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Racing the Beam - The Atari Video Computer System (Paperback)
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Racing the Beam - The Atari Video Computer System (Paperback)
Series: Platform Studies
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List price R470
Loot Price R375
Discovery Miles 3 750
You Save R95 (20%)
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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.
General
Imprint: |
MIT Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Platform Studies |
Release date: |
February 2020 |
First published: |
2009 |
Authors: |
Nick. Montfort
(Associate Professor of Digital Media)
• Ian Bogost
(Professor)
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Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 13mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
192 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-262-53976-0 |
Categories: |
Books >
Computing & IT >
General
|
LSN: |
0-262-53976-4 |
Barcode: |
9780262539760 |
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