Racing the Beam : the Atari Video Computer System - Index of

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mechanic), and up from the bottom (a platform that offered a particular set of affordances and was used in the context of the home). Many creative computational works are based on earlier programs to some extent, either very directly (as with the VCS Pac-Man), with some modifi cation and extension (Combat), with more radical reorganization (Yars’ Revenge), or with a complete change of display, interface, and paradigm (Adventure). But whatever the infl uence of past programs, the developer always also encounters the current platform. When the work being developed is innovative, it is often enabled by new exploration of a platform’s capabilities, by reconceptualizing the platform’s limitations, and by attending in new ways to how and why people use it. Yars’ Revenge is clever code, but the cartridge really excels when seen in the context of Atari’s early VCS games and when plugged into its platform to be enjoyed by players. 5 Yars’ Revenge [97]
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Racing the Beam
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Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost The MI
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Contents Series Foreword vii Acknow
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• an awareness of and discussion
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A shout-out goes to the bloggers an
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1982 Atari 5200 introduced; Atari V
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eception and operation of computer
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specifi c machines can reveal the r
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important contributions as well. Ce
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game encourages continued play and
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1.1 To play Atari’s Home Pong, th
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Design of the Atari VCS The enginee
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RAM, the memory programs use to sto
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of the basic hardware capabilities
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Combat 2 The Atari VCS console was
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ROM technologies that are not truly
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and the available VCS controllers.
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allows for bits 4 (left player, up)
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Where VCS Meets TV The processor is
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2.3 The smallest vertical unit in t
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For Two Players Combat imitated the
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VCS programs. Even when the machine
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Game Variations The game’s variat
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.BYTE $24 ;Game 1: 0010 0100 TANK .
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Storing a large set of instructions
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two human players, as it had no AI.
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Adventure 3 What video game could b
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computer platforms of the early 198
Page 60 and 61: PF0 PF1 PF2 bits: bits: bits: 4 5 6
Page 62 and 63: merely press the joystick in a comp
Page 64 and 65: of Tank had been developed jointly
Page 66 and 67: Turning a missile on for the entire
Page 68 and 69: 3.2 If Adventure had used bounding
Page 70 and 71: 3.3 This map of the world in Advent
Page 72 and 73: why the cursor matches the walls an
Page 74 and 75: Today, there are perhaps a handful
Page 76: different perspective to let the pl
Page 79 and 80: Pac-Man did fairly well in Japan, b
Page 81 and 82: More important than the sheer amoun
Page 83 and 84: equirements of the TIA playfi eld,
Page 85 and 86: 4K ROM provides greater fl exibilit
Page 87 and 88: Pac-Man would have been unrecogniza
Page 89 and 90: a very unusual production run, give
Page 91 and 92: 4.3 The VCS Ms. Pac-Man has bonus f
Page 94 and 95: Yars’ Revenge 5 In 1981 Yars’ R
Page 96 and 97: power, graphics, and controller set
Page 98 and 99: Asteroids, on the other hand, makes
Page 100 and 101: some cases, as important as the ses
Page 102 and 103: up and down are both laid out in RO
Page 104 and 105: There are reasons for these intrica
Page 106 and 107: The Code Zone Yars’ Revenge featu
Page 108 and 109: Color port of Yars’ Revenge in 19
Page 112 and 113: Pitfall! 6 For a third-party home v
Page 114 and 115: 6.1 The box art for Atari’s VCS l
Page 116 and 117: Each of the opcodes (LDA, ADC, and
Page 118 and 119: Activision, Cartwright suggested a
Page 120 and 121: in ROM—doing computation to crop
Page 122 and 123: unning? . . . (draw treasures to co
Page 124 and 125: land, seas, mountains, forests, and
Page 126 and 127: or the tavern, there is a social re
Page 128 and 129: 6.2 The distinct horizontal section
Page 130: 6.3 These paper overlays for Space
Page 133 and 134: on this idea, that it had the exclu
Page 135 and 136: 7.1 Merlin, from Parker Brothers, w
Page 137 and 138: Warner wanted to follow its Superma
Page 139 and 140: 7.2 Advertising and cabinet art fro
Page 141 and 142: Games acquired the licenses to The
Page 143 and 144: 7.3 The tiny, agile snowspeeder, wh
Page 145 and 146: fi rst to use player-controlled scr
Page 147 and 148: sole responsibility for the crash,
Page 150 and 151: After the Crash 8 The Atari VCS had
Page 152 and 153: 8.1 This fi rst mat controller, by
Page 154 and 155: It gives computer users the ability
Page 156: nine-foot-tall [giantJoystick], a s
Page 159 and 160: Grusin have called “remediation
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sought to describe how the Atari VC
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course be glad if the work we have
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3. This sort of idea had been aroun
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game’s geometric inconsistency. C
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“After leaving Atari, Bob Smith a
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scanned the captured video, deciphe
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Burnham, Van. Supercade: A Visual H
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Null, Christopher. “The 10 Gadget
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Atari. Yars’ Revenge. Atari VCS.
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Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda. Nint
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Index Action-adventure games, 5, 6,
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production run, 137 programming, 21
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Famicon, 134, 135 Film adaptation g
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Music, in-game, 131-133 Asteroids,
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Read-only memory (ROM) mask ROM, 21
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TIA. See Television Interface Adapt
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