Racing the Beam
#869 of 2,654 all-time
Racing the Beam
Ian Bogost, Nick Montfort
8 people recommended it in 5 threads, 2014–2022.
What people on Hacker News said
Its about how hard it was to program the Atari 2600 and the clever tricks required to get the most out of the machine.
If you're at all interested in retro game consoles and especially the clever tricks old programmers used to push these systems to their limits, it's an incredibly fun dive.
Is a good read about the Atari 2600 and how the devs were able to fight within the limitations of 1970s and 1980s hardware to develop a gaming platform.
"Racing the Beam", on the early Atari; notable for nailing both the techological and sociological sides of the games it studies.
See also "Racing the beam" about the Atari 2600; part sociology, part very accessible deep technical explanation.
Where it comes up
- Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books? 2020 · 3 recommendations
- Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study? 2022 · 2 recommendations
- Ask HN: Fun Tech Book Recommendations? 2019 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What are the best books you've read that few others have? 2017 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What are your favorite books? I'm bored 2014 · 1 recommendation