Book - Zap, the rise and fall of Atari - Free

[MrArcade]

Quote "It is a great perspective because it was written during the fall of Atari ('84), and therefore has a lot more substantive facts as opposed to books written
25 years after the fact."

get it here

http://www.ionpool.net/arcade/atari/zap.zip

[Carsten Carlos]

Thanx, finaly an e-book I could need for my PocketPC!  

[1UP]

Just finished reading this.  Very interesting.  I remember noticing as a kid when we got our 2nd Atari 2600 that it had a Warner Communications logo on the box, which our first one hadn't.  That first one was also a lot more expensive...

It's interesting to note how many times they state how 3D holography is going to be the next big thing in game technology.  I guess they were partially right -- most games today use 3D graphics, but still within the confines of a 2D screen.  No one seems to be working on hologram technology much anymore, certainly not for games.

Also, the author seemed totally unaware of the new wave of console games that woud be coming from Japan less than a year after the events of the book.  He seemed to think that video games would eventually die out, when actually, it's only the arcade games that have waned.  All the consoles that were hot back then (Atari, Intellivision, ColocoVision) have died out, only to be replaced by new ones (XBox, PS2, Dreamcast, Game Cube.)  And there was a little invention called the cell phone, and now everyone has video games like Tetris and Snake in their pockets!  Now they're even putting arcade classics and fighting games in full color into cell phones.  I think that this officially disqualifies video games as a fad, another hula hoop.  It's still a multi-billion dollar industry.

The last note I found interesting was in the final chapter.  Nolan Bushnell, after starting the Pizza Time chain, was preparing in 1983 to release, thru Sente, "a new generation of arcade games that would push the video game medium to a new level."  Look up Sente on Mame.dk.  None of these games were hits!  Yes, the resolution was higher, but come on, Chicken Shift?  Goalie Ghost?  Night Stocker?  The NAMES aren't even good!  Also, note these games are listed as being manufactured by Bally/Sente.  I'm assuming Bally bought them out.  Wonder how much Nolan made off THAT deal...  His one talent seems to be creating small companies staffed with creative but underpaid people, then selling them for a few million right before they nose dive after a brief spike in sales.  Wish I had that talent...