Art of Atari

For nearly 45 years, Atari has been creating consoles and games to capture the public imagination, using original artwork and conceptual designs from talented individuals. As a kid I remember being captivated by these now classic examples of advertising and art emblazoned across the front of every cartridge, in the pages of my comic books and in glossy magazines. This big, beautiful book is the work of a fellow electronic golden age fan, who tracked down these somewhat unsung heroes, attributing artists to the images that they created such as Hiro Kimura (Pac Man) and even Ralph McQuarrie, best known perhaps for his work on Star Wars, Close Encounters and E.T. but shown here for his amazing work on Atari's Vanguard game. This is a great find for anyone with even a passing interest in video games, to see the massive amount of trailblazing done by the men and women of Atari in the analog age, far before Adobe Photoshop, Quark or even modern and bitmap typography. There are sketches, colour studies, and plenty of rough drafts alongside full colour splash pages plus informative artist spotlight interviews. A true collector's piece.

Beautiful illustrations and an accurate and deep understanding of the subject matter by the author combine to make a book that has far exceeded my expectations. The hundreds of illustrations are simply wonderful, but his is more than just an account of the 'art' of Atari - it's an insightful look into the makings and workings of what became a global phenomenon.

Ok lets start with the truth I am 48, English living in Ireland, a computer science teacher and go a bit gaga for tech, especially 80s stuff. So early 80s (81-82) I would have been 9ish, my mate Jy Stedman had an ATARI 2600 - I had NEVER seen anything like it, too young to hit the arcades alone this box of treats served up everything. I lived in the broken glass/dog s**t streets of Luton (Chatham) JY lived in the lovely leafy lush area of Capstone and i would take on that 20-25 min walk just for some ATARI. I remember the covers SO well. and as the foreword beautifully explainid, perfectly , they were PART of the escapism, they played their part in us handing over our Paper round money and taking us 'away'. I remember the Parker brothers stuff especially well, Spiderman and the Star Wars Games, but Super Breakout (the space man) Missile Command, Combat, Night Driver, War Lords SO MANY that made sticking that cartridge in and flicking that switch massively exciting. NOW due to the hardware, the game rarely lived upto the cover but it didnt really matter !! as another look at that cover and we were seduced (...until Commodore 64 came along of course ;0) ) A wonderful wonderful wonderful book full of stories, decisions and the faces and names that brought these images and logo to life. ...and as a 48 yr old man, offered up 5th generation gaming , im a bit 'meh' ... I but i remember them ATARI games like they were yesterday. I will always be grateful and thankful of that

I can't praise this book enough. Superbly researched, informative and beautifully designed. A must for fans of graphic design, illustration, product design, video games, pop culture and more! Don't think - just buy it (but there are cheaper options than through Amazon).

Just a beautiful look back at a treasured bygone age. Really lovingly put together.

There has certainly been a lot of work put in to this book and it brought back a lot of happy memories, just wish it contained more on the 400/800 computer games which I think in general had better artwork and were certainly better games.

Amazing product, I can't recommend it highly enough. Everything is so high quality and in amazing detail, it is so much more than a bunch of retro pictures. I loved it so much I happily bought the Kindle version as well to support the author and so I can have this amazing title on the go. If you love retro Atari, you will love this book! More please. Note to author - would love a 2600 Activision book...

The art in this book takes me back. As much as it is a trip down memory lane it also speaks volumes about how illustration was more porlific in another time. A keystone in videogame art as much as Atari is in video game consoles. It can proudly sit on a coffee table as well as on a drawing table for inspiration.

Valeu cada centavo, os 200 conto mais bem gastos da minha vida. o livro tem uma qualidade impecável, qualidade das scams muito muito alta e muito bem escrito. Tim Lapetino se encarregou de ir atrás dos artistas das capas dos jogos, já que naquela época não era mt comum as empresas darem os créditos para quem fez os jogos e etc (tanto que daí que surge o primeiro Easter egg de todos o "criado e escrito por warren robinett"). por mais que vc nn entenda mt inglês, só folhar as páginas vendo as belas artes já vale a pena. mas tente ler ele, usando o tradutor ou o google lens que traduz em tempo real vai valer super a pena o desafio

