The Atari Video Computer System™ started it all. There were other early game systems, but the Atari VCS (also known as the 2600) was the first commercially successful programmable home game player.
Then along came Activision - the first third-party video game cartridge publisher. Founded by unappreciated Atari game designers, Activision greatly expanded the state of the art of programming for the 2600.
Activision's first video game, Dragster™, is a perfect example of this. We all know by now that the Atari 2600™ was designed to display two 8-bit objects (like the tanks in the Combat™ cartridge). So how is it that Dragster™ can have two 48-bit wide, smoothly moving objects on the screen?
The Technical Wizardry Series includes a number of interactive volumes featuring hands-on illustrations to explain the many techniques used to turn the lowly Atari 2600™ game system into the most versatile gaming platform of the last century.
Volume Two explains the extremely obscure technical tricks invented to make a game like Dragster possible. Later volumes explore other popular 2600 games and how the simple video circuitry of the system was manipulated to make those much more complex games possible.