iPhone App Explains Inner Workings Of Atari 2600

It’s like Bill Gates wrote an iPhone app that explained Windows… but way more fun. David Crane, game designer, best known for Pitfall, is explaining how all that magic occurred inside the humble wires of the Atari 2600–in an interactive iPhone app.

Crane writes in his introduction: “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.”

Apparently we’ll see more volumes that explore how complex games manipulated the circuitry of the 2600 to create the games we all remember and love.

It’s a weird cross between an interactive manual and history textbook. If anything, it gives you a newfound respect for how much innovation and creativity game designers needed to make “simple games”.

If you don’t feel like paying $1.99, there’s also free version that gives you a good feel for the information and presentation style.

[App Shopper via @kobunheat]