Tim Lapetino

This book is an overview of Atari's history, focusing primarily on the VCS - Atari 2600 system, with ample discussion of other points. The basis is this discussion is the artistic work of Atari, which is quite amazing to review. I know when I first saw the book that I felt some resonance, but reading the book brought so much more to my attention.

There is excellent coverage of George Opperman, his art style, and how it transformed the experience of playing Atari games. "His Designs had power to them. You couldn't ignore them, and yet they weren't intrusive. It wasn't art for art's sake" - Nolan Bushnell.

The Atari log - a very interesting explanation of the evolution and choice of the iconic logo. "Symbols are just visual nicknames that combine first letters and interpretive design elements" George Opperman

Interesting interaction between enticing the buyers of arcade cabinets, and then also selling to the other audience, the players.

The Video Computer System (VCS), later called the 2600, launched the video game console industry which continues to this day. It is hard to believe that it existed through various iterations until 1992. I remember playing the 5200, which was an excellent system for the time, except for the poorly designed joysticks (which has a sidebar discussing this). If only the 5200 could have had the quality joystick that the 2600 had...

The author is pretty kind about the game reviews, especially titles that have been generally panned (E.T., Pacman).

I really enjoyed reading through this book and enjoying the artwork. It was also clear to me how important the enjoyment of the games was based upon the artwork - otherwise they were just crude images on a TV, out shown by arcade games - imagination provides the suspension of disbelief.… (altro)