I’d never heard of “platform studies” before, but in “Racing the Beam” (2009) Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost do a good job of telling the history of the Atari 2600 gaming console from the perspective of its game developers. The book got a bit technical at times, but it was not overwhleming for the non-techie. And now I understand why the 2600 games that were ported from arcade versions looked almost nothing like the originals.
A good read for anyone who spent as much time as I did playing the Atari back in the day.
Read more from the publisher, and reviews from Wired and Retro Thing.