the louisiana state university press ( lsu press ) is a university press that was founded in 1935 .

it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books .

lsu press is a member of the association of american university presses .

lsu press publishes approximately 70 new books each year and has a backlist of over 2000 titles .

primary fields of publication include southern history , southern literary studies , louisiana and the gulf south , the american civil war and military history , roots music , southern culture , environmental studies , european history , foodways , poetry , fiction , media studies , and landscape architecture .

in 2010 , lsu press merged with the southern review , lsu 's literary magazine , and the company now oversees the operations of this publication .

louisiana state university press

germano , william . from dissertation to book . chicago : university of chicago press , 2005 .
derricourt , robin . an author’s guide to scholarly publishing . princeton : princeton university press , 1996 .
luey , beth . handbook for academic authors , 4th ed . new york : cambridge university press , 2002 .
——— , ed . revising your dissertation : advice from leading editors . berkeley : university of california press , 2004 .
abouharb , m . rodwan . 2008 . review of state repression and the domestic democratic peace . by christian davenport” ( cambridge university press , 2007 . ) journal of politics 70 : 563 - 565 .
lsu press is one of the oldest and most prestigious academic publishers in the south . in addition to scholarly monographs , we also publish general interest books about louisiana and the south .
c . c . lockwood was born in kansas city , missouri , in the late 1940’s and grew up in fort smith , arkansas , where he graduated from southside high school . he moved to louisiana in 1967 to attend louisiana state university , where he received his b . s . in finance in 1971 . during his early years in louisiana , he fell in love with the state’s swampy backcountry , and he abandoned plans for a career in business as soon as he graduated . he taught himself photography and headed for wild places , determined to make a living capturing images of nature . much of this time has been on a houseboat .
——— . getting it published : a guide for scholars and anyone else serious about serious books . chicago : university of chicago press , 2001 .
atchafalaya houseboat , photographs by c . c . lockwood , lsu press , 2006
the university of illinois press was formally established in 1918 , although prior to that time several monographs bore the imprint university studies . the first of these appeared in 1900 ; written by daniel kilham dodge , it was titled abraham lincoln : the evolution of his literary style .
the press ' s initial publications in 1918 were a history of the first half - century of the university ( founded in 1867 ) and another study of lincoln . the first director of the press was harrison e . cunningham , who also served as secretary of the university ' s board of trustees during his thirty - year tenure . most of the books published under his direction were monographs by faculty members and recent doctoral students , issued as university studies in social science , language and literature , biological science , and medical science . the functions of the press also included the operation of the university ' s printing division and mailing center , both of which remained under the press ' s jurisdiction until the early 1970s .
the university press of kentucky has a dual mission—the publication of academic books of high scholarly merit in a variety of fields and the publication of significant books about the history and culture of kentucky , the ohio valley region , the upper south , and appalachia . the press is the statewide nonprofit scholarly publisher for the commonwealth of kentucky , operating under the university of kentucky libraries and serving all kentucky state - sponsored institutions of higher learning as well as five private colleges and kentucky ' s two major historical societies .
harman , eleanor , et al . , eds . the thesis and the book : a guide for first - time academic authors , 2nd ed . toronto : university of toronto press , 2003 .
established at louisiana state university , the southern review immediately became a literary tastemaker . the launch of the southern review came about
on a bright sunday afternoon in late february , 1935 ,
when louisiana state university’s president drove his black cadillac to robert penn warren’s house in baton rouge to invite him , his wife , and their friend albert erskine on a drive to discuss creating a magazine of
distinctive character and quality .
cleanth brooks and charles w . pipkin were consulted ; both joined the editorial staff . the southern review ’s first series ran 1935 to 1942 before closing due to the war . in 1965 , the journal was revived under the editorship of lewis p . simpson and donald e . stanford , who launched the second series to great acclaim . lsu press became the southern review ’s publisher in 2011 , allowing the journal to undertake new initiatives , such as reaching readers through a digital version in addition to the print quarterly .
abouharb , m . rodwan and david cingranelli . 2007 . human rights and structural adjustment . cambridge : cambridge university press . choice outstanding academic title 2009 - winner . replication dataset & do file ( zip ) .
founded in 1897 at the university of maine , phi kappa phi was created to honor excellence in all academic disciplines .
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this website uses cookies as well as similar tools and technologies to understand visitors ' experiences . by continuing to use this website , you consent to columbia university ' s usage of cookies and similar technologies , in accordance with the columbia university website cookie notice .
in 1979 richard l . wentworth was promoted to director ; he had previously directed the louisiana state university press and had served as associate director and editor - in - chief at illinois since 1970 . during his tenure the press became a leading publisher in american social history , with strong series in african american history , women ' s history , immigration history , sports history , and particularly labor and working - class history . the most successful book in the series blacks in the new world is black leaders of the twentieth century ( 1982 ) , edited by john hope franklin and series editor august meier . charles joyner ' s down by the riverside : a south carolina slave community ( 1984 ) has sold more than 40 , 000 copies—an astonishing quantity for a scholarly monograph .
abouharb , m . rodwan . 2007 . review of democracy and war : institutions , norms , and the evolution of international conflict . by david , l . rousseau . ” ( stanford university press , 2005 ) . journal of conflict studies xxvii : 1 .
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a serendipitous university of illinois connection brought the press its greatest income - producing book . thunder below ! the uss barb revolutionizes submarine warfare ( 1992 ) , by admiral eugene b . fluckey , was completely subsidized by an officer on this submarine who was a graduate of the u of i . the press also licensed film rights to this exciting world war ii saga , and it has become a bestselling ebook .
ala offers thanks to the spectrum scholarship jury for their work in selecting the 2017 - 2018 spectrum scholars : chair twanna hodge , information literacy and collection development librarian , university of the virgin islands ; vernica downey , metadata librarian - houghton library , harvard university ; brenda linares , outreach and liaison librarian - university of north carolina ; harvey long , graduate student - university of wisconsin - madison ; rebecca martin , collections strategist and scholarly communications librarian - monroe c . gutman library , harvard graduate school of education ; kate rojas , librarian - walter m . senkow elementary school , glenolden , pa ; yasmeen shorish , data services coordinator , assoc . professor - james madison university ; melanie toledo , library manager , ak - chin indian community ; and patricia valdovinos , librarian , yolo county library .
the latest in a series of occasional profiles of poetry publishers . these questions were answered by marykatherine callaway , the director of lsu press .
with the arrival of willis g . regier as director in 1999 and joan catapano as associate director and editor - in - chief in 2000 , the press broadened its list while continuing to build upon prior strengths . vibrant lists and series in communications and media studies , film studies , african american studies , and women ' s studies , as well as multivolume documentary series focusing on the lives and works of margaret sanger and jane addams , indicate the press ' s long - standing devotion to social history and women ' s studies . from spring 2000 to winter 2010 the press led the history cooperative , initially developed in partnership with the american historical association , the organization of american historians , and the national academies press , to feature easily searchable electronic content from more than twenty notable history journals , hosted by the u of i press under the supervision of electronic publisher paul arroyo and his colleagues .
