Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines

Book Description

Drawing from deep archival research and extensive interviews, Atari Design is a rich, historical study of how Atari’s industrial and graphic designers contributed to the development of the video game machine.

Innovative game design played a key role in the growth of Atari – from Pong to Asteroids and beyond – but fun, challenging and exciting game play was not unique to the famous Silicon Valley company. What set it apart from its competitors was innovation in the coin-op machine’s cabinet. Atari did not just make games, it designed products for environments.

With “tasteful packaging”, Atari exceeded traditional locations like bars, amusement parks and arcades, developing the look and feel of their game cabinets for new locations such as fast food restaurants, department stores, country clubs, university unions, and airports, making game-play a ubiquitous social and cultural experience. By actively shaping the interaction between user and machine, overcoming styling limitations and generating a distinct corporate identity, Atari designed products that impacted the everyday visual and material culture of the late 20th century.

Design was never an afterthought at Atari.

中文：

书名：Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines

根据深入的档案研究和广泛的采访，他雅达利设计这是一本丰富的历史研究，讲述了雅达利的工业和平面设计师如何为视频游戏机的发展做出贡献。

创新的游戏设计对雅达利的成长起到了关键作用–来自美国Pong收件对象小行星但有趣、挑战和刺激的游戏并不是这家著名的硅谷公司独有的。它与竞争对手的不同之处在于投币机机柜的创新。雅达利不仅制作游戏，还为环境设计产品。

凭借“有品味的包装”，Atari超越了酒吧、游乐园和拱廊等传统场所，为快餐店、百货商店、乡村俱乐部、大学联盟和机场等新场所开发了游戏柜的外观和感觉，使玩游戏成为一种无处不在的社会和文化体验。通过积极塑造用户和机器之间的互动，克服造型限制并产生独特的企业形象，雅达利设计的产品影响了20世纪末的日常视觉和物质文化。

在雅达利，设计从来都不是事后才想到的。