Once Upon Atari: How I Made History bt Killing an Industry

Description

ONCE UPON ATARI is an intimate view into the dramatic rise and fall of the early video game industry, and how it shaped the life of one of its key players. This book offers eye-opening details and insights, delivered in a creative style that mirrors the industry it reveals. An innovative work from one of the industry’s original innovators.This is a detailed look behind the scenes of the early video game industry, with particular attention to the factors leading up to the video game crash of the early 1980s. It is also the journey of one pioneer from the dawning of this new medium, and how his experience creating some of the world's most noted pieces of interactive entertainment reverberated throughout his life. It is a compelling tale of innocence, joy, greed, devastation and ultimately redemption, told in a fresh voice and unorthodox style.There may be no better summary than what Seamus Blackley, Father of the XBox, says about this book:“Once Upon Atari is, ostensibly, a book about nostalgic videogames; a tale set in a golden era that for many of us represents the dawn of an art form that has irrevocably and powerfully changed our lives and our world. And, as a personal history of these times, it is a moving and emotional trip, filled with interesting details and stories as told by someone so deeply inside them as to have been a part of their essential fabric. But that’s not the soul of this book, which is, in its true heart, the journey of a man – a programmer of immense talent – sucked in by a machine of greed and spat out, carelessly, after giving all and everything to it. A journey of learning and redemption, set against a world all about the seemingly magical, effortless creation of fun and joy. This wonderful book is the capstone of that journey, and to read it is to be a part of that odyssey, and to partake in the lessons that it challenges us to learn.”