A study of the relationship between platform and creative expression in the Atari VCS.
The Atari Video Computer System dominated the home video game market so completely that “Atari” became the generic term for a video game console. The Atari VCS was affordable and offered the flexibility of changeable cartridges. Nearly a thousand of these were created, the most significant of which established new techniques, mechanics, and even entire genres. This book offers a detailed and accessible study of this influential video game console from both computational and cultural perspectives. 
Studies of digital media have rarely investigated platforms―the systems underlying computing. This book (the first in a series of Platform Studies) does so, developing a critical approach that examines the relationship between platforms and creative expression. Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost discuss the Atari VCS itself and examine in detail six game cartridges: Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall!, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. They describe the technical constraints and affordances of the system and track developments in programming, gameplay, interface, and aesthetics. Adventure, for example, was the first game to represent a virtual space larger than the screen (anticipating the boundless virtual spaces of such later games as World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto), by allowing the player to walk off one side into another space; and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was an early instance of interaction between media properties and video games. Montfort and Bogost show that the Atari VCS―often considered merely a retro fetish object―is an essential part of the history of video games.

Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System (Platform Studies)

Computers & Technology

Nick Montfort

Ian Bogost

Games & Strategy Guides

Mit Pr

CENTER 21: The Secret Life of Buildings employs the nascent philosophies of speculative realism and object-oriented ontology to illuminate architecture as a peculiar set of objects, phenomena, relations, materials, and operations. Object-oriented ontology (OOO) is a philosophy that considers all objects (virtual or physical, large or small, singular or plural, closed or open) to be on equal ontological footing. Although it doesn't exclude humans, it treats them as just another set of objects. This volume explores OOO's significance to architecture, and possibly vice versa.

CENTER 21: The Secret Life of Buildings

Michael Benedikt

Albena Yaneva

Patrik Schumacher

Graham Harman

Kory Bieg

Craig Dykers

Levi Bryant

Keith Ragsdale

Center for American Architecture and Design

This CD provides a guide to pronouncing the Greek letters and words you will encounter during your study of Elementary Greek, Year One. The audio companion includes all of the the letters, words, phrases, and grammatical forms from the textbook. Practice listening and repeating Greek words and sounds along with the text. Comes packaged in a sturdy, protective plastic box suitable for shelving.

Elementary Greek Koine for Beginners, Year One (Greek and English Edition)

Christine Gatchell

Web Development & Design

Open Texture

The mobile phone will soon become the most powerful channel for persuasion. This book presents 20 perspectives on how mobile devices can be designed to motivate and influence people - and how this emerging trend will change the way you live, work, and play.Contributing Authors: Ian Bogost, Peter Boland, Sunny Consolvo, Martin Cooper, Erik Damen, Will Dzierson, Dean Eckles, BJ Fogg, Paul Hedtke, Peter Heywood, Rachel Hinman, Eric Holmen, Alex Kass, George LeBrun, Deb Levine, Jerry Michalski, Eric Paulos, Michael Sarfatti, Ian Smith, Mirjana Spasojevic, Sebastien Tanguay, Josh Ulm, Steffen P. Walz, Sean White.

Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives of the Future of Behavior Change

SUSAN WALKER

BJ Fogg

Dean Eckles

Sunny Consolvo

Eric Holmen

Mirjana Spasojevic

Josh Ulm

Sebastien Tanguay

Sean White

Stanford Captology Media

A collection of four one kilobyte games for the Atari Video Computer System, one for each season, about the experience of observing things. Neither action nor strategy, each game requires a different kind of sedate observation and methodical input. Accompanying the game are two essays about the commonalities between videogames and poetry, as well as 1024 machined haiku, poetry generated by computer, 8 bits worth for each season.

A Slow Year

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Books by Ian Bogost