Racing the Beam
The Atari Video Computer System
Nick Montfort & Ian Bogost
The MIT Press, 2009
184 pp., 22 illus.
Cloth: 2009. ISBN: 9780262012577. $22.95/£14.95
Publisher info/order/request examination copy
Compare online bookstore prices
Description - Contents - Reviews
Racing the Beam is a detailed and accessible study of the most important early videogame console, the Atari Video Computer System (also known as the Atari VCS or the Atari 2600). Through its main example, the book provides unique insight into the role of underlying hardware and software systems in new media. It is the first extensive application of the platform studies approach to a single computing system.
We developed the original approach of platform studies by drawing on textual studies, computer programming and engineering, and computer game studies. We considered the VCS console with its Stella chipset, along with cartridges and controllers, as evidence of human work, decisions, and processes. Our approach traces this material history while exploring the formal workings of the VCS and its early games, revealing the technological and cultural contexts in which the system and its games were developed. This study of the VCS is technically informed, explaining the operation and implications of the MOS Technologies 6507, the Television Interface Adapter, and cartridge ROM.
The book covers the ancestry of the VCS (including Pong and the Atari Home Pong systems) along with the hardware design of the machine and its implications for creativity. Many influential VCS games (Combat, Adventure, Pitfall, Pac-Man, and others) are discussed. The book is illustrated throughout and written to appeal to technically inclined general readers as well academics studying all sorts of creative work in digital media.
Racing the Beam is a collaborative work by Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost, published by The MIT Press.
Contents
- Series Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Timeline
- Stella
- Combat
- Adventure
- Pac-Man
- Yars' Revenge
- Pitfall!
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
- After the Crash
- Afterword on Platform Studies
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Reviews
- Slate.com review, by Michael Agger
- Atari 2600 made history - without memory, Toronto Star review by Darren Zenko
- Interview in the Boston Globe, by Geoff Edgers
- Crispy Gamer review, by Troy Goodfellow
- Nerve.com review, by Joe Kieser
- Racing the Beam: How Atari 2600's Crazy Hardware Changed Game Design, Wired News review by Chris Kohler
- Retrothing review, by James Grahame
- Interview with Henry Jenkins, Part 1, Part 2
- Author Q&A at Powells.com
- Ian Bogost on the MIT Press podcast
- Review at Resurrected Entertainment, by Michael Gale
- Review in Digital Culture and Education, by Thomas Apperly
- Review by Ryan McIntyre, Managing Director of Foundry Group
- Review at YYZTech
- Review by Kim Pallister
- Racing the Beam: uma história das Materialidades do videogame Atari [PDF], review in Logos by Letícia Perani (in Portuguese)
- Racing the Beam: The Atari VCS as Platform, review at Rhizome by Greg J. Smith.
- Racing the Beam: The Atari VCS as Platform, review at Leonardo On-Line by Robert Jackson.
- Racing the Beam ... A Book Review ... at Games for Breakfast by Andrew Freck.
- A Brief Review of "Racing the Beam" by Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost at Game Design Advance by Josh Knowles.