Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System (review)

Racing the Beam is the first of a new publication series entitled "Platform Studies." The authors, Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost (who are also the editors of the series), are highly established videogame researchers and theorists themselves, so it seems only fitting that they wish to start the proceedings with a detailed analysis of the Atari Video Computer System 2600 (or VCS for short).

Although digital media researchers are beginning to investigate how software and code provide useful insights into the cultural use of computers and digital objects, Montfort and Bogost argue that few media theorists actually analyze the platform systems themselves, where the code is programmed and executed.

Studies in computer science and engineering have addressed the question of how platforms are best developed and what is best encapsulated in the platform. Studies in digital media have addressed the cultural relevance of particular software of platforms. But little work has been done on how the hardware and software of platforms influences, facilitates, or constrains particular forms of computational expression

(p. 3).

Racing the Beam is an attempt to do this, and credit goes to the authors, for what makes this book such an appealing read is the unwavering focus on a remarkable piece of limited technology. If one were to compare a platform study of the VCS with its contemporaries, namely, the early microcomputers (Commodore 64, BBC Micro, TRS 80) fitted with BASIC, a microcomputer platform study would require a greater level of complexity (for example the interaction between its hardware components and operating system). For the purposes of a short and engaging read, a platform study into a narrow, restrictive piece of technology such as the VCS (which never even had an operating system) is for the reader an accommodating move.

The book is split into eight chapters, six of which cover seminal games and arcade conversions for the platform: Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall! and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Detailed analyses into these retro-emblematic pieces of game culture are actually prisms that shed light onto the creativity of the respective game developers. The two remaining chapters offer a brief introduction and an extensive conclusion on the VCS's influence on contemporary videogame culture.

The title, Racing the Beam, refers to the centerpiece of the Atari VCS; "The processor is always called the 'brain' of a computer, and, indeed, the MOS Technology 6507 is the Atari VCS's brain. But the custom Television Adapter (TIA) is its heart" (p. 27). The authors do a commendable job of elucidating the components of the VCS in an engaging style without compromising on technicality. This also serves to clarify the historical and economic conditions in which the VCS technology was developed, and it is this rigorous, thorough contextualization that stops the reader from over-scanning through the VCS's technical details. The authors elaborate on specific relationships between all the platform's components in a relatively lucid manner. For instance, the authors dedicate a large portion of the book to the VCS's low memory constraints—a result of the huge manufacturing costs of memory in the late 1970s. The VCS shipped with 128 bytes of RAM and no disk storage; its interchangeable ROM game cartridges shipped with typically 4K of memory (or in some cases, such as the included game Combat, only 2K). Such monumental technological constraints forced developers to wring every last drop of processing space out of the VCS in order to develop games that had some chance of industry success. In this sense, Racing the Beam recounts the ingenuity of designers in coming to terms with the weakness of the platform.

The previously mentioned TIA chip is an early highlight in this regard. Atari developed the TIA, code-named Stella, to power the VCS's sound and graphics, but in reality it actually had...