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Zusatztext More than a decade before Apple conceived of “the computer for the rest of us,” Atari was the first Silicon Valley technology company to direct its efforts toward the general population. If it was to capture—indeed, to define—a broad market for its coin-operating gaming machines, Atari needed an approach in which cabinets and graphics were as important as circuits and screens. By demonstrating that industrial and graphic design was as important to Atari’s success as engineering and programming, Raiford Guins’ detailed, densely researched history represents a contribution to design history generally and to the history of game design in particular, which has tended to focus on narrative and visual effects and to dismiss the physical enclosures of the early games as a cosmetic afterthought. To the contrary, “The coin-op cabinet did not simply contain. It was a medium of communication…” Informationen zum Autor Raiford Guins is a Leeds United supporter. In his day-job he is a Professor & Chair of Cinema and Media Studies in the Media School, Adjunct Professor of Informatics, and Director of the Cultural Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. He is the author of Edited Clean Version: Technology and the Culture of Control (2009) , Game After: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife (2014), and Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines (Bloomsbury, 2020) . Guins has also edited several collections and co-edits the MIT Press Game Histories Book Series with Henry Lowood and ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories also with Lowood and Laine Nooney. He is currently writing a small book on Leeds United for Pitch Publishing. Klappentext Drawing from deep archival research and extensive interviews, Atari Design is a rich, historical study of how Atari's industrial and graphic designers contributed to the development of the video game machine.Innovative game design played a key role in the growth of Atari - from Pong to Asteroids and beyond - but fun, challenging and exciting game play was not unique to the famous Silicon Valley company. What set it apart from its competitors was innovation in the coin-op machine's cabinet. Atari did not just make games, it designed products for environments.With "tasteful packaging", Atari exceeded traditional locations like bars, amusement parks and arcades, developing the look and feel of their game cabinets for new locations such as fast food restaurants, department stores, country clubs, university unions, and airports, making game-play a ubiquitous social and cultural experience. By actively shaping the interaction between user and machine, overcoming styling limitations and generating a distinct corporate identity, Atari designed products that impacted the everyday visual and material culture of the late 20th century. Design was never an afterthought at Atari.Draws on archival material and interviews with designers, to give a rich historical study of the Atari arcade video game cabinet. Zusammenfassung Drawing from deep archival research and extensive interviews, Atari Design is a rich, historical study of how Atari’s industrial and graphic designers contributed to the development of the video game machine.Innovative game design played a key role in the growth of Atari – from Pong to Asteroids and beyond – but fun, challenging and exciting game play was not unique to the famous Silicon Valley company. What set it apart from its competitors was innovation in the coin-op machine's cabinet. Atari did not just make games, it designed products for environments.With “tasteful packaging”, Atari exceeded traditional locations like bars, amusement parks and arcades, developing the look and feel of their game cabinets for new locations such as fast food restaurants, department stores, country clubs, university unions, and airports, ma...
