Once Upon Atari by Howard Scott Warshaw - Book Review

Howard Scott Warshaw had two successful titles under his belt at Atari before he took on a project that would later became the "accepted" cause of the Great Videogame Crash of 1983/84 (but only if you're in the USA - it didn't have that much of an effect elsewhere), the infamous E.T. This book, written by Warshaw himself, details not only his time at Atari but also his presence at the dig at Alamogordo in New Mexico back in 2014 that saw the popular gaming urban legend (that of excess E.T. cartridges being buried in the desert) proven true. Here, then, is his tale of working for Atari and what Warshaw did both before and after those rock and roll years.

It's quite easy to criticise some memoirs as there is the inclination to treat the words of the author with more than a little scepticism. After all, surely memoirs are written to big up the author and minimise criticism? In this case, no, not at all. What you get here is a warts and all recollection of how Warshaw came to be employed at Atari, create a stone-cold classic for his first game, and then demonstrate that rare ability to create a movie tie in title that actually homaged the source and not ruin it. That game, by the way, was Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was when he accepted the challenge of developing a title based on E.T in five (yes, count 'em, five) weeks that things went a bit sour.

Warshaw tells an engaging tale, of how he ended up at Atari, how he handled the development process of E.T. and of how he thought it went wrong. There is honesty, self awareness and humility, as well as a sense of confidence developed from life experience. That life experience was never that smooth, and Warshaw displays complete acceptance of his actions, both where things were good and bad. Above all though, there is humour, and his word puns are sublime. Well, I think they are, but many, many others might disagree. After all, there are two types of people in the world, those who love word play and those who don't. The third type should read this book to find out for themselves... 

The story itself is told in a roughly chronological order, with most chapters beginning with the author at the Alamogordo dig. It's a handy framing device that works well. He does take detours away from the main story every now and again, but they're informative little tidbits and, where necessary, he explains technical issues with aclarity. Warshaw also gets quite philosophical at times and this makes the book an even better read. His journey is your window into how Atari functioned and how, even to this day, working in the industry can affect people, and not usually in good ways. 

There are only a few photographs present, but these are contemporaneous to Warhaw's time at Atari or the Alamogordo dig. Some might want more imagery but those present do what they need to and I have no problems there.

As for the subtitle, that is addressed as the story unfolds. I agree with the author that, prior to the widespread use of the Internet, E.T. was a minor historical footnote. Since then, it's regularly topped "worst games" lists but that is to detract from Warshaw's achievement. A shipped title in five weeks (with associated burnout) that sold over a million copies. Was it the reason for the US videogames market collapse? Or were there other issues at hand? I'm not going to spoil it for you here, but there are many reasons for what occurred and to blame it on one particular title would be to ignore issues with the wider market and the people who ran the key companies at the time. 

This is yet another great addition to my videogames related library, and one that any fan of "not-quite original" Atari (post Bushnell, pre-crash) should have on their shelves. It would also suit anyone wanting to see how the industry has developed (or not) since those very early years. If you want to read more from Warshaw, he's had a regular column in Wireframe magazine for a while now which are well worth a read. You can pick up a copy of Once Upon Atari at Amazon here or order it from your local bookstore. You can also follow the author on Twitter here.