As mentioned in my very first For the Love of Atari blog post, Tim Lapetino's book Art of Atari rekindled my interest in the consoles and games from the classic company. His most excellent hardcover tells many stories of the unsung graphic artists who were responsible for some of the most iconic and memorable Atari artwork of years past. And like that book, the Atari 2600/7800 visual compendium (which only recently came back into print) is a must-read for any Atari fan.
The first section in this 528-page volume from Bitmap Books gives an extensive history of the company, detailing its inception all the way through to the "New Atari" of today. Along the way we learn about the many different people involved, from founder Nolan Bushnell to Ray Kassar, to the talented Atari programmers who would leave to form the first-ever third-party competitor Activision. And of course, there is much discussion about the development of two of Atari's most classic consoles, namely the 2600 VCS and the 7800 Pro System. Also discussed are technical and aesthetic details of these systems, release dates, marketing considerations, competitors, sales performance and much, much more. I've always found the story of this company, with its various ups and downs over the decades, to be fascinating. And although this information is available in pieces through many sources, both in print and online, having it here all in one place with such detailed discussion is great. This alone is worth the price of this fact-packed hardcover.
The Atari 2600/7800 visual compendium
The book also spotlights numerous notable games for both the 2600 VCS and the 7800 Pro System. Each title is featured in a colorful two-page layout with a screenshot showing what the game looks like along with information on the platform, release date, genre and publisher. And the folks writing about the various titles include games journalists, designers and programmers. I really liked these short write-ups which provide a nostalgic reminiscing on these classic games from Atari and various third-party companies. And additionally, there is also a section featuring some of the best cover artwork on video game boxes for both systems. These pages show photos of many memorable 2600 and 7800 video game boxes, with the text speaking about the mechanics of each game and the way the impressive cover art relates to it. Indeed, as is pointed out at the beginning of the section, at a time when game visuals were often fairly basic, it fell to the cover art to appeal to prospective players. And the folks who created these designs definitely delivered.
The colorful graphics of Yars' Revenge
The box art for Atari 2600 Space Invaders
Another impressive part of this book is the information provided through interviews with some true retrogaming luminaries including Dan Kitchen, Carol Shaw and Howard Scott Warshaw, among others. These folks give some truly unique perspectives into the state of the burgeoning video game industry at the time, as well as on their own significant contributions to it. And the conversations are all quite good, providing interesting stories and insights into how they started in the industry, their memories of working on early video games, and discussions of where their professional lives took them as the years went on. I found these interviews to be informative and enjoyable, to say the least.
The Atari 2600/7800 visual compendium includes a section on homebrew games
And finally, this compendium also contains sections on prototypes and homebrew games. The prototypes section has a lengthy listing of titles and some nice photos of the game screens, along with platform, genre and developer credits for each. Some titles receive a bit of informative discussion, while others simply get a small photo with the credits, presumably because more details are available about some of these prototypes than others. I have to admit, the only one I've played (as of yet) is Save Mary, which I found to be a lot of fun. But after reading about some of the others, I may seek out more of the ones that are available.
And I'm also still relatively new to homebrews, having collected only a small number of Atari 2600 releases (mostly from Champ Games) over the past few years. (See several of my past posts about some of those homebrews). But some of the titles for that system and the 7800 detailed here look quite impressive and only fueled my interest in perhaps looking into purchasing other games. Like the prototypes section some titles simply get a photo along with basic credits, while others get more coverage. Either way, it's a nice addition to this impressive book.
The Atari 2600/7800 visual compendium is just that - a visual, comprehensive guide that walks the reader through the fascinating history of Atari and their classic games and systems from the inception of the company to modern day. Packed with insightful information and brimming with colorful visuals, it's a must-read for any retrogaming enthusiast. Highly recommended.