organizations based in california , new york state , as well as in atlanta , chicago , detroit , houston , seattle , new orleans , tucson , and washington d . c . , are welcome to apply for support from the readings & workshops program for their literary events .
due to the number of poetry manuscripts currently under consideration , we are not accepting new poetry submissions until october 2018 . please check back then . thanks for your interest in lsu press .
wildlife photographer c . c . lockwood has lived and worked in fragile ecosystems whose preservation shapes his artistry . through words and images , he has captured the unique sense of space in wild places as diverse as louisiana swampland and the rugged back country of the american west . his work has earned him international acclaim as an environmental artist , including the sierra club’s ansel adams award for conservation photography . lockwood’s work continues to reflect changes and perils in the natural world . his eleventh book , marsh mission , is part of a years - long effort by lockwood to bring attention to the crisis of vanishing gulf coast wetlands . his newest book , louisiana wild , the lands protected and restored by the nature conservancy , portrays the good work this organization is doing on over 280 , 000 acres of land in our state . c . c . said , “i felt like a kid in a candy store , when i started this project , for i got to visit swamps , lakes , marshes , prairies and oyster reefs form the arkansas border to the grand isle wetlands . ”
if we wish to consider your proposal further , we will ask to see the entire manuscript . initially the manuscript will be considered in - house . if we agree that the work has potential for our list , we will notify you and send the manuscript to outside anonymous readers for review . the review process normally takes four to six months . all positively reviewed manuscripts must be approved by the university press committee before we can proceed toward publication .
fiction proposals should include a cover letter , a one - page summary of the work , a brief sample from the work , and a current resume . lsu press does not accept fiction publication inquires via email .
abouharb , m . rodwan , and david cingranelli . 2005 . “when the world bank says yes : determinants of structural adjustment lending , ” in gustav ranis , james raymond vreeland , and stephen kosack ( eds . ) globalization and the nation state : the impact of the imf and the world bank . routledge . pp 204 - 230 .
a major step in the development of the press occurred with the 1949 appointment of wilbur schramm as director . a prominent scholar in mass communications , schramm founded the institute for communications research and served as dean of the college of communications . schramm developed a strong list in communications , highlighted by the mathematical theory of communication , by claude e . shannon and warren weaver , and four theories of the press , by fred s . siebert , theodore peterson , and schramm . both volumes have gone back to press more than twenty times , attesting to their status as enduring backlist classics . the mars project , in which scientist wernher von braun laid out the potential for space travel , was published in 1953 , several years before sputnik .
lsu press does not consider unrevised ph . d . dissertations . considerable differences exist between a dissertation and a book , and even the best dissertation will need to be revised before being accepted for publication . most commonly , scholars seeking to publish their revised dissertations will need to do the following :
the press ' s long - standing interests in anthropology , folklore , african american studies , and women ' s studies were united in 1977 with the publication of robert hemenway ' s biography of zora neale hurston . because hurston was not widely known in those days , the press acquired paperback rights to her novel their eyes were watching god in order to provide readers with access to a literary work along with the new biography . during the ensuing decade more than 356 , 000 copies of their eyes were sold—more than 75 , 000 in the final year—before a commercial publisher reclaimed the paperback rights .
to date , the press ' s most important book on a topic in american history probably has been the plains across : the overland emigrants and the trans - mississippi west , 1840 - 60 , by john d . unruh jr . this magisterial 1979 study won seven awards , including the major awards of the american historical association and the organization of american historians , and was a finalist for the pulitzer prize . the publication of nauvoo : kingdom on the mississippi ( 1965 ) , by robert bruce flanders , was initially viewed as a study in illinois history ; in retrospect , it helped pave the way for the press ' s development of a notable series of books in mormon history , with liz dulany acting as the long - time acquiring editor .
from 1975 until the 1990s , the series illinois short fiction typically offered four new collections annually , each by a single author . twice nominated by publishers weekly for the carey - thomas award for creative publishing , the series was long administered at the press by ann lowry , who also served as editor of the anthology prime number : 17 stories from illinois short fiction ( 1988 ) .
the press ' s commitment to poetry endured for even longer . the first of several volumes by michael s . harper , published in 1971 , was followed by more than a hundred fine volumes by a wide array of poets . my alexandria by mark doty , arguably the most successful collection , won the national book critics circle award and the t . s . eliot prize , among other accolades .
three illinois books have received the bancroft award from columbia university , considered by many to be the most prestigious award for a book in american history : eugene v . debs : citizen and socialist ( 1982 ) , by nick salvatore ; dark journey : black mississippians in the age of jim crow ( 1989 ) , by neil r . mcmillen ; and local people : the struggle for civil rights in mississippi ( 1994 ) , by john dittmer . salvatore ' s study of debs also received the dunning prize of the american historical association for the best first book over a two - year period .
in the 1960s the press was a partner in two exceptional undertakings . the first , uicsm high school mathematics ( 1959 ) by max beberman , was a pilot project for what became known as
the new math
when it was taken over by a commercial publisher in 1964 . the illinois test of psycholinguistic abilities ( 1968 ) was developed by samuel a . kirk , james j . mccarthy , and winifred d . kirk . a multielement kit of materials , it was widely used by speech therapists and others to identify and differentiate disabilities and to organize remedial programs .
don jackson also developed a strong list in western u . s . history , to which he himself contributed significantly . he edited and wrote the introduction to the perennial bestseller black hawk : an autobiography ( 1955 ) and edited multivolume documentary works , notably the letters of the lewis and clark expedition ( 2nd ed . , 1978 ; still in print ) and the papers of john charles fremont , before leaving illinois for virginia , where he became the founding editor for the papers of george washington project . science in the british colonies of america ( 1970 ) , by raymond phineas stearns , is the press ' s only volume to win a national book award .
the southern review . . . represents everything that is good in the world of literary publication . their dedication to aesthetic quality has been the gold standard in literary publication for over seventy - five years .
the southern review is one of the nation’s premier literary journals . hailed by time as
superior to any other journal in the english language ,
we have made literary history since our founding in 1935 . we publish a diverse array of fiction , nonfiction , and poetry by the country’s—and the world’s—most respected contemporary writers .
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no surprise for the writer , no surprise for the reader . ” while reading lisel mueller’s collection , the need to hold still , i found myself mulling over robert frost’s well - known dictum . while writers may struggle to explain precisely how they arrive at such surprise , as readers we recognize it on a visceral level . as emily dickinson explains in another famous quote , this sense of discovery can make a reader feel “as if the top of [ one’s ] head were taken off . ”
we experience that discovery in a few startling poems by mueller , particularly two that take on the rich material of myth and allegory . in “testimony , ” for example , mueller retells the story of the birth of venus from the goddess’ perspective , rewriting a seaside fantasy into a cold , brutal reality . in mueller’s version of the tale , an accusatory venus reproaches a collective “you , ” the painters and other artists who have historically depicted venus’ birth as an eroticized event , or as one of singular beauty : “telling the story , you omit / that in the beginning my hair was green / seaweed , before it turned / into the yellow silk you admire . ” the charges continue : “you paint me floating ashore / with rose - tipped breasts , ” and “you say i stepped into heated shoes / of glittering white sand . ” here , the goddess sets the record straight .
