Where new design goes to blossom and lost design goes to live again.
Chris Burns on February 4, 2010 7:34 PM
The shortened path to this post is http://wfdj.us/khdhx

world famous design junkies atari manual collection

Welcome yourself back to the ATARI 2600, one of the definitive moments in both home entertainment and interactive communication in our modern world. In these early years (1970′s, 80′s) of video game distribution, there was a bit of a learning curve. What should be done about advertising and branding these games we’ve got to sell, said the interactive masters of the day, the games are fun, but there’s no way we can use these little pixels as the covers of their packages! ZAP! There was a split. In this age came the strange world of describing not what was actually in the game,* but what you were supposed to imagine while you were playing it. *In most cases, that is.

Lets be straight up about this right now.

This gallery post is packed up full of ATARI game manual covers from the 2600, 5200 and nothing else. In this one product you will find the first voice of the game producer as spoken directly to the interactive-home-entertainment user.

This is inside the box.

Now take a look around in this gallery, and see many models. Along with the magnificent paintings and illustrations came several setups that lots of different games used. What you see above is an ever-so-slightly modified version of one of the more common layouts used by lots and lots of ATARI 2600 games. These black cover manuals have the title above, a picture in the middle, and copyright information below. Same font, same everything. It was embellishments that made the manual.

Notice then, will you, some of the impact and staying power lots of these books had. Take Donkey Kong for example. Look at that! It’s stayed basically the same graphics for hundreds of years! Then peel your eyeballskins back and experience the majesty of space travel with Space Shuttle – A Journey Into Space. And then there was Gas Hog, whose battlefield can only be entered one player at a time. Don’t worry, no Pitfalls here, only quality connections.

And for you Kevins in the audience, there’s Bounty Bob Strikes Back, which instead of being a book-type manual, folds out into a poster.

Also this sort of collection relies heavily on contributions from those with much more invested in the game. I’d like first to thank Atari Age, without a doubt the most complete and astoundingly devoted ATARI website this side of the internet. Go there for ANYTHING you might need concerning the ATARI phenomenon. Then let’s get into this list of other contributors: IHateMyScreenName, Retro Dude, Joe Kral, ewitch, SpaceInvaders, nickstone333, amster girl, Metal Misfit, djdac, DJ Romarcade, Amster, Meringues, Dionisio, PaperGhost, ZawTowers, Dimic, Hustler, John Mundy, Old Man Winter, Semper Novus, JBCurio, Willceau, Kuilman, Mr Phillip, and Old Man Musings.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies arcade category.

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Categories: Advertisements, Arcade, Ephemera, Experimental, Illustration, Outer Space, Pizza Party
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