Art of Atari Released

Atari has most certainly earned its place in the history books as a pioneer of the gaming industry. After the release of Pong, it became one of the definitive giants of the early video game world. Even gamers who weren’t around to game in the 70s have heard of the games they created. Space Invaders, Pitfall, Asteroid, Missile Command and Centipede are all games that people recognize, even today. With a history of over forty years, Atari has a lot to celebrate, something noticed by Robert V. Conte and Tim Lapetino. Together, they penned the 352 page book, the Art of Atari.

The Art of Atari is a very long an extensive book that covers most of Atari’s work. The authors took painstaking work to complete it, particularly when it came to research. Conte and Lapentino were not satisfied to simply find images of Atari games on the internet, no. They traveled the world to visit private Atari collectors and worked directly with them to complete the book. Compiling it with highly detailed artwork, along with behind the scenes information about the games Atari made. Even some that never got around to seeing a release.

With such a long book, one would reasonably expect there to be quite a lot in there. The Art of Atari doesn’t disappoint on that front. There is a detailed history of every game covered. Not just development, but advertising, prototypes, box art, and even packaging. It also comes with interviews from the people who helped put these games together, and breakdowns of their consoles. To cap it all off, the Art of Atari is included with a forward by Ernest Cline, the author of Ready Player One. The Art of Atari currently costs £34.99 and can only be found on the website funstockretro.