Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines by Raiford Guins

Abstract

Reviewed by: Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines by Raiford Guins Jaroslav Švelch (bio) Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines By Raiford Guins. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. Pp. 244. Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines By Raiford Guins. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. Pp. 244. Video game scholarship has been criticized for its formalist tendencies, which result in the overemphasis on game rules and mechanics as opposed to the sociocultural contexts and the materiality of video game artifacts. Video game histories, too, tend to highlight the contributions of programmers responsible for the code and "game designers" responsible for mechanics and narratives, while overlooking other kinds of labor critical for the development of games. Raiford Guins has long been on a mission to rectify this. In his previous monograph, Game After, he provided (among other things) a detailed analysis of the cover art of Atari 2600 cartridges. Atari Design goes a step further and offers a gripping excursion into the workings of industrial and graphic design teams behind the Atari arcade cabinets of the 1970s and early 1980s. Instead of writing a history of game design, Guins proposes "a design history of video games" rooted in the history of design rather than game studies (p. 11). His unconventional approach is inspired by the work of Don Ihde (Technology and the Lifeword, 1990) and Siegfried Giedion (Mechanization Takes Command, 1948) and stresses the interaction of arcade machines with the bodies of the players and the surrounding environments. Guins is more interested in the surfaces, textures, and materials of the cabinets than what is happening on the screen or in the circuitry; he writes enthusiastically of Plexiglas and carpentry. To him, a cabinet "did not simply contain. It was a medium of communication designed to facilitate user experience, game play context, company identity, product harmony, and location acceptance" (p. 15). The book chronicles the Atari design process based on documents from Atari archives, as well as numerous interviews with the company's industrial and graphic designers. It argues that Atari's thoughtful cabinet design was an essential factor in arcade gaming's spread to a diverse range of locations and its public acceptance. Design, after all, shapes the meanings and perceptions of technological artifacts, as Guins shows by bringing up Eliot Noyes's design work for IBM. The book is divided into five main chapters, with the first tracing Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell's own early efforts to design stylish cabinets that would fit into "sophisticated locations," such as the famous Pong cabinet; its woodgrain veneer signaled respectability and a break from the bad reputation of the Mafia-linked coin-operated amusement industry (p. 46). The core of the book focuses on the heyday of Atari's arcade operations and covers industrial design, graphic design, and location design (chs. 2–4). Recognizing the value of good design, Bushnell hired a group of design [End Page 930] graduates, from nearby San José State University, who gave Atari a significant edge over the competition. Guins paints a picture of a well-organized and professional design process that defies Atari's common media portrayal as a group of rule-breaking hippies; a part of Atari's success can also be attributed to the company's meticulous documentation procedures. A detailed production history of the game Video Pinball (Atari, 1979) reveals not only the complex interplay of various teams but also the interactions between the emerging microcomputer technology and "analog" processes of mechanical engineering and plastic molding. Guins also highlights the design contributions of George Opperman, who designed the Atari logo and led the team that solidified the stylish, forward-looking image of Atari. While Atari's unique cabinet designs later succumbed to growing industry standardization, this standardization is owed in part to Atari's success in making video games ubiquitous. In line with its focus on texture and design, this is a gorgeous publication—printed on glossy paper, with sixteen pages of color images. In one aspect, however, the visual appeal comes at the expense of usability. The book's thin sans serif font, while elegant, makes reading longer stretches of the book tiring for the...