Description
The Unofficial Atari: a Visual History book is based on the Atari® 8-bit Home Computer. It pays a huge tribute to this incredible home computer, from the product design to its amazing catalogue of third-party software. The book is an unofficial publication created by myself Darren Doyle and it’s my first published book from the Greyfox Books™ label. This is the very first book of its kind to be released for the Atari 8-bit home computer enthusiast in a visual compendium, ever!
We spent many months developing the book and we managed to acquire some incredible content along the way. The amazing amount of support and contributions we have received from private collectors and review contributors has been fantastic, making the Atari: A Visual History book a reality.
Within the Unofficial Atari: a Visual History book the visuals are the main focus, with roughly 210-220 words of text accompanying each game spread. A review of each game has especially been given a lot of research and thought during the writing process from myself and all contributors involved. Within the book, you’ll also find a series of larger features and interviews with developers and software house profiles and much more, ensuring a great mix of visuals and words.
Overall, the book will contain around 50,000 words and hundreds of iconic images; each one is given its own unique flair in presentation and professional preservation which will make it the perfect coffee-table Atari book.
Format: Portrait orientation Dimensions: 229 X 152 mm
Page count: 420 pages
Book Weight: 1.23kg
Cover: 150 gsm Silk coated paper and Anti-scuff Matt lamination cover Hardback Book
Inside Pages: Matt varnish throughout on 130gsm Silk coated paper.
Foreword for the Atari Visual History written by: Douglas Crockford
Games featured in the book:
A.E. – Alley Cat – Action Biker – Agent USA – Adventure of Robin Hood – Astro Chase – Arkanoid – Archon – Alternate Reality – Aztec Challenge – Attack of the Mutant Camels – Amaurote – B.M.X. Simulator – BC’s Quest for tires – Blue Max –
Beach Head – Bounty Bob strikes back – Bristles – Blue Max 2001 – SBeach Head 2 – Bruce Lee – Black Lamp – Boulder Dash – Blinky’s Scary School – Buck Rogers Planet of doom – Bomb Jake – Beer Belly Burt’s Brew Biz – Ball Blazer –
Congo Bongo – Cohen’s Tower – Conan: Hall of Volta – ChopLifter – BChop Suey – Comic Tunnels – Crack-Up! – Crumble’s Crisis – Chuckie Egg – Dropzone – Decathlon – Dimension X – Drol – Dallas Quest – Dimo’s Quest – Daylight Robbery –
Draconus – Dragonriders of Pern – Drelbs – Darts – Druid – Elektra Glide – Eidolon – Escape from Doomworld – Espial – Excelsor – Encounter – European Super Soccer – 2 Fight Night – Fort Apocalypse – Feud – Fidget – Forbidden Forest – Frogger 2 –
Gauntlet – Goonies – Gemstone Warrior – Ghostbusters – Ghost Chaser – Great American Cross Country Road Race – Green Beret – Gun Law – Gun Fighter – Gunslinger – Hero – Hard Hat Mack – Hawk-quest – Henry’s house – Hobgoblin – Hans Kloss – Infiltrator –
Jet Boot Jack – Jumpman – Joe Blade 2 – Java Jim – KikStart – Karateka – Koronis Rift – Kissin’ Kousins – L.A. Swat – Lazer Hawk – Laura –
Last V8 – Leapster – LeaderBoard Golf – Little Devil – Lode Runner – Last Guardian – Loco – Master of the Lamp – Mercenary – Mediator – Mr Robot and his Robot Factory – Milk Run – Mule – Mission Shark – Montezuma’s Revenge – Midnight –
Masters of Time – Mirax Force – Necromancer – Ninja – Nuclear Nick – Oil’s Wells – Oillie’s Follies – Operation Blood – O’Reilly’s Mine – Phantasie One – Pitstop 2 – Pitfall 2 – Polar Pierre – Pooyan – Pondering About Max – Plastron – Rainbow Walker –
Raid Over Moscow – Realms of Impossibility – Rescue on Fractulas – River Raid – Rampage – Rally Speedway – Adventure International – Scrolls of Abadon – Shamus – Speed King – Spelunker – Spy Hunter – Spy Vs Spy – Spy Vs Spy 2 Island Caper –
Stealth – Steve Davis Snooker – Summer Games – Strip Poker – Stella Shuttle – Seven Cities of Gold – Saracen – Schreckenstein – Tail of Beta Lyrae – Tapper – Timeslip – Trail Blazer – The Pawn – Trivia Quest – Up’n’Down – Ultima III – Vicky – Who Dares Wins –
Winter Olympiad 88 – War Hawk – Whistler’s Brother – War Games – World Karate Championship – Yoomp! – Zaxxon – Zybex – Zorro – Datasoft Inc.
Book Interviews:
Interview with Justin Whittaker – Interview with Christopher Murray – Interview with Sean Townsend
Interview with Scott Adams – Interview with Jon Williams – Interview with Tony Wilson & Russell Knight
Interview with Steve Englehart – Interview with Noah Falstein – Interview with the Antic Podcast.
Company Profiles:
Datasoft Inc Software – Synapse Software – Broderbund Software
Additional Features:
The Atari 8-bit Game Loading Gallery
Atari 800 machine & Game adverts
Emulating the Atari 8-bit: A Historic Foresight
and amazing Atari 8-bit photography included.
Please read before adding to your basket:
Chose your shipping option when you view the basket.
