''Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System'' is a book by

Ian Bogost Ian Bogost is an American academic and video game designer, most known for the game '' Cow Clicker''. He holds a joint professorship at Washington University as director and professor of the Film and Media Studies program in Arts & Sciences a ...

and

Nick Montfort Nick Montfort is an American computer scientist and poet who is a professor of digital media at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he directs a lab called The Trope Tank. He also holds a part-time position at the University of Bergen whe ...

describing the history and technical challenges of programming for the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally ...

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The book's title comes from the fact that the Atari 2600, initially branded the VCS (Video Computer System), did not have a video frame buffer and required the programmers to write each line of video to the TV output, one line at a time. As there were only a limited number of machine cycles in which to do this, the programmers were "racing" a high-speed

electron beam Since the mid-20th century, electron-beam technology has provided the basis for a variety of novel and specialized applications in semiconductor manufacturing, microelectromechanical systems, nanoelectromechanical systems, and microscopy. Mechani ...

across the screen. ''Racing the Beam'' discusses the history of the VCS platform and the design decisions that impacted the types of games that could be written for it. Specific games such as ''

Combat Combat (French language, French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent Conflict (process), conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed (Hand-to-hand combat, not usin ...

'', ''

Pitfall! ''Pitfall!'' is a video game developed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released in September 1982 by Activision. The player controls Pitfall Harry, who has a time limit of 20 minutes to seek treasure in a jungle. The game world is popu ...

'' and '' Yars' Revenge'' are analyzed from a technical and cultural perspective. ''Racing the Beam'' is the first in a series of books on early video-game platforms and has been cited by modern Atari 2600 enthusiasts as an inspiration for attempting to write new games for the platform.

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External links

* {{Atari 2600 2009 non-fiction books Atari 2600 Works by Ian Bogost MIT Press books History books about video games

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