mueller’s use of persona allows her to recast—and to criticize from the female speaker’s point of view—the fantasy of a sensual , stranded beauty . the final declaration arrives with a sense of both inevitability and surprise , and mueller establishes the persona’s authority through the accusatory tone , the series of brief declarations , and the specificity of images that counter the other , more pleasant version of the story : “starved dog , ” “scraggly leaves , ” and “rocks and shells” that “cut . ”
mueller’s skill at composing dense , compressed poems of human tragedy is perhaps best glimpsed in “the story , ” in which a storyteller depicts , in parable form , an incompatible couple seemingly fated for disaster .
here , a familiar narrative—a love story , a fable— becomes wonderfully strange . as explained in stephen dobyns’ best words , best order , mueller’s chosen metaphors—the female figure as water , and the male as fire— can be comprehended but are not easily encompassed . as a result , we are compelled to return to the poem again and again to more fully understand how one human might “burn” a beloved while trying to “be one , ” or how even love can lead to conditions under which we “cannot breathe . ”
in “the story , ” mueller depicts intimacy and conflict by recasting humans as elements of nature , a strategy that animates the poem’s intensity and desperation , the characters’ passion and antagonism . adding to the surprise in this poem is mueller’s resistance to resolution , as her speaker exhorts the listening children to “make up [ their ] own / ending , ” and then claims , “…they will , they will . ”
in other poems in the need to hold still , mueller adopts the perspective of figures from myth and folktale to shed light on a character’s motivations , or to reveal the misgivings of characters we typically encounter from a distance . framed by an epigraph from william stafford—“so , the world happens twice— / once what we see it as ; / second it legends itself / deep , the way it is”—mueller’s collection draws on allegory to encourage us to more fully inhabit human experience . in particular , narrators in the book’s third section , a linked sequence called “voices from the forest , ” invite us to reenter familiar folktales and myths to confront human qualities that may prove to be our weaknesses : curiosity , trust , and innocence . in this sequence , superficiality , fickleness , lust , and envy also take center stage .
in the sequence’s first poem , “the voice of the traveler who escaped , ” for example , we hear from a character who failed to heed the warnings that the original tales were meant to provide , one who knows the terror of what happens when “…the witch / locks the door from the outside / and throws away the key” and now admonishes us to learn from his or her mistakes . the cautionary tone continues in the sequence’s second poem , “warning to virgins , ” which alerts young women to the “unspecified beast” who may come to court them , a shape - shifting figure who sometimes appears as a “bear / who lumbers to the door / of two young beauties , to be brushed / and petted , and to eat / out of their hands . ” in “a voice from out of the night , ” mueller’s speaker questions her attempt to inform and instruct , as the narrator seems to surrender to the idea that her words of warning are useless among the young and naive .
the eight poems in “voices from the forest” use folktale figures and extended metaphor to reveal our human weaknesses . “the story” and “testimony , ” however , possess an urgency in the telling that is rarely duplicated in the other poems . and while mueller’s “voices from the forest” sequence could have reinvented the form and content of classic material in ways that might startle the reader toward new insights , in some cases , what seem to be missing are the wonder and strangeness that compel us to return , again and again , to poems like “testimony” and “the story . ”
( graywolf , 2011 ) , won the 2010 bakeless prize for poetry . ahmed’s writing has appeared in
. she holds an mfa from warren wilson college and lives near philadelphia . for more information , visit her website at
poetry judges that year : turner cassidy , john ciardi , inge judd , betty e . munger , john frederick nims , robert phillips , louise solano , paul zimmer
the morning of the poem by james schuyler won the pulitzer prize for poetry .
mueller immigrated to the united states from hamburg , germany at the age of 15 .
references allow you to track sources for this article , as well as articles that were written in response to this article .
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here , a familiar narrative—a love story , a fable— becomes wonderfully strange . as explained in stephen dobyns’ best words , best order , mueller’s chosen metaphors—the female figure as water , and the male as fire
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copyright © 2011 , national book awards , www . nbapoetryblog . org . all rights reserved .
please also review the submissions procedure preferred by the acquisitions editor who best fits your topic before submitting a proposal .
proposals for everything except fiction and poetry should include a cover letter , working title , table of contents , sample chapters , information about competitive titles , and a resume or curriculum vitae . please also include a rough total word count , including notes and bibliography , and information about proposed art , if any .
in short , give as much information as is useful to help us evaluate your proposal , but do not send the entire manuscript at this stage . sample materials will not be returned unless a suitable self - addressed stamped mailer is included . please note that due to the high volume of submissions we receive , it may take up to two months before we respond to your proposal .
eliminate or drastically reduce the “review of scholarly literature” section . while a standard feature of dissertations , such a review is superfluous in a book . you are no longer writing for your committee in fulfillment of degree requirements ; you are writing as an authority on your chosen subject matter . cite to appropriate authorities in the notes , not the text .
pare down the notes , and eliminate discursive notes . most dissertations have roughly twice as many notes as necessary . again , you are now the authority . as such , exhaustive notation is overly defensive , not proof of sound scholarship .
weed out “scaffolding . ” many dissertations are highly structured : authors might begin each chapter with a statement of what is going to be argued and conclude with a statement of what has been argued , or they might divide each chapter into excessive headings and subheadings . recast your manuscript to improve its narrative flow .
cut , cut , cut . at every possible turn , tighten your prose . sharpen your argument . trust your readers to remember what has gone earlier in the text . repetition and wordiness only weaken a manuscript .
the biggest thrill is to read poems that grab you , poems you simply cannot leave halfway through .
eleanor ross taylor’s “captive voices” ; lisel mueller’s “alive together” ; david kirby’s “the biscuit joint” ; and ava leavell haymon’s “eldest daughter . ” all offer poems that have deeply affected many readers .
rereading claudia emerson’s “late wife” is always a delight . additionally , i will often pick up and recommend to others the poets jacqueline osherow , marilyn nelson , steve scafidi and david huddle .
for example , had poems with floating lines and irregular spacing . it also had poems in the form of recipes and prose poems . j . michael martinez’s
had poems with both spanish and english , as well as italicized text pushed into the margins . it also had several images , fairly unusual in a poetry collection .
