Antic The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 88 - We need more Atari shows! In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… lots of Atari action and news, loading Atari software from VHS, and a call for more Atari-specific shows READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  Links for Items Mentioned in Show: What we’ve been up to MT32-pi - https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi  https://archive.org/details/michigan-atari-magazine-complete-collection  https://archive.org/details/AtariFinalLegacyPoster  https://archive.org/details/ukraine-computer-poster-1989  https://rpilocator.com  576NUC+ cartridge upgrade - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/myteks-576nuc-atari-computer/products/myteks-576nuc-and-internal-fujinet  AVG Cart .ATR mod - https://atari8bit.net

Michael Park: Swan and Fujiboink Demos, MIDI Maze   Michael Park created two well-known demos that are familiar to many Atari enthusiasts: the Swan Demo and FujiBoink. In the Swan demo, a bird flies gracefully across the screen, in front of a spinning fuji logo. In FujiBoink, the Atari fuji spins and bounces over a red and white checkerboard, reminiscent of the Amiga Boing Ball demo.   Michael also helped create MIDI Maze, an early first-person shooter that used the Atari ST's MIDI ports to network up to 16 computers. He also worked on the 8-bit version of MIDI Maze, which was never officially released but became available nonetheless. Michael also created Shiny Bubbles, another demo for the Atari ST.   Michael was a friend of the owner of Xanth Computer Systems, an Atari dealer in Seattle, Washington. A 2013 article titled "Computer Dealer Demos: Selling Home Computers with Bouncing Balls and Animated Logos," published in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, stated:   "During the 1985 Winter CES, At

Scott Savage: Lefty, the Checkers Playing Robot "Lefty" was the name of the world's first checker-playing robot, which was located at the Omniplex science museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The robot arm would play games of checkers against museum visitors, picking up and moving pieces on a physical checkerboard. Lefty's game logic ran on an Atari 800 computer, which controlled the robot through the joystick port. Lefty was programmed by Scott Savage, the subject of today's interview. Before the interview, Scott digitized his Atari cassette tape with the code for Lefty. The tape had some problems, but Atari community member "atarigrub" successfully recovered the data. Scott also provided scans of several newspaper and magazine articles about Lefty. Both the Lefty program and those articles are available at Internet Archive. Also, be sure to watch the only known video of Lefty in action: Scott and Lefty appeared on the TV show "Dannysday" which aired on KOCO TV in spring 1984. This interview took place on

Anthony Ramos: Parrot, Creepy Caverns Anthony Dandrea is better known to Atari computer enthusiasts as Anthony Ramos. Anthony programmed Creepy Caverns, a type-in BASIC game that was published in Antic magazine's August 1984 issue. Anthony also created the software for Parrot, a $40 4-bit sound sampler and playback package that was marketed by Alpha Systems. In this interview, we discuss George Morrison of Alpha Systems, and Peter Langston of LucasArts, both of whom I have previously interviewed. This interview took place on April 8, 2022. Creepy Caverns in Antic magazine Discape Atari 8-bit Demo Discape disk image "Talk is Cheap" by Ed Stuart in Antic magazine Parrot manual Parrot review in Antic magazine Creepy Caverns with sampled audio Parrot Christmas demo Anthony's Conway's Game of Life Anthony on AtariAge ANTIC Interview 367 - George Morrison, Alpha Systems ANTIC Interview 126 - Peter Langston, LucasArts Ground Kontrol arcade 1984 article in Lorain Journal This interview on Yo

ANTIC Episode 87 - Good news, bad news In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we have tons of news, both good and bad, and lots of coverage of new hardware. READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  Links for Items Mentioned in Show: What we’ve been up to 576NUC+ cartridge upgrade - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/myteks-576nuc-atari-computer/products/myteks-576nuc-and-internal-fujinet  News FujiNet multi-platform - https://www.facebook.com/groups/fujinetusers/permalink/3255652564716397/  Brewing Academy updates - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/atari-800-xl-xe-xel-xld/products/xep80-ii-by-mytek  The SDRIVE Simple II from MyTek - https://ataribits.weebly.com/sdrive.html  ABBUC software competitio

Tom Zimmerman, AMY chip Tom Zimmerman worked at Atari from 1982-1984 where he was on the digital audio research team in Atari's Corporate Research Lab in Sunnyvale. There he worked on the AMY chip — a next-generation audio chip. Tom, one of four AMY team members, wrote the 8051 code to control the TTL prototype of the chip. The chip was never released. AMY, which stands for Additive Musical sYnthesis, was originally intended to be part of the Rainbow chipset, which was the core of Atari's next generation of 16-bit microcomputers. Those computers were never finished. Then, the AMY chip was announced to be the centerpiece of the Atari 65XEM, an Atari 8-bit computer with advanced sound capabilities. A prototype of the 65XEM was shown at the 1985 Consumer Electronics Show, but ultimately it was another computer that didn't make it to market. Also: in 1982 Tom filed a patent for a “Data Glove,” a glove with optical sensors to measure the bend of the wearer's fingers. He turned down a $10,000 offer from Atari to

