Description: Racing the Beam : The Atari Video Computer System, Paperback by Montfort, Nick; Bogost, Ian, ISBN 0262539764, ISBN-13 9780262539760, Brand New, Free shipping in the US 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 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.
Price: 21.59 USD
Location: Jessup, Maryland
End Time: 2024-10-17T10:01:28.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Return policy details:
Book Title: Racing the Beam : The Atari Video Computer System
Number of Pages: 192 Pages
Publication Name: Racing the Beam : the Atari Video Computer System
Language: English
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication Year: 2020
Subject: Programming / Games, Popular Culture, Video & Electronic
Item Height: 0.7 in
Type: Textbook
Item Weight: 8.5 Oz
Subject Area: Computers, Social Science, Games & Activities
Item Length: 8.9 in
Author: Nick Montfort, Ian Bogost
Item Width: 6 in
Series: Platform Studies
Format: Trade Paperback
![Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry / Race With the Devil [New DVD] Dolby, Widescreen](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/K5YAAOSwawtbVoLC/s-l600.webp)