“small disasters seen in sunlight” by julia b . levine and “i watched you disappear” by anya krugovoy silver are two of the many wonderful collections that have recently come out .
we focus on poetry for one simple reason : it can change your life .
the outfield—a position made for him ! when lefty gomez credited his success to a “fast outfield , ” the holy ghost thought he’d heard “vast , ” and he imagined that field could match his spaciousness , his inability to touch base , to stay within lines .
the high pop fly rising toward him kindled his old longing for the laws of motion —that pull toward an object he could never know . it floated out , patient as planets , amber and gold in the late afternoon sun , the crack of ash coming slower than the ball .
he saw two earths , wrapping their separate flights in sweeping lines of gravity , and then the little leather baseball plummeted right through him—grapeshot through flame— and thumped in the way of all real things against the grass near the fence .
i’m learning to wear grief like an old coat . too hot for the season . no place to lay it down .
i paint my house red . i think of old barns in the snow anointed with milk and blood . waste nothing : cover yourself
in the gore of the work . even god lived with the dead . i want to burn something into the white hill of my life . we are that used to wanting
we can’t think of shedding a good coat leaving it there for the mice to take home in bits each fiber bound for a nest .
we live in the age of stand - up paddleboards and kayaks the color of molten lava . rare now to see the graceful reach and pull of two paddlers guiding their canoe along a lazy . . . read more
racial prejudice drives the action of this historical novel . in
the cottoncrest curse
, the debut novel by michael h . rubin , an old family curse explains a murder - suicide on a . . . read more
on july 6 , 1944 , in hartford , connecticut , a ringling brothers and barnum and bailey big top went up in flames . paraffin was used to waterproof the tents in those days , and waxy . . . read more
a multimedia work of art , cyril vetter’s first novel , dirtdobber blues , encourages readers to experience the semi - biographical story of blues musician charles “butch” . . . read more
describing poetry , seamus heaney said , “my lee is deeply tilled . ” he compared meter and form to the patterns of agriculture , watching how a poem appeared on a page like . . . read more
glory river
is david huddle’s most eccentric and interesting collection yet . always gentle and wry , often strange , his narrative poems here turn dark . “river , ” in the . . . read more
machiavellian moment : a “machiavellian moment , ” as described by historian j . g . a . pocock , in his 1975 book of that name , is when a nation faces such internal threats as a . . . read more
“herman melville crazy” was the assessment of a typical review of his pierre : or , the ambiguities , published in 1852 , the year following the appearance of moby - dick . other . . . read more
in this volume , the author races between arriving and departing ; her poems run with compulsion , to see the next place , hear a last voice , find a lost daughter or aunt , notice a . . . read more
this is an appropriate poet to carry on the tradition of walt whitman . the poems in this first collection may not contain “barbaric yawps , ” but they certainly speak . . . read more
the characters of margaret luongo’s short story collection are united not by outward demographics , but by a commitment to survival . most have reached a moment of crisis . there . . . read more
every child , everyone affected by hurricane katrina , and every animal lover will adore this sentimental yet informative book about the true story of molly the pony . accidentally . . . read more
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cyan engineering was an american computer engineering company located in grass valley , california .

it was founded by ron milner and larry emmons .

the company was purchased in 1973 by atari inc. and was responsible for development of the atari 2600 .

it also carried out some robotics research & development work on behalf of atari , most notably in the form of the kermit mobile robot , originally intended as a peripheral or else direct extension of the colleen ( atari 800 ) computer system .

cyan engineering

1978 –
kermit
the robot by ron milner and larry nicolson of cyan engineering for atari inc .
cyan engineering limited is an organization based in malta and which provides a variety of engineering consultancy services to the industrial and commercial sector . it builds on the experience of its key engineers who have been deeply involved for a considerable period of time in major industrial and commercial engineering installations .
located in grass valley , a small gold rush era town in northern california’s sierra nevada foothills , cyan engineering was at the epicenter of what would soon become a hotbed of r & d engineering firms for the emerging silicon valley .
cyan tec systems provides industrial laser , inkjet integration and automation for a wide range of industry sectors .
cyan engineering have a track record ranging from the design , operation and management of the generation and distribution systems of electricity in the maltese islands to contracting , construction and commissioning work associated with large building services installations .
i recently ran across this fantastic and odd little gem – “atari’s cyan engineering – splendor in the grass” , a largely forgotten short documentary about atari’s famous “think - tank” shot in 1982 , two years before big brother was supposed to make life hell ( and 30 years before he actually would ) .
the cyan engineering team have worked on a number of major sporting projects , working closely with most football clubs and private sports complexes in the maltese islands . their flagship projects include the national stadium and national pool complexes , as well as major projects such as the football complexes managed by the gozo football association and premier league football team hibernians .
the cyan engineering offices , later known as atari grass valley , were located in an old hospital building up on a hill , in the center of a large piece of property owned by charles litton of litton industries fame , who purchased the site back in 1953 . known locally as “old miner’s hospital” by many of the older residents who were born there , the area had been closed and generally off limits to the locals for decades , which spurred rumors of various military projects and “top secret” inventions .
mr . peddle , who had left motorola for mos technology after designing the mc6800 microprocessor , appeared at wescon - the annual west coast electronics show - in september 1975 , offering to sell his new microprocessor by the barrel at $ 8 apiece .
of co urse , no one knew that he only had one barrel to his name ,
recalls steve mayer , cofounder of cyan engineering , atari ' s private consulting company in grass valley , and now senior vice president for r & d at atari .
two prototypes of the stella were built : a functional prototype built by mr . milner to test the concept , and a gate - level prototype built by joe decuir , who was hired by cyan in late 1975 . the gate - level prototype was designed to mimic as closely as p ossible the intended final chip , using circuit - design techniques specific to mos integrated circuits .
mr . mayer and ron milner , his colleague at cyan , went to see mr . peddle at wescon and found that the 6502 matched precisely the minimum specifications that they had laid out some time before in a blue - sky design for a programmable video game . the thre e went into the back of the mos technology suite , mr . mayer recalls , and in an hour the deal was struck . it started a revolution in home video games .
a year later atari ' s designers began devloping chess .
the guys were playing around ,
allan alcorn , then head of engineering at atari , recalled ,
and one guy said , ' i could write an algorithm , but i couldn ' t get a playfield on the screen . ' another gu y said , ' that ' s easy . '
larry wagner wrote the algorithm ; it took him two years with the help of national chess champion julio kaplan . mr . whitehead did the display in two days , developing the trick now known as venetian blinds [ fig . 2 ] .
i did not build kermit . it was originally built by atari ' s engineering group in grass valley , california . kermit was abandoned in the sunnyvale offices , and i rescued him . i did some electronic work to make it run again ( needed some rework on a some parts , and all the motion sensors for the wheels and head needed to be changed ) and wrote some new software to make it do different things . as you can see , he is not in the best shape right now . it will power up ( the battery is dead , but a desk power supply will work ) but one motor has gone bad , and the sensors are out again . he also took a spill down the stairs at atari in his last few days ( my own fault for just letting him run free around the building ) and it cracked his head ( a plastic bowl ) and broke a bunch of the bulbs in the head dome . some day i may actually get him running again .