ANTIC Episode 86 - Tangents In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… the BASIC 10-liners contest and the AtariAge High Score Club contest are on like Donkey Kong, new software and hardware is available for our favorite machine, K continues his archiving work, and we go off on several tangents READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  Links for Items Mentioned in Show: What we’ve been up to Kay’s 2021 wrap-up - https://www.patreon.com/posts/kays-2021-wrap-60367090  Current Notes (and other Atari magazines) collection at Internet Archive - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RkznDDlOL2O_K-RrbkajIuo6DvYof6Ajrn7j9NTcoDM/edit?usp=sharing  OHAUG disks - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/331816-digitized-ol-hackers-atari-u

ANTIC Episode 85 - Surprise Roundtable In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast...we have a surprise roundtable with guests Nir Dary, Jason Moore, Corey Koltz, and Bill Kendrick where we discuss numerous Atari 8-bit topics! READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  Links for Items Mentioned in Show: Youtube interviews: https://www.youtube.com/c/KaySavetz  Tracy Cullinan’s Glutton: https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1482204397903904768?s=20  New Atari FB group - Atari 8-bit Trader - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1573723729649614/  SIO2MIDI - https://thebrewingacademy.com/products/midi-for-your-atari-8-bit-400-800-xl-xe-xel-xld  Happy Drive - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_drives#Happy_Computers  Speedy 1050 -  h

ANTIC Episode 84 - Atari Resolutions for the New Year In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast...we each talk about our top Atari resolution for 2022 (although maybe not the type of resolution you were thinking), and discuss all the Atari news we could find for December, 2021. READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  What We’ve Been Up To Kay finished getting interviews into youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/KaySavetz)  Scanned material from Dan Kramer:  Atari 2700 https://archive.org/details/atari-2700-rc-stella  Atari Cosmos: https://archive.org/details/atari-cosmos  Atari 810 side board https://archive.org/details/atari-810-side-board-schematic  Atari 800XL SECAM (Rose) https://archive.org/details/atari-800xl-secam 

Tim Huntington: Krazy Kopter, Fire Chief, Adventures of Robin Hood Tim Huntington was an Atari game developer based in the United Kingdom. He programmed Krazy Kopter, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Fire Chief, which were published by English Software; and Despatch Rider, which was published by Mastertronic. This interview took place on December 23, 2021. Video version of this interview Tim's segment on Look North West UK TV AtariMania's list of Tim's games Tim on Twitter Tim on Instagram

ANTIC Episode 83 - The Dog Ate It In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast...Kay forgets to wear his ANTIC t-shirt, we all have new members of the family (and Brad’s eats everything in sight), Kay goes crazy scanning Atari magazines, and we have lots of listener feedback. READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  What We’ve Been Up To Atari Interface (was there a July 1991 issue?) https://archive.org/details/Atari_Interface_1989-11  https://archive.org/details/Atari_Interface_1989-08  https://archive.org/details/Atari_Interface_1989-07  Atari Interface Magazine - The Complete Collection" - 2,350-page PDF  - https://archive.org/details/atari-interface-complete-collection  The Advanced Home Computer course  https://arch

Jack Verson was the founder of JV Software, where he programmed and published several games for the Atari 8-bit computers: Action Quest, Ghost Encounters, and Journey to the Planets. Roklan Software repackaged Action Quest and Ghost Encounters into a single game, titled Castle Hassle. As part of On-Time Software, Jack programmed the Atari versions of Gyruss, James Bond 007, and perhaps other games, published by Parker Brothers. He ported the Atari 8-bit version of Joust to the Commodore 64. As Applied Systems Engineering, he programmed Time Tunnel for Commodore 64. This interview took place on December 2, 2021. AtariMania's list of Jack's software James Bond 007 Gyruss Journey to the Planets version differences and bugs Larry Kalpan thanks Jack in the manual for 2600 Activision Bridge Time Tunnel for Commodore 64 Jack's company, CDOAN  Mark Benioff review of Action Quest Popeye "V1" for Commodore discovered Verson quoted in Compute! "How the Pros Write Computer Games"

