Zap!

Well, I just read Zap! The Rise and Fall of Atari by Scott Cohen, and I'm quite impressed. The book was (obviously) about the history of the Atari corporation. It chronicled their astounding rise from humble beginnings, and yet managed to spiral back down to the bottom of the barrel. I was quite surprised about what helped pull them down, such as the way that ColecoVision and IntelliVision, the way they released 'modules', allowing their consoles to be compatible with the cartridges of the Atari 2600.

                                                               ^Behold...ColecoVision!^

         ^IntelliVision, not too shabby either^                                ^IntelliVision Controller- pretty impressive!^

 

    ^Whoops, what is this old thing?^

But, I noticed some things that sort of indicated what future was lying in front of video games. It was believed that games were going to be a 'passing fad', and that the record industry- not the recording industry, I mean those big round chunks of vinyl- were going to outlast video games. Little did they realize what was coming next! Yet, despite the failed predictions, I can still recommend this book. It explains just how certain companies behaved, and would explain alot about the industry today. I give it 3.75 stars, out of 5.