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it highlights some of the work developed here that atari became famous for such as the vcs ( video computer system / 2600 ) , and serves as a bit of a fun time - machine to back where they tinker with ideas , peer into the future and try to predict much of what we take for granted today . video conferencing and small portable “briefcase sized” computers are mentioned for example , along with
companies chose the location due to its proximity to the bay area , yet it was still remote enough to be free from the smog , noise and distractions of city life . the local culture was heavily into the creative arts which helped foster new ideas , a byproduct of being heavily populated by hippies who had relocated after the crash of san francisco’s haight & ashbury “summer of love” movement , much to the dismay of older citizens .
an active and ever - present security force only added to the mystique of the “building on the hill” .
this is where things start to go awry… adjacent to the litton property along its back side , was the county high school , where in an attempt to consolidate and save money , thousands of students were bused in from the farthest reaches of one of the largest and rather sparsely populated counties in california . a horrible solution that resulted in kids from the furthest edges of the county riding school buses for several hours each day through all kinds of snow , floods and weather in the wee hours of the morning or the dark of night , arriving ( if they made it ) even more tired and angry then the average teen , if that is even possible .
as luck would have it , this was my high school , nuhs ( nevada union high school ) . and , this documentary was also filmed when i was an angry , tired freshman at the angst ridden high school next door .
mtv was suddenly a thing , as were friday night videos . punk & new wave were all the rage for clicks who insisted that “skateboarding is not a crime” – while heavy metal drove others to sneer , grab guitars and poke holes in our ears . ( i myself tried to diy a bull - ring through the nose – which ended very badly if you must know ) and we all began to tease valley - girls while questioning “the man” .
now , just a few years earlier our small community had gotten our very first mcdonalds and they were still a bit of a novelty , the cool place to bee seen .
neither of the two adjacent towns ( grass valley & nevada city ) wanted this commercial fast food mega - giant to spoil the down - town vibe of their historic gold mining districts , so after years of debate and fighting mcdonalds chose an unincorporated location directly between the two in an area known as “brunswick” , which at one time had been famous as a wooden racing track , fairgrounds and swimming resort known as lake olympia , but had been closed and drained for many years .
soon other mega restaurants also rushed - in , burger king , jack in the box , taco bell , rax roast beef – all began to compete with the smaller a & w , foster’s freeze , and local favorite humpty dumpty ( which has fantastic peanut butter milkshakes , btw ) .
the big problem however was that brunswick , this mecca of horrible food for geeky angry teens , was located over the hill on the opposite side of the litton property . older kids had cars , but there were no direct routes and it took a long time to drive all the way around , which usually resulted in a tardy slip . the fastest way to get over and grab a burger was to cut across the litton property by sneaking through the trees from our lower soccer field and then trying to outwit and outrun security .
inevitably some would be caught , given detention or suspension , even expelled or sent to continuation schools . litton’s security would get so fed up they’d come over the high school to complain , and our principle would plead , warn , and then revoke our off - campus lunch privileges for the entire school for a week or a month , depending on how mad he was . the fact that we weren’t supposed to do it and could get into real trouble only added to the allure .
“omg , you went and got a burger ? you must be a bad - ass . ”
this went on for years and is still the first thing that comes to mind when many of us hear the word “litton” .
what interests me most with this atari documentary though , is that none of us really knew what was going on inside that old hospital . and what’s really cool is as it was being filmed – my friends and i are likely sneaking around just outside on our quest to get a highly coveted illegal burger…
this film offers a taste of what local characters / engineers looked and talked like at the time , and many of the faces do look astonishingly familiar .
now , 3 decades later , the property has been turned into a community college satellite campus , and nothing is recognizable anymore . and amusingly , according to google maps that secret path we forged over that forbidden hill has now become a park trail . we won ! !
but really , check out the cool / odd video . talk about a trip , man .
they ' re all weirdly smirky and smug for a bunch of disco era poindexters . i guess they had it to lord over those shlubbs making electric cash registers and other pedestrian items .
eh . the weirld smirky smugness hasn ' t gone anywhere . that ' s alive and well in the tech community . less polyester , more tattoos these days . that ' s about all that looks really different to me .
i totally expect programmers to be haughty these days . they ' re the golden children of silicon valley and san francisco , there ' s hollywood movies about the winklevoss twins . nerd is the word . but in 1980 i would think programmers were about as desirable as public telephone sanitizers .
i blame disco . the late ' 70s were so hairy and macho ; that , and the general sense of entitlement guys in business have always had . now we have brogrammers .
i was a high school kid at nuhs and worked at the atari office from 1980 - 1984 as the office gopher / janitor . cleaning up after the engineers and doing all the grunge work . not the most fun job in the world , but was still a fun place to work as a teen .
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lorem ipsum dolor sit amet , omnes dissentiet mea cu , cu exerci efficiantur suscipiantur vix . quo ei maluisset persecuti , iriure theophrastus deterruisset duo ut . ut tota lorem mea . sea te cibo audiam moderatius , at mei enim habeo accommodare , vel audiam sanctus consetetur in . falli habemus no nam , nulla dicunt voluptaria per ea , nam quaeque perpetua no . eos at convenire incorrupte efficiendi , has ne laboramus delicatissimi .
we confirm that projekte global limited have been entrusted with fgura united football club’s contract dated february 2010 for the design and building of a full - size field and a futsal field . this company completed our grounds from begainning to end . . .
our terminal is equipped with two types of lighting towers . terminal 1 is equipped with abacus 40 meters side tilting towers whilst terminal 2 is equipped with lowering crown type towers supplied by others . durability abacus 40 mete . . .
as director of a large school on the island with a population of over 1000 pupils graced with fairly extensive playing fields , i am delighted to learn that you are attending the fsb trade fair in cologne .
we confirm that this company have been awarded with the malta football association’s contract under the uefa hatrick programme dated october 2009 for the supply and installation of 18 football pitches . in the period of 24 months , this company have f . . .
arch . ludovico micallef , a & c . e . ; vice president and architect in charge , malta football association
we confirm that this company have been entrusted with the university of malta’s football grounds in 2011 . it has completed our 2 futsal pitches within 2 months from beginning to end including 60mm artificial turf , flood lightings , fencing , soft - nett . . .
this company have been entrusted with the sports grounds at de la salle college . the company offered us their full co - operation from the start to completion with the supply and installation of a full size football pitch and a 300m athletic track . t . . .
bro . martin borg fsc . m . ed . , director ( de la salle college )
our football club had contracted this company about two years ago , to install artificial turf on the playing surface of our 11 a - side football ground in pembroke and to finalise the ground preparation for its laying . we certify that we are completely . . .
alex calleja , president ; alfred debono , director . treasurer ( pembroke athleta f . c . )
address : no . 13 , new street , off valletta road , luqa . malta
owen rubin shows
kermit
ataris prototype robot pet from jeri ellsworth on vimeo .
the hair was a joke of mine ! there is a small button under the hair , so if you pet him , he stops and purrs ! i also made the name badge , it was not an official badge . the security people were very angry that i made it , because it looked so good .
if you look at picture 10 , you can see the sensors . the two big ones are ultrasonic , like the old polaroid cameras . his head can rotate 180 degrees in each direction so he can
see
360 degrees . when he would bump something , or sense an object in his way , he would stop and rotate his head through the full 360 mapping all directions , then go in the direction that had the greatest distance clear .
next to the ultrasonic sensors are two microphones for sound . at the time , the only sensed sharp sounds like a hand clap . when the heard a clap . he would stop and turn his head towards the sound . a second clap would further define the direction and he would head towards the sound .
below is a small heat sensor ( we wanted him to look for warm bodies , but he would head into fireplaces . never got that working . above is a light sensor ,
walk towards the light
was the idea . if a room went dark , he would look for light and sound .
also visible is a small
leash
connector ( directly under the dome below his left ( our right ) mic . this was a pot with a small switch . if you pulled on the leash , the switch would close and kermit would try and center the leash to go that direction . he would continue to move
forward
or which ever way centered the leash until the switch opened ( ie , he got close ) and then wait for about 30 seconds before trying to move on his own . his first move was always straight backwards to see if the leash would tighten and close the switch .
