Antic The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Mike West, Pirate Mike West was an east coast software pirate who went by the handle “Jolly Roger.” He was — and still is — friends with Gary Walton, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on October 9, 2015. Teaser quotes: “The whole thing was kind of bizarre. It’s like, on one side of their moth they would scream about piracy. On the other side of their mouth they would kind of — I don’t know, promote it in some way. It was very weird.” “Piracy did not kill Atari. Atari killed Atari.”

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: We explore the possibilities of new Atari software and hardware mods (yea faster Star Raiders explosions); and Randy delves into the turtle-y goodness of Atari Logo. Trigger warning: there may be some Amiga lust and gentle Apple // bashing in this episode. Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevin’s Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari books scans at archive.org ANTIC feedback at AtariAge Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge ANTIC Facebook Page What we’ve been up to “The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga (Platform Studies)” - Jimmy Maher, The MIT Press - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262017202/?tag=ataripodcast-20 News Brad Fuller Interview on Antic RetroChallenge - http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/retrochallenge-2012sc/ Mr. Atari releases new game called Lost In Space Fujiology Archive V2.1 – Biggest Atari Demoscene archive New Years Disk 2016 Listen to the Antic podcast on your Android device with a new app (b

Landon Dyer, Donkey Kong and Super Pac Man Landon Dyer started as a software engineer in the Atari home computer division in 1982, where he specialized in converting arcade games to the Atari 8-bits. There, he programmed the Atari 400/800 versions of Donkey Kong, and Super Pac Man — which was never officially released by Atari (but has been widely available for many years.) After the Tramiels bought Atari, he worked on the Atari ST, including BIOS boot code and the floppy disk driver. Landon’s blog, at DadHacker.com, has many interesting posts about his Atari days. This interview took place December 9, 2015. Teaser quotes: “In many ways, Atari marketing was completely divorced from the process of making games. They didn’t understand what programmers did, they didn’t understand what manufacturing cycles were.” “To get ROMs made inside of Atari you had to go through a mastering lab. So basically you’d hand a couple of guys disks. They would disappear into their lab, smoke some dope, and come out with ROMs. And

Tom Briscoe, APX Software Evaluator Tom Briscoe worked at Atari as an intern in the summer of 1981, where he evaluated the user-written software that had been submitted to Atari Program Exchange. This interview took place on September 26, 2015. Teaser quote: “Hangman was sort of the obvious game for people to submit, and if I recall the obvious business application was the personal finance and record keeping ... budget programs.”

Bob Brass and Peter D’Amato, Cauzin Softstrip If you read certain computer magazines from the early days of microcomputers — magazines like Byte, Family Computing, II Computing and InCider — you might see long, black-and-white strips of bar codes. Those are computer programs encoded for use with the Cauzin Softstrip reader. Introduced in 1985, the Cauzin Softstrip was a hardware peripheral that attached to your Apple //, Macintosh, or IBM computer (there was no Atari version.) It optically read the printed two-dimensional bar codes, which were published in those magazines and in books - allowing you to quickly input data - for instance, inputting programs without having to laboriously type them in. This interview is with two of the people at that company: Bob Brass was co-founder of Cauzin (along with Dr. Jack Goldman, who has passed away), and Peter D’Amato, who was Manager of OEM and VAR Support at Cauzin from 1984 through 1988.   This interview took place on October 5, 2015. Teaser quote: “I remember being

Jim Inscore, Documentation Manager Jim Inscore was hired at Atari in 1981 as a writer in the marketing department, then became documentation manager, where he managed writers and production staff to produce technical and consumer documentation for Atari computer hardware and software. This interview took place on December 9, 2015. Teaser quote: “A process where ... 12 different design firms came in and did 12 different versions of the packaging. Those of us who had been around for a while were just kinda sitting back and going ‘What is going on here? I don’t understand any of this.’”

Russ Wetmore: Preppie!, Sea Dragon, Homepak Russ Wetmore started at Adventure International, where he worked with Scott Adams on Savage Island Part II. He then went on to program Preppie!, Preppie! II, and Sea Dragon - all of which were published by Adventure International - and Homepak business software, which was published by Batteries Included. This interview took place on September 24, 2015, and then a little bit more on January 4, 2016.  After the main interview took place, Russ sent me the source code for Preppie!, Preppie! II, and Sea Dragon, plus an demonstration disk of an unfinished Atari game called Lulu. I successfully archived all of those disks and have posted them to archive.org. I also made a YouTube video of the Lulu demo. Links are below. Links Game source code Video of Lulu Lulu discussion and ATR download AtariMania list of Russ Wetmore software JavaScript version of Preppie AtariAge discussion about the source code Teaser quote: “I actually only spent about 18 months writing those three g

