We mentioned this a while back but today being what it is, Atari’s birthday, the official announcement has come along from the writers that the new book, Atari Inc. – Business is Fun is now available for pre-order. It will be released on July 27th. The book covers “The true story behind the company and brand that was synonymous with ‘video games’ in the 1970’s and 80’s, told by the people who were there making history.” That of course will include a bit of history on the arcade side of things.
Here is the press release with more details. The website for the book can be found here.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
ATARI INC. – BUSINESS IS FUN
New book commemorates the 40th anniversary of video game industry’s first corporate titan and the history makers behind the company’s success.
New York, New York – June 27, 2012 — Today, people ask, “Do you play video games?” but in the 70’s and 80’s, people asked, “Do you play ATARI?” The noted video game historian team of Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel answer that question and more in their book, ‘Atari Inc. – Business is Fun’ – a definitive look at the origins and 40 year history of the very first video game industry icon, Atari.
Over seven years in the writing, ‘Atari Inc. – Business Is Fun’ is the TRUE, unvarnished accounting of a brand that became not just a household name, but a cultural phenomenon. Available now for pre-sale via the book’s web site 
(www.ataribook.com), Amazon.com will start fulfilling orders beginning July 27th.
“Our intent was to focus on the behind-the-scenes stories from the people who worked there,” said Goldberg. “’Atari Inc. – Business Is Fun’ goes beyond facts and figures – we wanted to give readers an unparalleled look into what it was like to work at a place that created fun for a living as told by the people who were responsible for Atari’s success.”
Goldberg and Vendel joined forced to compile hundreds of hours of interviews and thousands of original Atari documents they’d acquired, condensing it all into a 300+ page tribute to the founders and employees who created the Atari legacy. ‘Atari Inc. – Business Is Fun’ encapsulates every element of what it was like to work at one of the worlds most influential and innovative electronic entertainment companies of all time.
Vendel elaborates, “Most people associate Atari with the company logo, video games like ‘PONG’ and how revolutionary the company was by bucking the ‘Big Blue’ mold, letting people show up to work in jeans and sandals, but the public at large was never exposed to the hearts and souls that created the company. This book will dispel… and maybe also ‘confirm’ numerous rumors by giving readers that front row, first person experience.”
‘Atari Inc. – Business Is Fun’ also offers an unparalleled look into the inner workings of what it was like to work in Silicon Valley in the 1970’s and 1980’s… and to do that at the most outrageous, innovative company of its time… a company whose sole intent was to create FUN for a living!
About The Authors:
Martin Goldberg: Video game programmer and industry writer veteran of 13 years, former site director of IGN/GameSpy’s ‘ClassicGaming.Com,’ freelancer for Retro Gamer magazine, co-founder of the Midwest Gaming Classic (one of the largest electronic entertainment expos in the United States), co-founder of the Electronic Entertainment Museum – E2M (a non-profit archive preserving the history and artifacts of the video game and home computer industries), member of the International Game Development Association’s (IGDA) Game Preservation SIG (a community for those interested in digital game preservation and history).
Curt Vendel: Entrepreneur, and IT Systems Engineer, self-taught Electrical Engineer, historian, founder and curator of the Atari History Museum (www.atarimuseum.com), valued resource for Atari insight and archival information by Atari, SA., Atari Interactive, numerous research institutions, trade publications and entertainment magazines, television networks and movie studios. Vendel holds a BS in Computer Science.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Book preview: ataribook.com/chapter1preview.pdf
Web: ataribook.com Facebook: facebook.com/syzygycompany Twitter: twitter.com/#!/ataribook
Email: ataribook@gmail.com
EDITORS: For review copies or interview requests, contact:
Loni Reeder, Publicist
loni@lonireeder.com
555 Bryant Street, Suite 362
Palo Alto, CA 94301-1704 USA
Ph: 408-594-3312
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Hi,
Actually the book has a completely equal balance of coin-op and consumer in it. In fact the first several chapters are ALL coin-op related since Atari doesn’t begin to enter the consumer field until work begins on its home pong console in September of 1974.
This book is really all about the employee’s, we go to painstaking detail to show even small things like employee of the month, new hires, promotions, talk about incidents that occur, the culture, after hours gatherings, the way the company was at one point to another, products are mentioned, but really they at times are more the backdrop to the employee and company cultural stories, this is truly a first person view of the inside of Atari all coming directly from the employees that made the products and made the company.
Curt
I want to warn your readers about a potential scam with this. I, like others, have prepaid on Amazon for this book back in July, only for Amazon to tell us the book doesn’t exist. Here it is 4 months later and still no book. It seems this Curt Vendel has a habit of taking people’s money and then not shipping out orders for months or years at a time, if ever.
Just wanted to post an update, the book is now available for immediate sale and delivery:
https://www.createspace.com/3928085
Just want to let everyone know this is hands down the worst book that was ever done for this company. Any one who paid money for it was ripped off.