Atari Inc. Business is Fun

The Atari VCS ‘woodie' was my first step into a hobby which I still enjoy to this day some thirty (God, I'm old) years later, so I was very much looking forward to reading this. Sadly, it was a massive disappointment.

I was expecting great insight into the iconic Atari products and how they were conceived in a time where the company was pretty much a pioneer, trailblazing a whole new form of entertainment with no rivals or equals. Instead it skimped on details, filled reams of text full of confusing techno-babble and whole chapters covering dull managerial conflicts and corporate reshuffles that nobody could possibly care any less about – ‘Business is Fun' indeed.

There were two authors credited with writing the book and it did show as the timeline skipped around with situations and subjects repeated. In places, it felt like a collection of badly written articles cobbled together in a book.

The worst part was that neither of the authors seemed to have read or spell checked their own work at all, or employed a proofreader for that matter. I had a legitimately bought download of the book and yet it was littered with typos, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes – I swear there was at least one misspelling of the word ‘Atari'. It really took me out of the story and made me want to get my teacher's red pen out and correct it. See me after class.

On the plus side, I did like the selection of photographs that accompanied the conclusion of each chapter. They really captured that era when everything was avocado green, wood veneered and dressed in nylon. Though these could also have been presented a lot better – they looked like they were in a child's scrapbook.

This was optimistically labeled ‘Volume 1' and despite its sloppiness, I would be still interested in reading the further history of the company, though this time with a editor firmly cracking the whip.