Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation

Nicely written - with enough interesting technical and business backstory mixed with personal experience of the computers to keep you reading. It's hard to not over index on the technical details and get lost in the trivia and end up with a long format Wikipedia article- something that Lendino does an admirable job with.I liked the different sectional breakdowns and discovered some games that I didn't know about and now I'm actively grabbing them so I can play and see what I missed.The Today section the the real best part of this book: It goes over in detail the mods and new hardware (and emulation if you don't feel like spending anything) that can make your Atari computer relevant in today's world.It's a decently paced read that will give you a comprehensive overview of the Atari Personal computers if you know nothing about them and it will bring back lots of good feels if you also grew up using them.

A complete love fest for Atari 8-bit fans and that's ok for this geek. This is clearly a book for fans of the Atari 8-bit line of computers. Commodore users need not stop to browse, just keep moving. Seriously a really nice book that details the history - rise and fall of the Atari 8-bit line of computers - from the Nolan Bushnell pre-computer era to Warner Communications to Jack Tramiel. For most die-hard Atari fans there is nothing new in this book but it's a great item to have in your library. The middle section of the book covers off a great number of pivotal games for the Atari 8-bit line, including titles from the 1990's and later. Each game is described in detail and while it can be a bit of a long read if you don't remember or care about that particular game, what I found happening is dashing to the basement to pull out my collection of software from back in the day to see how many games I actually had. The hit rate was very high thanks to the large amount of software I collected via friends and other sources. Everyone will find the list doesn't contain several of their favorites. What no "Preppie"? Come on, that game rock and the music was superb! The last third of the book contains information about emulation, current mods, and sources of information. Again nothing you couldn't find on your own, but a good reference all in one place. Like most books about Atari, this will leave you wondering "what if...". So many wrong turns for Atari and it's frustrating to know that they could have been so much more than what they turned out to be. I highly recommend this for any person who had or still has that Atari 400/800/1200Xl,600XL, 800XL, 65XE, 130XE, XEGS or that one lucky bastard who has the mythical 1450XLD.

When I saw a blog post about this book I had to get it. When I was in 7th or 8th grade I got my first Atari. It was an 800 XL. I had it connected to a small Sony TV, had a 1050 Floppy drive, a MPP 300 Baud modem, and an Atari thermal printer. Eventually I upgraded my 800 XL with the 256KB Rambo chip, had four Happy1050 drives, got an Okidata printer, and had a 1200 baud modem where I ran my Atari BBS (Sorcery in the 707 area code). I started the BBS on FoReM (which he talks about), but later moved to Carina and then Oasis, before I ended my BBS days. My neighbor was a pilot in the Air Force and he is the one who got me into Atari. I had a 2600, but the games on the 800XL were much better, and drew me in. I subscribed to Antic magazine, tried programming in Basic, but my real passion was phone phreaking and calling remote BBS systems all over the US for free with Sprint dial up card numbers that were shared on many of the pirate boards. This book brought back all those memories of my teen age years and the nefarious things that I thought I was doing. As mentioned in the book, I got my Mom to buy the Atari 5200, which I thought was awesome, but short lived. Near the end of high school I bought an Atari 520 ST and I remember driving down to San Jose to visit the local ATARI only computer shops just to buy software and new accessories for the struggling system. I am saddened that I got rid of all my Atari devices. I know I donated my ST, I don't remember what I did with my 800, I think I gave it to my neighbor when we moved. I am not completely done with the book, I just made it to the chapters that talk about games, which I may skip over (except for Ultima, which was my favorite game for Atari, along with Castle Wolfenstein and a few others). I will say, scanning through that section I did notice games I had totally forgotten about.I enjoyed the first part of the book where he goes into the history of Atari, and the development of the systems and the various personalities at Atari. That was really interesting. I did notice, however, when he introduces the Atari 1200, the image on the page shows the 1200, but the caption says Atari 800XL. That's a misprint I noticed.Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who owned and loved their Atari! ATASCII for life! I also bought that Atari Game Art book a while ago, that is highly recommended as well.

A lot of what the author writes about resinates as an Atari kid and somewhat aficionado 14-year-old self. I've taken the games summary section in the book and have made my own library and can now load them up on a brand new SDrive-Max from the UK. It's fun times we live in!

