Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

Video games set the world on fire, and Atari lit the match. This is an intimate view into the dramatic rise and fall of the early video game industry, as seen through the eyes of one of its most iconic pioneers. This book offers eye-opening details and insights, laying bare the issues and dynamics still taking place in modern software companies. A must read for anyone in high tech production, delivered in a compelling narrative, with a fresh voice and unorthodox style. How much fun can you have inventing video games in a creative paradise? What behind-the-scenes corporate intrigue went on while making billions of dollars and launching a new medium? What really caused the video game crash of 1983? ONCE UPON ATARI is the inside story of how it all happened, and how it upended the life of one of its key players. An innovative work from one of the industry's original innovators, delivered in a creative style that mirrors the industry it reveals. It is a compelling tale of innocence, joy, greed, devastation and ultimately redemption. There may be no better summary than what Seamus Blackley, Father of the XBox, says about this book: "Once Upon Atari is, ostensibly, a book about nostalgic videogames; a tale set in a golden era that for many of us represents the dawn of an art form that has irrevocably and powerfully changed our lives and our world. And, as a personal history of these times, it is a moving and emotional trip, filled with interesting details and stories as told by someone so deeply inside them as to have been a part of their essential fabric. But that's not the soul of this book, which is, in its true heart, the journey of a man – a programmer of immense talent – sucked in by a machine of greed and spat out, carelessly, after giving all and everything to it. A journey of learning and redemption, set against a world all about the seemingly magical, effortless creation of fun and joy. This wonderful book is the capstone of that journey, and to read it is to be a part of that odyssey, and to partake in the lessons that it challenges us to learn."