1
/
of
1
Pawel Grabarczyk
At the End of the Rainbow: The Identity Crisis of the Atari 8-Bit Computer
At the End of the Rainbow: The Identity Crisis of the Atari 8-Bit Computer
💎 Earn 205 Points (£2.05) on this item.
Regular price
£41.02 GBP
Regular price
Sale price
£41.02 GBP
Unit price
/
per
Taxes included.
Shipping calculated at checkout.
- Condition: Brand new
- UK Delivery times: Usually arrives within 2 - 3 working days
- UK Shipping: Fee starts at £3.89. Subject to product weight & dimension
Bulk ordering. Want 15 or more copies? Get a personalised quote and bigger discounts. Learn more about bulk orders.
Couldn't load pickup availability
- More about At the End of the Rainbow: The Identity Crisis of the Atari 8-Bit Computer
The shifting identity of the Atari 8-bit family, and how a single platform can provoke a universal debate about the purpose of computing.
Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Atari became synonymous with arcade gaming, producing iconic games such as Pong and Asteroids. 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 At the End of the Rainbow, Paweł 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.
As 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.
Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Atari became synonymous with arcade gaming, producing iconic games such as Pong and Asteroids. 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 At the End of the Rainbow, Paweł 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.
As 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.
- Publication date: 10 November 2026
- Page count: 320
- Dimensions: Height 233 mm; Width 153 mm; Thickness 25 mm
- Publisher: MIT Press Ltd
- Format: Paperback
- ISBN-13: 9780262054690
UK and International shipping information
UK and International shipping information
We deliver throughout the United Kingdom and to 128 countries and territories worldwide, including the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain and France.