This great book was like a warm nostalgia trip for me, and one I've reread countless times in order to pluck out informative tidbits that lead me down many other paths of exploration on my Atari 800XL and Atari 130XE computers. The author's childhood journey with his Atari machines closely parallels my own experience, minus the BBS work he did, as I never had a modem. While I had an SIO-to-PC adapter for years prior to reading this book, I still appreciated the extensive list of current (for the time) Atari hardware/mods/etc. available. The book encouraged me to pull back up games I had created in the 80s, and greatly enhance them given the wealth of knowledge available on the internet, some via resources provided in this book. I'm now redesigning my best game (done in Turbo Basic XL) in pure assembly language, using VS Code with MADS extension and Altirra emulator. I may have to order the 2nd edition now, as my 1st edition copy is quite worn. I also just ordered the author's 2600 book, and have great expectations for it as well.

Some interesting info. I wish there was more info regarding how to acquire hardware modernize the unit and how to do it, in easy to understand wording. Atarieze is not easy to understand, well no computeeze is...

The book was boring ramblings from the author's personal experience and opinions. There are much better Atari books on the market.

Nostalgia city. Loved my Atari 800 and Atari 800 XL. Looks like the author did too.

Le livre est structuré de cette façon :- une partie sur l'historique des Atari 8 Bits, bien documenté et riche en anecdotes.- une partie sur le software de ces machines (programmes, jeux)- un dossier sur "comment on émule" ces machines- et une partie collection / réparer ces vieux ordiL'auteur donne son avis (et ça reste que très léger) uniquement sur la partie software. Ce n'est pas présent à chaque page (voir à chaque ligne comme j'ai pu le lire sur des livres en français).Si vous êtes habitué au bouquins à 50€, l'austérité du livre va vous surprendre. Pas de photos couleur (quelques photos et captures d'écran en noir et blanc) et beaucoup de texte. Mais justement, ce que je j'attends de ce genre de livres c'est du texte. Le principe même des ouvrages sur le jeu vidéo devrait être basé sur le texte plutôt que baser le contenu sur des artworks.Concernant l'écriture, c'est bien écrit. Fluide, pas besoin d'un niveau en anglais élevé. Peu de répétitions et on sens que l'auteur est un passionné de ces machines.Le livre coûte pas bien cher, je ne saurai que trop vous le recommander si bien entendu vous maitrisez l'anglais rien que pour l'originalité du sujet. Ça change des livres "SEGA ; Nintendo ; Sony" auxquels les maisons d'éditions françaises nous habituent (voir nous conditionnent).J'ai mis 4 étoiles car bien qu'intéressant j'en suis venu à bout un peu trop rapidement mais sans doute car le sujet m'intéressait.

I am a lifelong Atari 8-bit owner and collector. I recently read this book during a long flight to Morocco.Physically, the book itself is a paperback and has a glossy colour printed cover. Inside, the pages are all black and white, and some have photos. Quality wise, it's a typical limited production run type of a product, and with such a niche subject this is of course understandable. It would have been lovely to have some colour photos to show off the games, but as I say, it's not the kind of subject matter that's likely to get picked up and given this kind of treatment by a major publishing house.The first chapters go quite in depth into the history of the company, the people involved, how the computers were developed, and a fair bit about the architecture of specific models in the computer line. How much of this goes over your head if you're really more into the gaming and fun side of things I don't know, but of course you can skip over sections that may get too technical. You can tell that the author has a great deal of love for and knowledge of the subject matter, and he writes engagingly.There is also a section with reviews and descriptions of a lot of the major game releases. This is where the book is really crying out for some colour photos, and is also where the US-centric nature of the book shows. The game reviews are largely based around the US releases like Bruce Lee, Pac-Man, The Goonies etc. British fans will fondly remember some of the Mastertronic releases like Henry's House, or later Zeppelin games like the highly regarded Zybex, and these are not covered in the book. Again, as a US release this is entirely understandable, but also worth being aware of.Lastly, the book covers aspects of the modern scene and the peripherals that can be bought (such as the AtariMax cart, which I have). This chapter is also a useful and interesting read, to show how these old computers still have possibilities and potential which can be unlocked by modern technology. Newer games like Space Harrier and AtariBlast really show what these machines can achieve where the old tech and new tech are expertly combined by a skilled programmer.All in all, a very interesting, engaging and well written book by a clearly knowledgeable and passionate author.