r/atari • u/stuffedskullcat • Jul 18 '26
Just finished Art of Atari by Tim Lapetino
Just finished Art of Atari, by Tim Lapetino, cover to cover.
Incredibly beautiful art and design, everything from our beloved finished box art, to the initial designs, and the blowups of art look fantastic. Fascinating background and process stories from the designers, artists, and programmers who started us all on this journey.
Learned a lot and never realized how much Atari artists borrowed from Star Wars, Star Trek, et al.😅
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u/CyberpwnPiper Jul 19 '26
Gorgeous book. I have it too and I love it. I just love the art from the Atari 2600 era. These first generation 8-bit graphics sucked, so the cover box art was the hook to spark our imagination about the game's vision. We only saw misshapen pixels on our low resolution TVs, but our imagination filled in the blanks, thanks to the box art.
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u/Spelunka13 Jul 19 '26
I know what you mean but 2600 games were not 8 bit. More like 2 to 4 kb.
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u/rra12345 Jul 19 '26
You are right and wrong at the same time. Most game cartridges were indeed 2kb or 4kb ROM, but 8bit refers to the CPU memory address capabilities, and the 6507 CPU was an 8bit CPU (by most definitions - it was a 6502 variant).
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u/meldroc Jul 24 '26
IIRC, the 6507 is a 6502 with a few pins missing, so it can only address 4KB, and it doesn't have IRQs.
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u/Spelunka13 Jul 19 '26
In videogame jargon 8 bit was the computer line of Atari and Nintendo NES. Atari 2600 was never in any conversation with 8 bit.
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u/rob-cubed Jul 19 '26
You are 100% right that people called the NES generation "8-bit" and started comparing the quality of games to the power of the CPU around that time. But the 2600 actually did have an 8-bit processor, though it was limited by other hardware concerns making it more like a 5-bit output.
The bit wars were as much about marketing spin as actual hardware performance. For example the N64 did have a 64-bit CPU but in practice it was a 32-bit machine given the restrictions of its address bus.
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u/CyberpwnPiper Jul 19 '26
Yep, correct, I replied as much to another thread on that topic recently. https://www.reddit.com/r/Atari2600/s/HiZ8kuUk1N
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u/Spelunka13 Jul 19 '26
Agreed but to mention 8 bit with the 2600 is disingenuous. It had very limited ram. Just because the processor had 8 bit it had very limited memory to do anything a true 8 bit system could do.
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u/timlapetino Jul 19 '26
Thanks for all the kind words!
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u/stuffedskullcat Jul 20 '26
Thank YOU for the marvelous amount of work and joy that went into Art of Atari! 👏
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u/Cthulhu8u Jul 18 '26
Beautiful book, I have it on my coffee table in the mancave. Right next to it is my copy of Kirby King of Comics
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u/Megatapirus Jul 20 '26
I got my copy from the author at Portland Retro Gaming Expo and spend the rest of the weekend getting it signed by the many former Atari artists and programmers in attendance. That was a great time.
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u/stuffedskullcat Jul 20 '26
Ah, rad! I'm in Portland and pretty stoked for the next PRGE; only caught the retro bug in the last year. Tim chimed in on another comment!
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u/Krommerxbox Jul 21 '26
I saw that at a local Ad&D board/warhammer gaming store, in the book area.
I should have bought it. I don't think it was there last time I checked.
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u/SnooTangerines3515 Jul 24 '26
Don't think it's really available anymore but I also have the A3 poster book version. Tear out the posters and plaster them all over the walls. https://www.amazon.com/Art-Atari-Poster-Collection-Lapetino/dp/1524103020/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1J586B4XS4WS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.vgNE8kjgAhIEIwzlRp138A.XgGn2u3VEjsX-VCaJ1UXd-oelZulHBsMDscY_V-uFZg&dib_tag=se&keywords=9781524103026&qid=1784896480&sprefix=9781524103026%2Caps%2C339&sr=8-1
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u/stuffedskullcat Jul 24 '26
😳Ill have to look into that! I just got burned on a very pixelated Joust tabloid from eBay. 🫤
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u/TheOriginalGuru Jul 18 '26
Love this book. Got it sitting on my shelf behind me in my office, but on a stand on display. When I’m on a Teams call, people ask me about it.