thirtytwobirds's review
4.0
A great little tale of six Atari games (and many more are mentioned briefly). It's fairly technical, so if you're not a programmer you won't like it much, but if you are it's a really fun read. It doesn't have that ugly social science smell that 10 PRINT has, it digs into the tech quite a bit.
enno's review
4.0
Even though I did not grow up with a VCS, this book triggers in me nostalgia for early computer games and systems. Good to see a reflection on the early days of our industry like this.
ninj's review
4.0
More technical than I was expecting. At times, that made it a little dry, but it was definitely enriching, and seeing how the technical limitations in the system translated into design, gameplay and graphical choices was quite interesting. That explanation also means you get a deeper appreciation for the latter games explored in the book as they pushed beyond the obstacles earlier games halted at.
The book's authors themselves are not above sliding in passing references to classics in computing fiction, with lines such as "This sometimes allowed dramatic effects to be displayed to viewers who, plugging in a joystick, found the television above the port to be the color of sky"
And the heroics - David Crane crammed 255 screens of jungle for Pitfall! in 50 bytes, and went from single-life-single-try to 3 lives with display, "For the 'lives' indicator I added vertical tally marks to the timer display. That probably only cost 24 bytes, and with another 20 hours of 'scrunching' the code I could fit that in"
The book's authors themselves are not above sliding in passing references to classics in computing fiction, with lines such as "This sometimes allowed dramatic effects to be displayed to viewers who, plugging in a joystick, found the television above the port to be the color of sky"
And the heroics - David Crane crammed 255 screens of jungle for Pitfall! in 50 bytes, and went from single-life-single-try to 3 lives with display, "For the 'lives' indicator I added vertical tally marks to the timer display. That probably only cost 24 bytes, and with another 20 hours of 'scrunching' the code I could fit that in"
thomcat's review
5.0
This was a very good breakdown of the Atari VCS (2600) platform, along with in-depth description of some key cartridges. I learned a lot about the subject, and look forward to other books in the Platform line.
sbossen's review
3.0
This was a neat book to read. It was particularly interesting to me because of my strong programming background and fond memories of the system. With today's programs it's hard to imaging fitting any thing playable into a cram packed 4k bytes of program ROM space and a measly 128 bytes RAM. This book details the technical challenge of the system and several of the top selling programs. I'm not sure that this book will be for someone who is not very technical.
ninj's review against another edition
4.0
More technical than I was expecting. At times, that made it a little dry, but it was definitely enriching, and seeing how the technical limitations in the system translated into design, gameplay and graphical choices was quite interesting. That explanation also means you get a deeper appreciation for the latter games explored in the book as they pushed beyond the obstacles earlier games halted at.
The book's authors themselves are not above sliding in passing references to classics in computing fiction, with lines such as "This sometimes allowed dramatic effects to be displayed to viewers who, plugging in a joystick, found the television above the port to be the color of sky"
And the heroics - David Crane crammed 255 screens of jungle for Pitfall! in 50 bytes, and went from single-life-single-try to 3 lives with display, "For the 'lives' indicator I added vertical tally marks to the timer display. That probably only cost 24 bytes, and with another 20 hours of 'scrunching' the code I could fit that in"
The book's authors themselves are not above sliding in passing references to classics in computing fiction, with lines such as "This sometimes allowed dramatic effects to be displayed to viewers who, plugging in a joystick, found the television above the port to be the color of sky"
And the heroics - David Crane crammed 255 screens of jungle for Pitfall! in 50 bytes, and went from single-life-single-try to 3 lives with display, "For the 'lives' indicator I added vertical tally marks to the timer display. That probably only cost 24 bytes, and with another 20 hours of 'scrunching' the code I could fit that in"
neven's review against another edition
3.0
A curious history of the Atari 2600 - highly technical at times, rather light on the surrounding history and drama.
exeter_blvd's review against another edition
4.0
5 stars if you love(d) the 2600. 1 star if you don't. Can't imagine anyone being in-between on this one. Will be interesting to see if MIT really carries this forward as a series on 'Platform Studies,' or if that's just a hook.
justinliew's review against another edition
5.0
This was a fantastic look into the crazy world of Atari VCS development. It stands the Atari platform up in the context of the culture of the 70s and 80s, and shows how the platform influenced both the technical and creative decisions that were made to create games on the platform. This in turn has influenced the games industry up to this day, so having historic context is a worthwhile endeavor. Highly recommended for technical or games people.
On a programmer's note, the innovation and creativity that the Atari programmers managed to muster up to make things run on that platform puts us to shame!
On a programmer's note, the innovation and creativity that the Atari programmers managed to muster up to make things run on that platform puts us to shame!