









Consider this your regularly scheduled reminder that the Internet Archive continues to host some of the coolest relics of nerd history. Now, the scan-and-upload team led by Jason Scott delivers quite the piece of video game nostalgia: the Atari Coin Connection.

Long before consumer magazines and fan newsletters ruled the industry, Atari's first publication launched in 1976 to an audience of businesses and arcade operators. The publication existed to simultaneously promote new arcade games and offer operator advice for existing machines, and full archives of the mostly black-and-white newsletter can now be accessed in the form of pristine scans. Scott confirmed to Ars that these scans have been sitting on other sites for roughly eight years. "I have been handed a pile of manuals, newsletters, and magazines today—about 20 gig—and while a lot were already on the Archive, a bunch weren't, so I'm reconciling that," Scott said to Ars via e-mail. As a result, they're bound to receive much more attention and love.

The Connection's intriguing content begins all the way in the first issue, which includes a recommendation that seems hilarious in hindsight: encouragement for arcade operators to open and mod their own games. "When the beep goes out of your game or when the ping goes out of your Pong, if you want to inject new excitement into Atari games, do it!" it reads. The newsletter's explanation of how to clip and lift pins in arcade versions of Tank could have been used against Atari, had its $15 million lawsuit against General Computing Corp gone to trial. (The "speed-up kit" makers at GCC went on to make Ms. Pac-Man for Namco.)

Nine volumes can be found in all, and the dozens of newsletters offer all kinds of corporate-Atari gems, including insight on the "tokens vs. quarters" debate, advice about bringing actual sportscasters into arcades to do live commentary, and sweet, sweet merchandise. Come for the cool '80s-era art; stay for the incredibly awkward photos and corporate-cheese text.