Paul Lewandowski, APX Puzzler Paul Lewandowski was in high school when he wrote Puzzler, which was published by Atari Program Exchange and won the Atari Star Award in fall 1983: first prize in the learning category. Puzzler is a game that shows you a picture on the screen, chops it into equally sized squares, and scrambles them. Then, the player uses the joystick to try to put the picture back together - like one of those plastic puzzles where you slide numbers around to put them in order. Puzzler had three difficulty levels: 4x4 was easy, 8x8 was hard, and 10x10 was “insane”. This interview took place on December 9, 2015 Teaser quote: “The whole thing was such a great idea ... having users write programs. It was so ahead of its time.”  Links APX catalog featuring Puzzler Puzzler download at AtariArchives.org Paul on Twitter

Clinton Parker, Action! Welcome to this special interview edition of Antic, the Atari 8-bit computer podcast.  All of our interviews are special in some way and we appreciate the time that the interviewees donate to the Atari 8-bit community at large.  This interview is a much-anticipated one due to the beloved nature of the software provided by the interviewee and due to the fact that the he has been away from the Atari 8-bit community for some time.  The software I’m talking about is the Action! programming language and the author is Clinton Parker.  Action! was released in 1983 by Optimized Systems Software (better known as OSS).  It quickly became one of the favorite programming languages ever produced for the Atari 8-bits and was used in the development of some commercial products.  The 6502 source code for Action! was made available under the GNU General Public License by the author in 2015. This interview took place on September 6, 2015 via Skype. Teaser Quotes “It was an opportunity for me having

Peter J. Meyer - Tempest Xtreem, Venture, Delta Space Arena The intro music to this episode is the tune “Mind’s Eye” from the Atari XL/XE version of Tempest Xtreem; composed by Sal KJMANN Esquivel.  Our guest for this interview is the author of Tempest Xtreem, as well as Delta Space Arena and Venture for the Atari 8-bits, Mr. Peter J. Meyer.  Peter has done a great job of developing game software for the Atari in the modern era and continues to develop additional software.  His software is available at Video 61 and Atari Sales, run by Lance Ringquist.  Please enjoy the interview and let Peter know you appreciate the work he continues to do for the Atari 8-bits. Teaser Quote: “I was on my Atari and my friends brought over this Nintendo system and they said ‘Oh, your Atari will never be able to do anything like this!’” Links: Video 61 and Atari Sales - http://members.tcq.net/video61/main.html Delta Space Arena at YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW_9myJ2Cu0 Tempest Xtreem Music (Mind’s Eye) by Sal Esqu

Larry Reed, Childware Larry Reed was a programmer for Childware, where he worked on two educational games for the Atari 8-bit computers: Word Flyer and D-Bug, both of which were published by Electronic Arts. This interview took place December 6, 2015. Teaser quotes: "I'll tell you, working with FORTH on the Atari was great until we exceeded the memory capability of the Atari, and then it was a royal pain in the ass." "'Anybody who thinks there is a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either.'" LINK http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-childware-inc_developer_298_8_G.html

Tony Nicholson and John Babinchak II, Hi-Res Magazine In this episode, two interviews for the price of one: two people who helped create Hi-Res Magazine — the computer magazine that only published four issues. First, we’ll hear from Tony Nicholson, the publisher of Hi-Res magazine; then John Babinchak, the editor of the  magazine. Hi-Res was a short-lived magazine dedicated to Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 computers. It was published from late 1983 to early 1984. Although they didn’t publish months on the cover, I believe the first issue would have have a cover date of November 1983. Subsequent issues would have been January 1984, March 1984, and the final issue was May 1984. Hi-Res came to the Atari magazine party late in the game, fighting against magazines with established advertiser and subscriber bases. A.N.A.L.O.G. magazine started in January 1981, and ANTIC magazine’s first issue was April 1982. Creative Computing was starting its tenth year around that time.  You can read all four issues of Hi-Res at w

Kevin Hayes, Atari Games Ireland On this interview episode, we take a trip to Ireland, and to the coin-op side of Atari. Kevin Hayes was Controller for Atari Irerland Ltd. in 1978, then became manufacturing director. Later he moved to California where he was VP of Manufacturing for Atari Games, then vice president of Operations. This interview was recorded December 7, 2015. Teaser quote: "They had goats grazing on our property, and ... he killed one of their goats, he slaughtered it. ... the owner of the goat came on the property and wanted to be compensated for it."