he also has an antenna for remote control ( used an old radio shack walkie - talkie with some tones for remote ( required another board to be plugged into the bus slots ( there is one empty . )
there are 4 boards in kermit right now . photos 2 and 7 show the end board which had all the sensor interface circuits and light drivers for the head . in kermit 4 you can see the other board in the slots . the next one over is a
mouse brain
, which is a small 6502 and eeprom and ram . the third board is a sound driver , simple wave circuits for music like sounds . he sounds a bit like r2d2 ! the last board is the driver relays for the stepper motors for the back wheels .
the wheels are direct driven by stepper motors that are held in by springs against the wheels . the front wheel is simply a castor with a leaf switch attached . the idea was that if the leaf switch opened , kermit would do an
emergency back
move . basically , an r2d2 scream sound and both motors back as fast as possible for a short burst . again , this was assumed that he was going over a ledge . unfortunately , his death was in just such a move , as his weight is too front heavy , and he screamed and spun his wheels backwards as he tumbled down the stairs at atari ( seems that the stairs were the longest open space , and while the switch did work , he weight tipped him over head first before he could back up . )
no , this
kermit the robot
is not the robot version of
kermit the frog
.
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by tekla e . perry and paul wallich associate editors , ieee spectrum originally in ieee spectrum , march 1983 , pp . 45 - 51
in late 1975 , sales of devices that made it possible for consumers to play pong on home television sets were booming . at atari inc . , which had first introduced pong as an arcade game and had manufactured one of the most popular home versions of pong , engineers began looking for the next arcade game to put in consumer hands , anticipating that people would grow tired of two paddles and a ball .
they saw jet fighter and tank , but instead of designing a custom chip for each game , as was done for pong , they planned a system that would play both games , four - player pong if anyone was interested , and possibly a few other , as yet unknown games . the system was to be based on a microprocessor .
in a few months , atari ' s designers in grass valley , calif . , had made a working prototype , and over the next year , designers from grass valley and from sunnyvale , calif . , refined what was to be the atari video computer system ( vcs ) . it was released in 1977 , and six years later ranks as one of the most successful microprocessor - based products ever built , with over 12 million sold at about $ 140 apiece .
success did not come without problems . production problems in the first two years caused atari losses estimated near $ 25 million . but once these problems were solved and enough software was developed , the vcs took off .
atari and other video - game companies had been making microprocessor - based arcade games for some time before the vcs was developed , but the cost of then - available processors - $ 100 or more each - made the idea of a home consumer product based on a micro processor impractical . then came chuck peddle and the 6502 .
no one saw it that way at the time .
we were just trying to survive ,
mr . mayer told
. atari had entered the home video market with a one - chip version of its pong arcade game , and it was developing other home video games , but each was based on a single custom chip that took a year or more and over $ 100 , 000 to develop - by the time an arcade game reached the home market , consumers would have forgotten about it . a programmable home video game seemed a desirable alternative .
the key to the design was simplicity : making the software do as much of the work as possible , so that the hardware could be cheaper - silicon was very expensive in those days . the microprocessor was synchronized to the television scan rate and created the display one or two lines at a time . this synchronization reduces memory requirements for the television interface considerable , but the processor must continually update the registers in the interface to get any display at all . the program that fee ds information to the video chip ( called stella , after its designer ' s bicycle ) is known as a kernel .
to further reduce memory requirements , mr . mayer and mr . milner decided to display the background of the screen at relatively low resolution , while displaying moving objects with higher resolution - low - resolution playfield , high - resolution players . t hey also eliminated any provision for vertical synchronization and gave that task to the programmer . a vcs kernel must count the number of lines displayed on the television screen and must finish displaying a single frame in exactly the same time - 15 . 24 milliseconds - that it takes the tv set ' s electron gun to make a single top - to - bottom sweep .
one critical mos - dependent feature was the use of a special counter - called a polynomial counter , or pseudorandom shift register - instead of a true binary counter to determine object positions on the screen . a polynomial counter occupies one - fourth the silicon area of an equivalent binary counter , but , unlike a binary counter , it does not count in any simple order . thus , a programmer cannot calculate a screen position for an object and load it into the position counter .
the original stella prototype had only one signal to the position counter : a reset that would trigger the immediate display of an object . mr . decuir and jay miner , who designed the production version of the stella chip , used this same concept in their design . as a result , displaying an object in a given position on the screen requires that the programmer count the number of clock cycles taken by a given set of instruction , figure out how far across the screen the electron beam would be after the inst ructions had been executed , and act accordingly . once the position counter for an object is reset at the proper point , it continues to display the object at that spot on succeeding lines .
to move objects , the prototype blocked out four clock pulses from the position counters during the vertical blanking interval ; a programmer could then add pulses to move an object left or right - four pulses had to be added to keep the object in the s ame place . mr . miner added a set of motion registers , which add or subtract pulses automatically when a signal - called h - move - is sent by the microprocessor . the h - move can be sent during the vertical blanking interval , or during the horizontal blanki ng interval at the beginning of each line .
this seemed innocuous enough ,
said larry kaplan , the first software designer hired to develop games for the stella project .
but i discovered early that it was possible to reposition player objects during a screen [ a frame of the tv picture ] , though that was not a consideration of the design .
so mr . kaplan designed air - sea battle , which has horizontal bands of player objects , a technique used in countless vcs games , including space invaders , freeway , asteroids , and football .
without that single strobe , h - move , the vcs would have died a qu ick death five years ago ,
said mr . kaplan , now vice president of product development at atari .
h - move and a feature that allowed two or three copies of an object to be placed on the screen let another vcs programmer , rick mauer , design a home version of the arcade hit , space invaders . that game hit the arcades in 1979 , when the vcs was going do wnhill after losing money in 1977 and 1978 .
the vcs was not doing that well - there were only a few million in the field , and it looked like it was dying - then space invaders came out , and bam ! it exploded ,
mr . kaplan said . space invaders was the most popular game in the arcades , and the vcs , with rows of six objects across the screen ( two player - objects , copied three times each ) could recreate it in the home .
another hardware feature , one that actually cost a fair amount of silicon , was vertical delay , or vdel . the vcs writes two television lines at a time , explained mr . miner , but shifting objects by two lines between frames leads to jerky motion . a way had to be found to shift objects by only one line , and that way was vdel . two registers are used to hold the graphics information for each player - object , and vdel selects which register will be displayed on the screen .
the sequence of events is as follows : information sent to the display registers for one player object is loaded into its primary register ; when information is written to the other player object , the contents of the primary register for the first objec t are automatically duplicated in its secondary register ; if information for each player object is written every other scan line , the secondary register selected by vdel will display the same shape as the primary register , but one line later . this technique is now being used to load different information into the primary and secondary registers of each player object , thus yielding single - line resolution and other unintended bonuses .
in addition to being able to determine the shape of an object , programmers can also determine its color and luminance . the decision to go with both color and luminance registers probably would not have been made but for the simplicity of the color con trol . television color is determined by the difference in phase between the color signal and a reference signal , or color burst , that is transmitted at the beginning of each line . the vcs ' s phase shifter is nothing more than a delay line tapped at appro priate intervals , and so it occupies fairly little chip space .
