Dead
Media | 0.01-02.0 | 02.1-04.0
| 04.1-06.0 | 06.1-08.0 |
08.1-10.0 | 10.1-12.0 |
Dead Media Working Note 06.5
Dead medium: Atari Video Music
From: montfort_AT_well.com (Nick Montfort)
Sources: VIDEO MUSIC MANUAL (Owner's Manual Model No.
Model C-240), Atari, Inc. (No date, but previous to
1978);
ZAP: The Rise and Fall of Atari, Scott Cohen, McGraw-Hill,
1984. ISBN 0-07-011543-5.
The cover to the manual has an image of a headphone-
wearing woman with a pair of VR-like goggles. On the
outside surface of these goggles, a pixelated geometric
pattern with rainbow colors is overlaid.
The Atari Video Music, however, does not look like
a set of VR goggles. It looks like a stereo rack
component. It plugs into the stereo for input and TV for
output. From the manual cover (((my comments in triple
parens))):
"Video Music adds a totally new dimension to the high
fidelity listening experience. For the first time ever,
you actually SEE the music you hear. You can explore a
limitless pattern of brilliant shapes, patterns and
colors, visually synchronized on your TV screen to the
music from your stereo system.
"Video music generates images from digital selection,
responding within milliseconds to the intensity and tempo
(((I wish I could figure out the tempo of a piece of music
within milliseconds!))) of the music being played. You can
control colors, shapes, and patterns while creating an
audio-visual concert. Or, set the controls to automatic
and let the unit function with its own random selection."
There are four buttons for shape (solid, hole, ring,
and auto), as well as knobs for gain, color, and contour,
and buttons to set the scan rate. The manual explains the
complex-looking process of adjusting the image, with
illustrations suggesting the different results you can
get.
The obligatory amusing anecdote about this dead
medium comes from Zap, pages 49-50:
"Bob Brown, an engineering supervisor from Atari, had just
designed Video Music, a game (((Atari's manual does not
claim that this thing is a game))) that hooked up to the
TV set and the stereo so that the sound from the stereo
produced psychedelic visuals on the TV screen. It was
Atari's most off-the-wall product. The man from Sears
asked what they were smoking when they designed it, and
one of the technicians stepped out from the back room and
produced a lit joint."
Dead
Media | 0.01-02.0 | 02.1-04.0
| 04.1-06.0 | 06.1-08.0 |
08.1-10.0 | 10.1-12.0 |