Art Of Atari Book

Product Description

Top Reviews

Probably the best coffee table book I have ever seen.
by prints-to-go (5 out of 5 stars)
October 25, 2016

This book deserves 10 stars!!! Just got it today after I pre-ordered it and I really wasn't expecting too much...boy was I wrong. It's not just Atari cover art but some pretty detailed information from the artist on some of the covers. Images of unused covers along with pencil and color studies done by the artists on some of the covers. Fantastic...I mean fantastic scans of the art. I mean I could go on but if you love art it's a must...if you love Atari it's a must. The perfect coffee table book and one I won't be putting down for a while.

Oh, Also there is also small bios on the artist and a quick history of the Atari consoles with some industrial design art of the models.

This is how you do a Art of book! Major props to Tim Lapetino on putting this together.
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Nostalgia never looked so good!
by Holt Slack (5 out of 5 stars)
October 28, 2016

I received my Atari 2600 for Christmas of 1978 and spent the next 4 years entrenched in everything Atari - from the games, to the manuals that were included, to the boxes themselves. Spending all of my spare change in the arcade during the days, I'd come home and play my Atari for hours before bedtime: Dodge 'Em, Night Driver, and Combat were my first. Then came the onslaught of arcade conversions; Space Invaders, Missile Command, Asteroids. Going to the mall or department store meant another chance for me to be able to look over those wonderful boxes and stare at the artwork hinting at the wonder that they contained. This book takes the reader back to those days and the overall magic and wonder of the early home videogame years. It's more than just pictures of box art - it's stories, personal accounts, history, and informative facts about the early world of Atari. This book is a must buy if, like me, you were in your "prime" years during the late 70's and early 80's. It is going to find a permanent place on my coffee table and will be a source for conversation for many years to come. Thanks to everyone who put this book together!
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An excellent book stuffed with many photos, pictures, and descriptions.
by ASP (5 out of 5 stars)
October 26, 2016

Excellent book. This book is stuffed with many photos, pictures, and descriptions. There is a History section with photos of the people that worked at Atari. There is a section containing many games, the artwork used for the covers and also a screenshot of the gameplay. The screenshot is small and it would have been nicer to have the screenshot be double the size. There are photos of the consoles, and descriptions about them.The book measures 11.25" H x 10" W x 1.125" D. It's a hardcover book. The binding seems to be strong and sturdy and seems like it will last over the years. I've attached several photos with samples pages from the book. The book contains 351 pages.
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This is truly a fantastic book, and an amazing value for the treasures ...
by Eric E (5 out of 5 stars)
November 10, 2016

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.
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Spectacular Walk Down Memory Lane
by James Felix (5 out of 5 stars)
November 1, 2016

Those of us old enough to have started gaming on the Atari 2600 remember that those graphics tended to be somewhat...underwhelming. Playing classic games like Adventure, Combat, Circus Atari and Superman it helped if your imagination could fill in the blanks, and nothing helped that process along like the packaging your game came in. The art on the boxes and instruction manuals laid the foundation for the worlds that the Atari's processor could never actually display on screen.

I've been saying for years that I'd love a collection of that art in a book and I'm thrilled that someone finally did it. Anyone who spent the late 70s hooked on these games should love seeing the high quality reproductions of the art and learning some history about the talented folks who made them all happen. If you're one of us early Gen-Xers this book is for you.
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Absolutely worth it!
by K. Phillips (5 out of 5 stars)
April 7, 2019

Originally I bought this book because I'm into retro art and was looking forward to reading a little about the artists and looking at the various art pieces from the cartridge boxes (and hopefully some sketches and concepts).

I was pleasantly surprised this book was *full* of great material! There's a bit of everything about Atari's history - the consoles (including conceptual stuff), home computers, arcade machines, the hardware design, packaging design and production process, advertising, concepts for the Atari logo design itself, some sprite concepts for games like Dig Dug and a *whole lot more*.

Plenty of reading along with plenty of visuals on every page. Its a fantastic book and I can't recommend it enough.
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GREAT STUFF!!
by Jon L. Capogrossi (5 out of 5 stars)
November 2, 2016

EXCELLENT retrospective of Atari's very memorable graphic design and art....MOSTLY focuses one the home games, unfortunately not too many pictures of the Arcade Cabinet side art, but the entire history of all of the home game systems is very well represented here- Also some spotlights on the artists and many REALLY COOL pieces of art that few got to see...A great book for any fan of classic early 80's video games
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From an industry insider, this book is nostalgia overload and educational to those who didn't grow u
by PK Digital Imaging (5 out of 5 stars)
December 9, 2016

Lots of great memories in this book. I remember as a kid drooling over the box art for the numerous Atari 2600 game boxes wanting this one and that one and this one and that one repeat. The book even covers the industrial design process at Atari showcasing the 2600, 5200, 7200 and the computer line up as well. This is a great book if you are truly a retro gamer and grew up in the era. This is the magical stuff that inspired me to where I am today, a Lead Designer in the game industry doing the things I love and creating this kind of magic for the next generation. Great book, great read and tons of nostalgia!
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Great visuals and history of Atari and the 2600
by BryanBPH (5 out of 5 stars)
July 17, 2017

I can only imagine how many hours I spent back in the day on my Atari 2600. The idea of being able to bring the arcade experience into your home was just incredible at the time. Sure the games themselves weren't anywhere near as good as the arcade versions, but Atari had a way of marketing the game to help immerse you in the experience, which often allowed my teenage mind to see past the low res graphics and limited audio quality. The artwork on the boxes, the game manuals, the stories to pull you into the game just made it an incredible experience all around. This book really brings all of that back into focus, and gives me much more perspective than I ever had about much of the behind the scenes that made all of that magic happen. At the time, I didn't care about any of it, as I only wanted the next cool game for my 2600. Now that I'm older, it's been a wonderful experience reading this book and taking a walk back down memory lane. Great Job!
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Atari Nostalgia
by over 25 (4 out of 5 stars)
May 16, 2017

I worked at Atari for a few years in the 70's and 80's and this book has alot of Atari art that I remember and some that I don't. It's a very nice book with good info on the artists and wonderful illustrations. I do wish it had more pinball art but that division faded away. I did buy a Middle Earth pinball and, of course, have the tv plug in game system and cartridges as well as Video Music. I have most of the pinball backglasses so I have Atari art displayed in the rec room. Very pleased to find this book.

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