an example of extensive color manipulation is a subroutine developed by mr . decuir to avoid burning game patterns onto the tv screen if the vcs is left unattended . the routine , which cycled through all possible color - luminance combinations , used only a dozen bytes , a great advantage in early game cartridges , which held only 2 kilobytes of rom .
in 2k , you barely have room to brush your teeth ,
mr . decuir said .
a similar variety of effects was produced with a minimum of chip space in the sound generator ; it contains simply a few dividers and polynomial counters that can be interconnected in a number of ways under program control . a 5 - bit polynomial counter , mr . decuir noted , produces a low , grumbling sound ( used in tank ) , and a 9 - bit counter produces a whooshing sound ( used in jet fighter ) . the rest of the sounds that the programmers have made the vcs produce come essentially free , and they have been extens ive - mr . mayer said he has even heard the vcs reproduce the words
e . t . phone home .
because the vcs hardware does so little on its own , a heavy burden is placed on the programmer . but though programming is arduous , few walls hold back software creativity .
writing the kernels that make up the game programs ,
mr . mayer said ,
is like solving acrostic puzzles with lots and lots of possibilities . there ' s a certain class of programmer that can deal in the microcode like that . if it were easier to program , we wouldn ' t have these programmers , because they ' d be bored . the vcs is an absolute challenge .
another way of saying it is that to deal with a vcs you have to unlearn every good programming practice you ' ve learned ,
said mr . mauer , who designed space invaders .
bob whitehead , senior designer and cofounder of activision inc . in mountain view , calif . , may be the most innovative vcs designer - he is credited with the most firsts in using a new trick . but he is philosophical about his innovations .
a computer i s a computer ,
he said ,
and it only works in one way . if something new comes up , it ' s cute , but no more than that , because it ' s something the computer has always been able to do ; you just didn ' t discover it before . it ' s like finding a penny under the c ouch - it ' s always been there , but it ' s cute to discover .
once a trick is discovered and is implemented in a game , it becomes obvious to experienced vcs programmers , mr . whitehead noted , and soon the trick is copied in other games . less experienced programmers look at a program listing or pick up tricks by w ord of mouth .
today , however , designers estimate that the hardware has been 70 to 80 percent exploited .
more and more the cute things aren ' t showing up ,
mr . whitehead said ,
but then every time we discover something new , we think that it is the last thing .
the first trick popped up when mr . whitehead designed blackjack , and it is now used in nearly every vcs game . it is the capability to rewrite player objects
on the fly .
because the microprocessor must feed information every line to the
stella
chi p to make a display , it can change the information even during a line to change the appearance of objects . the hardware can produce multiple copies of a player object - a feature added so that groups of biplanes could fight each other - and mr . whitehead discovered that he could change the displayed player object between copies . instead of putting up three copies of the same object , the vcs then displays three different objects : three different cards in the case of blackjack .
objects can also be rewritten as they are repositioned vertically , so the different rows of aliens in space invaders look different . this capability was carried to an extreme in activision ' s freeway , with 10 lanes of traffic and different cars and tru cks all over the screen . it was also used very successfully in asteroids , in which the rocks that appear to be careening all over the screen are in two rows , half moving up and half moving down .
but an initial limitation of rewriting player objects on the fly was that the copied objects had to move together , because the vcs produces multiple images only at set spacings . a trick developed by mr . whitehead to allow many graphically different ob jects to move independently is called flicker .
flickering displays create the illusion of extra independent player objects by showing the objects only every other frame , or every third or fourth frame . the problem with this technique is that pronounced flicker can make a game difficult or even unp leasant to play . judiciously used , this tradeoff can make games possible that the vcs otherwise could not handle : starship , in which the stars are made of player objects that flicker ; adventure , in which flicker occurs only when there are more than two objects on the screen ; baseball and football games ; and defender , to name a few .
ironically , flicker has never been used at activision , the software company that mr . whitehead helped start when he left atari in 1979 . mr . whitehead did not say activision will never use the technique in a game , but he noted that the company ' s progra mmers will rethink the philosophy of a game to avoid it .
it is a tradeoff that is not acceptable ,
he said .
flicker can be avoided if the motion of objects is restricted to keep them vertically separated , or by use of more recent tricks . one of those tricks is
venetian blinds ,
and it was first used in atari ' s chess game .
when the vcs was first manufactured ,
mr . kaplan recalled ,
the box had a chess piece on it . ' those marketing guys ! come on , ' we said . ' it ' ll never do chess . ' well , some guy in florida sued because there was a chess piece on the cover and we didn ' t have a chess game .
to display eight chess pieces across the screen ( instead of the maximum six possible with triple copies ) , mr . whitehead displayed each object on every other scan line . on the first sweep across the screen , graphics for four objects were displayed ; on the next sweep , graphics for the other four were shown . the gaps were obvious , but the chess pieces were recognizable .
while primitive in comparison with today ' s chess machines , the wagner - whitehead chess game , using 4 kilobytes of rom and 138 bytes of random - access memory , was as good as the chess machines then on the market . there was only one problem : the tv screen displayed random colors while the vcs calculated the next move ; no processor time was left for the screen .
the venetian - blind technique has appeared in many games since chess . it was used for horses in polo , a game by carol shaw that was never released , and in basic programming to get 12 characters on a line . it was also used in stampede , by mr . whitehead , to animate the animals ' legs , and most recently , in sky jinks , also by mr . whitehead , where parts of the balloon baskets are displayed on alternate lines . if used subtly , mr . whitehead noted , the technique is hardly noticeable .
after they had exploited variations on player graphics , programmers turned to other areas of the stella chip to look for tricks . one early discovery was that they could write the playfield - a low resolution background 40 bits across - on the fly . al miller did this in surround , where each block in a 40 by 24 grid can be turned on or off independently . the technique was used by mr . whitehead in chopper command to create an extra player object - the chopper the player commands [ fig . 3 ] .
mr . kaplan first rewrote color on the fly , changing color line by line to get a figure in his bowling game that has a flesh - colored head , a blue shirt , gray trousers , and black shoes . that technique was picked up in superman to make the cartoon hero ' s costume red and blue , and it is used widely to display brightly colored alien attackers , as well as scenery that appears to recede as the colors deepen - including sunsets and oceans with rolling waves .
mr . whitehead indicated that once a game is on the market any new tricks used are apparent to experienced programmers . this thesis was confirmed by
' s discovery that two techniques considered trade secrets by activision at the time of w riting were widely known and , indeed , used by designers at other video - game companies .
one of the tricks designers have pointed out exploits the capability of the vcs to display an object in normal , double , or quad width depending upon the rate at which the player register is scanned . the trick comes in changing the size of the player o bject on the fly . in mr . whitehead ' s boxing [ fig . 4 ] , the game in which it is believed this technique was first used , a change in player size extends the boxer ' s arm into a punch . mr . whitehead also used the technique in skiing , and brad stewart at imag ic has included the trick in his newest game , sky patrol .