The Art of Atari is one of those books that I've dreamt about for a very long time. Having grown up in the hey-day of Atari and the 2600 console, I always loved the artwork that graced the various game boxes, advertisements, posters, etc. I always wanted to have a big book that collected all these images together, and I'm so happy that Tim Lapetino made my dream a reality. This mighty tome is indeed impressive - packed full of all that great colourful artwork, with lots of well-researched facts and interviews, interesting "behind-the-scenes" details, and even a look back at prototype products that never came to be. Everything about this book oozes quality: from the thick paper used, to the reproduction of the artwork itself (especially those from the original paintings), it's all first-rate. The book itself is a large hardback that feels solid and sturdy, and it even has one of those little string bookmarks sewn into it... a small detail, but it just goes to show how much thought and care went into the production of this work. I can't thank Tim Lapetino, his collaborators, or the people at Dynamite enough for bringing us this wonderful piece of nostalgia. Of course, credit also has to be given to all those that originally created these wonderful images and designs - it's gratifying to know that their efforts are forever preserved in this beautiful, high-quality book. Highly recommended - not just for fans of Atari, but for any fans of great artwork and design.

This is truly a fantastic book, and an amazing value for the treasures it contains. After making a recent pilgrimage to the American Classic Arcade Museum, I’ve had a renewed interest in arcade and vintage console machines. People forget just how ground-breaking and influential Atari’s game and industrial design was over a generation of kids. This was a company unrestrained by finance, precedent, or expectations. At Atari, everything was on the table, and the misfires are as intriguing as the successes. In an era where most homes didn’t have or hadn’t even heard of a “personal computer,” where Neuromancer and The Matrix were years or decades away, computers and video games had a magical lure about them. These were The Mysteries of the 21st century. This was the time of Tron, pre-internet, pre-Pixar, pre-cell phone, pre-Warcraft, when new digital technology was materializing almost faster than we could figure out what it meant or how to use it. Atari games (and their contemporaries) were a social and imagination-firing activity – the world of the game was only partly on the screen. The genius of the appeal was how these games kept firing your imagination long after you unplugged and were engaged in a completely different activity. The skill of Atari’s art and design personnel made this magic happen. Art of Atari captures these memories perfectly, treating them respect, framing them, curating them. This book is a trove of information from the era, containing not just well-known stuff like the E.T. debacle (debunked, by the way in these pages), but going into interesting trivia even 80’s junkies like me only have a passing knowledge of. Graphic art? Fine Art? Industrial design? Even fonts (yes – the freakin’ box fonts!) are all represented here, in spades. This book is a boon of pre-Illustrator, pre-Photoshop, old-school analog art and methods. It’s invaluable as a time capsule, educational resource, and nostalgia device. My only quibble – if it can be called one – is the underrepresentation of Atari’s vast number of arcade machines. By covering all things Atari, this book admirably covers a breadth of detail, but it does so by sacrificing scrutiny of Atari’s design and social influence outside the home. Perhaps for another book..? A similar treatment of the “arcade era” is long overdue. But all in all – Well worth the wait. The reign of Atari is long past, but I hope this renews an interest in the art itself – many of these iconic cover pieces (Asteroids, Vanguard, Star Raiders, Missile Command, I could go on and on) deserve reproduction release.

Qué puedo decir, el libro está perfecto, desde que anunciaron su salida lo había estado esperando y apenas se me hizo tenerlo, la edición está espectacular y los colores y acabados están excelentes. Si eres fan de los videojuegos y del arte en general es una excelente compra. Yo recuerdo que cuando era niño veía las cajas y las portadas de los cartuchos de Atari con batallas épicas, explosiones, con caballeros en armadura, con exploradores rodeados de peligro y te imaginabas miles de cosas, ya luego ponías el juego y eran unos cuadritos rebotando de un lado a otro, pero de cualquier manera en mi imaginación eran aquellas ilustraciones épicas, creo que Atari era algo equivalente a leer, tus ojos percibían algo pero en tu imaginación terminabas por completar la historia; para aquellos que nos fascinamos por esas ilustraciones este es un libro imprescindible. Es también un excelente regalo para los fans de videojuegos, pero para aquellos que todavía les tocó el Atari; si no no tiene mucho valor, a menos que seas un fan del arte de sci-fi, en ese caso recomiendo muchísimo (también) el libro "Hardware: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss", los dos juntos han de estar como en $1,000 MXN y valen la pena.

Eindelijk was dit boek weer beschikbaar en gelijk besteld. Erg mooi boek. Wat mij het meeste aantrok zijn de illustraties van het artwork. Enige minpunt was weer de verzending door Amazon, boek is slecht verpakt en daardoor beschadigt aangekomen. Hoeken ingedeukt. Dit is voor mij wel een reden om dit soort (dure) boeken liefst niet meer bij Amazon te kopen.