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: our annual holiday buying guide for Atari 8-bit lovers, we announce the winner of the interview transcription contest, I test all of the BBUC game contest entries, and we outright start bribing people to donate to archive.org. Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevin’s Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari books scans at archive.org ANTIC feedback at AtariAge Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge ANTIC Facebook Page What we’ve been up to Kevin KansasFest 2015 Session - https://archive.org/details/Kansasfest2015SessionsHowToGetInterviews part of https://archive.org/details/kansasfest Gideon Marcus digitized many disks fromJacksonville Atari Computer Enthusiasts and Lotsabyes, put them online at  http://sdfo.org/jace/ Tricky Tutorial #11 Memory Map Tricky Tutorial #6 Sound and Music News Bill Wilkinson has died Kevin’s 2014 interview with Bill - ANTIC Interview 7 - The Atari 8-bit Podcast - Bill Wilkinson, OSS R

Alan Ackerman, MPP Alan Ackerman co-founded Microbits Peripheral Products (MPP) with John Wiley. MPP made modems and printer interfaces for the Atari 8-bit computers. MPP also published software: Microfiler and Assault Force 3-D. The company would re-structure to become Supra, a giant in modems which became the largest hardware manufacturer for Commodore Amiga computers. This interview took place on October 2, 2015. Teaser quote: “The volumes got to be insane. ... You know, at that point if we had a product we were selling 5,000 units a month, we thought that was pretty damn good.”

Alan Stratton, plant controller Alan Stratton was Atari’s plant controller, managing the financial functions in the El Paso, Texas manufacturing facility. He was also involved with the infamous dumping of game cartridges in the Alamogordo, New Mexico dump. This interview took place on October 2, 2015. Teaser quotes: “A rumor got out that we were going to search people as thy left the floor, as they left shift. Later that evening as we went into the lavatories, the floors were littered with cartridges and PC boards that were fully functional.” “This was all planned in advance, until the landfill opened up a brand new cut - a brand new area - so that we could be on the very, very bottom.” “If I had an auditor come in, I’d sit him down at an Atari game console or my computer, and have him play some games. Boy that audit went sweet after that.”

Aric Wilmunder: Star Raiders II, Temple of Apshai Here’s how Aric Wilmunder introduced himself to me: “When The Last Starfighter didn’t do well in the theaters and marketing re-branded the Atari 800 Last Starfighter game as Star Raiders II, they didn’t take into account that there was already an actual sequel to Star Raiders that was just a few months away from completion.  I was the designer and solo engineer who worked for about a year on the project as a member of an R&D team inside Atari Coin-Op.  A friend helped me copy the disk image a few years back and when I saw Steve Hales post your tweet about the source code [for Star Raiders] I thought there might be some interest. “The game was close to being finished, but there were still parts that needed polishing like the enemy AI, so I’ve been hesitant to release it since it might be judged as a finished work. I’d hate to wait 30 years to release the game just to get a bad review.” Aric Wilmunder started writing programs on the Exidy Sorcerer computer,

Courtney Goodin, Compu=Prompt teleprompter Compu=Prompt was the first electronic, personal computer based teleprompter, which ran off of an Atari 800XL computer. It was created by Courtney Goodin, who won an Emmy award for it, for “Pioneering Development in Electronic Prompting.” He also created the Atari graphics programs Color Print and Graphic Master, both of which were distributed by Datasoft. This interview took place on December 4, 2015. Teaser Quotes: “This software is probably one of the most expensive pieces of software sold that ran on the Atari.” “We sold systems to companies like IBM, we sold to JC Penney, we sold them to the Defense Intelligence Agency - the government.” LINKS Photos of the device from the eBay listing: http://imgur.com/a/oc6S6 Device on eBay Proprompt: http://proprompt.com 1984 InfoWorld article mentioning Compu=Prompt Antic magazine article about Color Print and Graphic Master: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v2n10/ComputerArt.html

Anthony Jones, Atari UK Anthony Jones was general manager of Atari’s headquarters in the United Kingdom. Later he moved to the United States, where he was group product manager in the marketing arm. There he worked on the Mindlink controller, a controller for the Atari that strapped to your forehead with a headband. Later, he worked at Nolan Bushnell’s Catalyst Technologies incubator. This interview took place on September 22, 2015. Teaser quotes: “As opposed to a video game where it gets faster and faster as you go on the game (in the older games at least) this one was kind of the opposite: the more you relaxed, the higher your score cranked. It was quite a surreal experience.”

Forrest Mozer, Pioneer in Digitized Speech Forrest Mozer invented and patented the first integrated circuit speech synthesizer in 1974. He licensed this technology to TeleSensory Systems, which used it in the Speech+ talking calculator. Later, National Semiconductor also licensed the technology, used for its "DigiTalker" speech synthesizer. In 1984, Mozer founded Electronic Speech Systems to develop and market speech synthesis products. In 1994, Mozer and his son Todd, founded Sensory Circuits, Inc., now Sensory, Inc., where they developed the RSC-164 speech recognition integrated circuit.  Mozer has 17 US patents in the areas of speech synthesis and speech recognition. Electronic Speech Systems did the work to add digitized speech to several games for the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 computers. You can hear digitized speech created by ESS in the Atari versions of Kennedy Approach by MicroProse, 221B Baker Street by Datasoft, and Ghostbusters by Activision. The Atari versions often had fewer spoken phrases th