Shipping: These costs can be expensive, but we want you to receive your book in the best possible condition and with the added security and the option of registered mail with tracking, Unfortunately, costs are out of our control based on our location and the taxes/customs imposed on international shipping, a number of factors come into effect, based on the weight, dimension and the destination of the book will depend on the cost, the packaging is not factored in at all. Also for anyone outside of the regions we have shipping for please contact us for a shipping quote.
Limited Supply back in stock.
Pandemic Red Zones we are unfortunately unable to ship to Mexico, Argentina, Hong Kong, and South America regions, As soon as we can ship to these locations this listing will be removed.
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Larry Anderson –
Just got my book in the mail… and all I can say is WOW! The layouts and artwork pop, the game pages have just enough detail to give you a flavor for what they’re about, and the supporting material (reviews, company background, developer interviews) ties it all together. This is the ultimate Atari 8-Bit coffee table book. Highly recommend you pick one up while they’re still available!
Randy Ginden –
Been looking at this book the last couple of days and I must say, it’s incredible!
A MUST buy for even a casual Atari fan.
So glad I got in on the super early bird price…but would have paid twice what I did!
It’s that good…Thank you Darren Doyle for truly a labor of love!
P. S. The book binding is also top notch!
Jamie Battison –
This is an amazing book, I maybe biased here but watching Darren go through the ups and downs of creating this book was something I will not forget but to actually have one in my possession after that long hard slog, I have to say, wow what a fantastic book it really is.
Huge respect to all those that helped get this done. Thumbs up Darren.
Dmytro –
This book is something special. As a big fan of “everything retro-gaming” related – I’ve backed this project on Kickstarter. And to be honest, I didn’t expect anything special from it. Though it would be another “Some great pictures from some old games, you’ve probably heard about earlier and a bunch of descriptive text” type of encyclopedia, but I was terribly wrong. Unofficial Atari: a Visual History is a glorious example of how you do a proper retro-gaming book: the quality is absolute, the topics covered (history, interviews, reviews, etc.) are made with passion. The illustrations (game screenshots, cover arts, photos) are brilliant. I expected the book to be two times thinner, but this big boy really delivers you with package of nostalgia on Atari era of gaming. Great stuff over here.
Michael Lock (verified owner) –
This book… wow! I (almost) regretted clicking buy (as it was a tad expensive)… until it arrived. All my doubts vanished! It is of the highest quality, and really really big! OVer 400 pages of full color (Atari spelling of ‘Color’ intentional – us brits usually spell ‘Colour’ with an extra U!). It really is a fantastic book. If you had an Atari 400, 800, XL or XE and you loved the games… you need this book on your coffee table!
Bob Brown –
Just have to say the quality and finish on this book is excellent, it is by far the centerpiece of my Atari book collection. It is a robust full colour piece of art! I highly recommend getting one while you can!
Merman –
For any Atari or retrogaming fan, this is a great addition to your bookshelf. Not only are there are a host of game reviews, but fascinating features and interviews give real depth to the story of Atari’s 8-bit computers. I backed the book on Kickstarter and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
David (verified owner) –
This fun and informative book is an absolute treasure. It brought back so many nostalgic memories and reignited my long lost passion for Atari 8-bit computer gaming. I spent hours pouring over the fully colorful illustrated pages. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys gaming!
Jiri Vlasaty (verified owner) –
Absolute amazing!
Andrew Oyston (verified owner) –
A superb resource on the 8-bit series of machines, with excellent production values and brilliant design. I can’t recommend this book enough.
Paul (verified owner) –
Great book and I love the passion that went into it. The artwork is great, as love the fact that some of my favourite lesser-known games are featured. Just a few typo’s and proofreading that needs to be done for the second edition to make it perfect.
Felipe (verified owner) –
Great book, and awesome artwork. One of the must have…
David –
This is the best Atari art book that I have. Covers all of those niche games that I had as a child in great detail, thank you!
Stephen Atherton –
I am more of a ZX Spectrum fan but always used to see stuff about the Atari 8-bit machines in magazines like Computer & Video Games so purchased this to add to my vintage collection of gaming books and am pleased I did. I found the book to be of very high quality from the book cover to the paper and the artwork inside. The author has put together a hugely comprehensive book with perfect artwork, each game receives a lovely full page scan of the cover artwork and then a high quality screen shot plus a really nice and informative review. Although I never owned one of the Atari computers I found a lot of nostalgia to be had from seeing how many of the games I had played on other machines – the likes of Chuckie Egg and Bruce Lee must have been ported onto every machine! All in all a beautiful book even for someone with a casual knowledge of the Atari 8-bit scene like myself. The author should be very proud of what he has created here.
Rick Reynolds –
I was a Commodore 64 guy back in the 80s and never really got my hands on Atari 8-bit computers. So I was very interested in this book as a glimpse into a “might-have-been” alternate past.
This is a gorgeous book. I love flipping through it and reading the little write-ups about the Atari software that I frankly never had. It fits very well with other illustrative books I have for Commodore computers on my shelf. Highly recommended.
Jan Boers (verified owner) –
Fast shipping, well packaged, books came in pristine condition, bursting of illustrations, an orgy of colors, retro gaming porn, flicking through the pages a near orgastic delight.
Bryan –
I just received the book today and love it. High quality, great photos and wonderful writing. It was packed very well and made it to me in the USA safe and sound in perfect condition. Thanks for the excellent service and product!!! 😁