendo Family Computer / Entertainment System Platform (Platform Studies) despite never owning an NES.

7 people found this helpful

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Cliente Amazon

Buen libro sobre el diseño de los juegos de Atari 2600

Reviewed in Spain on June 6, 2021

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Es importante recalcar que este libro habla sobre DECISIONES de diseño, no de trucos de programación. Si tu intención es programar juegos para la VCS, este no es tu libro. Si lo que quieres es saber qué decisiones, tanto históricas como técnicas, llevaron a que los principales grandes juegos de la Atari 2600 fuesen como fueron, entonces sí lo es.

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Craig M.

Excellent book for the retro technology nerd

Reviewed in Canada on June 1, 2019

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There are lots of books detailing the early days of video games, but very few get into the technical details of a given computing/gaming platform. As an avid Atari fan and collector it's scratched my itch regarding how the great games on the platform were made. David Crane recommended this book during his GDC talks and he was not wrong. If you want to build an Atari game, or simply get an in-depth view of 2600 development back in the day, this book is for you.

I. Black

Fantastic Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2014

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I really enjoyed reading this. A very interesting overview of the console and a select few influential games. The authors are not afraid to get technical, very technical when needed and I just loved this.

I knew the Atari VCS was difficult to program but I didn't realise just how difficult and thus have even more respect for the original programmers. It's a pity Atari didn't feel the same way back in the day!

I'm very close to downloading the necessary assemblers etc. and seeing how well I get on myself. Getting anything on the screen would be quite an accomplishment!

One thing to note. I received the book without the dust cover. Just a blank front and back with only a barcode sticker on the back.

3 people found this helpful

Francesco (Fi)

Atari 2600!

Reviewed in Italy on September 28, 2013

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Un adisamina accurata della prima vera console da casa (la mia prima console che tuttora ho, funzionante, la heavy sixier). Un libro forse pe veri affezionati, ma per quelli che lo sono è molto interessante!

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Richard de Almeida

Getting to the roots of home computer innovation!

Reviewed in Canada on June 26, 2010

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Racing the Beam would be an excellent read for anybody who owned an Atari 2600 and even better for those that care how a television set works on the inside.

Rather than getting bogged down in every little detail about Atari and the 2600, the authors focus on significant events that happened to make the Atari 2600 such a hit, delving into how those events came to pass and the challenges faced by those determined to make good things happen.

People can talk about the innovation of present-day Apple, but it is really a trifle compared to what the Atari engineers of the 70s accomplished, inventing just about everything from nothing at all; accomplishing very technical and amazing things with components that you could buy today from any electronics supply store, without the benefit of knowing if it could be done at all let alone should!

2 people found this helpful

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