Atari Inc. Business is Fun Book Review

[nosweargamer]

 

At about 800 pages long, with over 200 pages of Black & White Pictures, 2012's Atari Inc.: Business is Fun goes over the history of Atari from conception until the sale to Jack Tamiel in 1984. I did a video review of it, which you can see above, but here are some basic pros and cons about the book.

 

Pros:

• Lots of great pictures!
• Covers a lot of the history of Atari beyond the games
• Fast read for 800 pages

 

Cons:

• Pictures are all B & W (even on Kindle I believe) and some pictures could've used captions
• Sometimes, but not often too technical for my tastes
• Nolan Bushnell did not/would not take part in the book and is painted is a poor,but possibly true light. Feels a little incomplete without his side of the story.
• Even though used mostly in quotes, I would've preferred if they cut down on the profanity and possibly widen the audience of the book.
• There are typos. They didn't bother me, but some readers can be turned off by that.

 

Overall I enjoyed the book, especially the pictures and reading about the least talked about aspects of Atari. 

New copies go for $30, used can be $20 and up and the kindle copy is $12.99.

http://www.amazon.com/Atari-Inc-Business-Curt-Vendel/dp/0985597402

 

There has been discussion of an Atari Corp follow up (Business is War) and a updated version of Business is Fun, but lately I haven't heard much about either of these projects, so they may be in limbo at this moment.