{"product_id":"9780262054690","title":"At the End of the Rainbow","description":"By: Pawel Grabarczyk   | Series: Platform Studies \u003chr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe shifting identity of the Atari 8-bit family, and how a single platform can provoke a universal debate about the purpose of computing.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThroughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Atari became synonymous with arcade gaming, producing iconic games such as \u003ci\u003ePong \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eAsteroids\u003c\/i\u003e. Yet the company’s ambitions extended beyond games and consoles. In 1979, Atari launched its first 8-bit computer—a platform initially designed as a console before its release into the market as a computer. This ambiguous identity produced a curious marketing campaign that downplayed the computer’s main selling point as a gaming machine; within three years, Atari had switched tactics and repackaged the computer as a console. In \u003ci\u003eAt the End of the Rainbow, \u003c\/i\u003ePawel Grabarczyk examines how a device that had to shed its image as a “glorified console” later became a console accused of being a computer in disguise, resulting in its varied reception across the globe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs the Atari 8-bit platform faded into obsolescence in the West, it found unexpected success in other parts of the world—Chile, Eastern Europe, and especially in Socialist Poland, where it led the digital revolution and kickstarted the domestic gaming industry. Grabarczyk traces these divergent trajectories across capitalist and socialist contexts and explores how the platform’s fate sparked a larger debate about the boundaries between console and computer, between playful and serious users—and about the very purpose of computing itself.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"US - Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":49022878253283,"sku":"DTRMTUS-9780262054690","price":320.0,"currency_code":"HKD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1778\/4925\/files\/9780262054690.jpg?v=1779941508","url":"https:\/\/buybookbook.com\/en-mo\/products\/9780262054690","provider":"買書書 BuyBookBook","version":"1.0","type":"link"}