another trick first appeared in the game dragster . designer david crane , known in the industry as
a coding machine ,
wrote an entire kernel on the fly . the code , of course , does not move physically , but rather moves in time , so that the program is n o longer in synch with the television set , and what would otherwise be a static display scrolls horizontally . when dragster first appeared , the trick was considered impossible to repeat , but it is now understood throughout the industry . one designer usi ng it is imagic ' s bob smith in the game dragonfire .
perhaps the ultimate trick is being marketed by a company called starpath , in santa clara , calif . : a 6 - kilobyte ram module that fits into the vcs in place of a cartridge and accepts software from cassette tapes . ( this option had been considered for th e original vcs but was discarded . ) the extended ram allows programmers to use graphics tricks that would not fit in the vcs ' s 128 bytes - consistently finer resolution and sophisticated rewrite - on - the - fly techniques . adding ram to the vcs is not easy , n or is making cartridges with more than 4 kilobytes of memory . in order to save money , atari limited the cartridge connector to 24 pins , omitting read - write and clock lines for ram , as well as lines for addresses greater than 4096 . mr . miner and mr . decu ir agreed in retrospect that this decision was a mistake , since a 30 - pin connector would have cost only 50 cents for each vcs and 10 cents a cartridge and would have allowed both ram and a 64 - kilobyte address space .
many companies now use 8 - kilobyte cartridges by means of a technique called bank switching , where a read from a certain address triggers a flip - flop , directing all subsequent addresses to a different section of memory . the first bank - switched cartridg e was a 6 - kilobyte chess game by larry wagner ; the game was
scrunched
to kilobytes by bob whitehead , eliminating the need for bank switching , before it was marketed .
ram in cartridges is made possible by resynthesizing clock signals for ram from those timing lines that do find their way to the cartridge port . the increased speed of instructions dealing with the first 256 bytes of memory by the 6502 is all that mak es the vcs possible , and so the vcs uses similar techniques internally to conserve address space . a read and a write call to the same address may deal with two completely separate registers , mr . miner noted : the read - write line is actually being used as another address line , in addition to its intended purpose .
the vcs design , it sometimes seems , affords nearly limitless possibilities for programmers . but the basic design of the machine did not come easy . the mos layout was done directly on the screen of an automated ic drafting system , and circuit analysis was performed without sophisticated tools . mr . miner recalled simply counting the maximum number of gate delays in any line , adding the line delays , and multiplying by two for a safety factor . the first pass of silicon failed , he noted , because
there was one line that didn ' t go into the flip - flop i thought it did ; it went around it through 12 more gates . that was twice as many gates as any other line .
the vcs was also a near nightmare to produce , according to the people involved . for example , the mechanical design specified two sizes of self - tapping screw , and few workers on the production line could distinguish between the two . if the wrong screw was used , it shaved out myriad metal filings that raised havoc with the interior circuitry . further , when unassembled cases were stored for a time , the plastic would warp , and the two halves would not longer fit together . production workers learned the
vcs karate chop
to pop the cases together .
but if production problems were not enough , the vcs also had testing problems because so few of its internal states were accessible : instructions came in from the cartridge , and composite video came out through the television jack . digital testers cou ld not deal with the video signals , and analog testers were not sufficiently programmable , recalled mr . mayer , noting that atari had not faced such problems before , because
we ' d never built anything with more than one custom ic in it .
the inability to test sufficiently cost atari millions of dollars in the first year of production when one of its suppliers had process problems but the chips still passed incoming inspection . the chips were fast enough to make atari ' s test software r ate them as acceptable , but not fast enough to function properly when placed in an assembled vcs .
while the process problems were being resolved , atari instituted a test program based on visual inspection of the final product : a test cartridge was developed , and inspectors would plug it in , plug in simulated controllers , and watch 20 seconds or so of
game
on a tv set to determine if each vcs were working .
even though atari was late delivering the vcs to retailers for the 1977 christmas season , its sales volume went from $ 60 million to $ 120 million that year . still , the company lost money . in 1978 atari decided to build 800 , 000 vcs machines , more than twice as many as the year before . a total of 500 , 000 orders came in by late summer , and after fall shipments went out , they disappeared from retailers ' shelves in a few weeks . but few additional orders came , and atari was left with 300 , 000 unsold machin es ; the company had doubled its sales volume for the second year in a row , mr . decuir recalls , and still it lost money .
warner communications inc . , new york , had bought atari for $ 28 million in 1976 , largely on the strength of expectations for the vcs . but
for two years ,
mr . mayer recalled ,
atari managed to single - handedly drag down the return on equity of warner st ock by a significant amount .
today , thanks largely to the success of the vcs , atari is responsible for over half of warner ' s total profit .
messrs . mayer , milner , miner , and decuir set out to make a simple consumer product that would sell for two or three years - slightly longer than a dedicated game . by creating a machine with an elegant architecture that left all its inner workings acce ssible to the programmer , they ended up - as did early manufacturers of phonographs - creating an industry , one that today has over 70 companies competing for a share of the video - game software market , estimated this year at $ 2 . 4 billion .
many companies have tried to market programmable video - game machines , starting with fairchild ' s channel f in 1976 . most of these machines - including the fairchild - have sold poorly . the four programmable video - game units currently in demand are ata ri inc . ' s video computer system ( vcs ) , mattel electronics ' intellivision , magnavox ' s odyssey 2 , and colecovision , from coleco industries .
the intellivision is the vcs ' s major competitor . because it has far more random - access memory than the vcs , it can display an entire television frame without help from its processor - in fact , it must do so , because the processor can communicate with the video chip only during the vertical blanking interval .
the intellivision display has a background made up of a 20 - by - 12 -
card
array , with the cards ' content specified by the programmer . with a
character set
of different shapes , a designer can build up quite detailed scenes . however , because the proces sor cannot talk to the video chip while the display is being formed , line - by - line changes of background or moving objects are impossible . two or more of the intellivision ' s eight moving objects must be superimposed to get multiple colors . furthermore , p layer objects cannot be used again in the same frame , thus lessening the advantage that eight player objects give the intellivision over the vcs , which has only two .
the intellivision ' s forte , according to industry observers , is games with detailed but static displays . however , the speed of moving objects is entirely under the control of the programmer , since the hardware supports fast motion as least as well as t he vcs .
mattel is the victim of realism ,
said one hardware designer at mattel .
its games are slow because people try to make them like the real world , and it takes time to move from one end of a football field to the other .
sports and strategy games are well served by the intellivision controller , which combines a keypad with directional controls and action buttons , as opposed to atari ' s one - button joystick . on the other hand , some contend that the controller may be diff icult to use .
although the intellivision ' s inflexibility is counterbalanced by its great power , the odyssey 2 does not fare as well in the estimation of those who have examined it :
it is weak in everything ,
said rober ogden , president of action graphics , a freelan ce game company in carey , ill . david johnson , an imagic game designer who works with the odyssey 2 , said that it was a more primitive game machine . it has only eight colors , compared with intellivision ' s 16 and the vcs ' s 128 ( 16 colors and eight luminan ces ) . its four movable objects have only half the resolution of objects on either the vcs or the intellivision . the objects have only a single color , as do intellivision objects , and can be reused only if the display is blanked completely while they are being rewritten .