ANTIC Episode 82 -  FujiNet to Take Over the World! In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast...we have special guest Thom Cherryhomes who tells us why FujiNet is aiming to take over the world, we discuss the recent VCF Midwest and VCF East, and of course tell you everything going on in the world of Atari. READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  What We’ve Been Up To Thom’s talk about programming FujiNet at VCF East: https://youtu.be/A9jflXkSef4  Byte All Atari Articles - inspired by Allan Bushman's Computer Shopper All Atari - https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-atari-articles  Dan Kramer engineering notebook from his time at Atari - https://archive.org/details/dan-kramer-atari-engineering-notebook  VCF East video

Dave Johnson: Demon Attack, Atlantis; APX Lookahead; Personal Financial Management Dave Johnson programmed software for the little-known Interact Model One computer, and later worked as  a programmer for Atari, where he created the game Lookahead, which was published by Atari Program Exchange. Lookahead is a fun little strategy board game that you can play against the computer or another human. We think Dave Johnson programmed the Atari Personal Financial Management System, a slick-looking but buggy home finance package that Atari kept delaying, finally released a year late, then quickly discontinued. Read Bill Lange's blog post for the full story about that program. After Atari, Dave worked at Imagic, where he programmed the Atari 8-bit versions of the games Demon Attack and Atlantis. There, he also created the game Quick Step! for the Atari 2600. This interview took place on October 12, 2021. A video version is also available. AtariMania's list of Dave's Atari 8-bit games Play or download Lookahead

Margaret (Akin) Guilbault, Atari Camper Margaret Akin was one of the children who attended Atari's computer camps, and one of the kids who was featured in The Magic Room, Atari's movie about the camps. Her name is now Margaret Guilbault. Atari ran its summer camps from 1982 through 1984 at several locations around the United States. That first year, Atari commissioned a film about its summer camps, which was filmed at the San Diego location. Margaret attended Atari camp that first year in San Diego, then again in 1983 the Minnesota location. It turns out Margaret's first year at a computer camp was in 1981, the summer before Atari's first camps. Her first computer camp experience was at Zaca Lake -- near Santa Barbara, California -- hosted by a company called Computer Camp Inc., which used Atari computers. I talked with Margaret about her experiences at those camps, and taking part in the filming of The Magic Room, on September 12, 2021. You can watch The Magic room at YouTube and Internet Archive. In pr

Eric Podietz, Interactive Picture Systems Eric Podietz was co-founder of Interactive Picture Systems, a company that created software for 8-bit computers from 1982 through 1984. The company's first program was PAINT! for the Atari 8-bits, which was developed at the Superboots software development lab located at the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, D.C.. PAINT! was first published by Reston then by Atari. Their next program was Movie Maker, an animation program. Next came three educational titles published by Spinnaker Software: Trains, a business simulation; Grandma's House, a digital dollhouse; and Aerobics, a fitness program. The company also created Operation Frog, simulated frog dissection software for the Apple II and Commodore 64. This interview took place on September 9, 2021. In it, we discuss Guy Nouri, Ann Lewin-Benham, and Bill Bowman, whom I have previously interviewed. After the interview, Eric sent me the source code for his early Apple II program Painter Power, which I scanned and u

ANTIC Episode 81 -  Too Much Commodore In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we wax philosophical about Raspberry Pi upgrades for the Atari, discuss the drama that was the Atari fest of the past, and talk WAY too much Commodore! READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  What We’ve Been Up To Atari8BitBot - https://twitter.com/atari8bitbot  The Magic Room - 18-minute version https://youtu.be/Cs7jnOlNl9Y  (K’s tweets about it: https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1429130503622336514?s=20 ) New old Bits & Bytes pictures - https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1422715900805869571?s=20  VCFSE 8.0 was a success! - https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/  576NUC+ -  https://th

Jeffrey Sarnoff, Atari Research Group   Jeffrey Sarnoff started at Atari in the home computer division in 1981 as a software architect, where he worked on a 3-D graphics library. The next year he moved to Atari's Research Group, under Alan Kay, where he worked on a holographic animation system and a 4-dimensional strategy game. This interview took place on August 25, 2021.

Atari at the Science Fair: Mark Knutsen, Star Cluster   This is the third in a series of interviews called "Atari at the Science Fair" where I talk with people who used Atari 8-bit computers to create projects and enter them in science fairs. Today's interview is with Mark Knutsen, who wrote a star cluster simulation in the Forth programming language for his high school science fair. I found this blurb in the July 1986 edition of the Jersey Atari Computer Group newsletter: "June meeting highlights ... Mark Knutsen showed us his Star Cluster program in Forth that won a science fair prize for him. Mark’s program demonstrates the interaction of four stars in two planes. Mark also discussed Forth in general." This interview took place on August 21, 2021. If you'd like to see our talking heads — and the visuals of his program running — a video version of this interview is available at YouTube and Internet Archive. Mark has shared his program and the source code: those links are in the show notes. This interv

Tom Halfhill discusses Charles Brannon and SpeedScript Charles Brannon was program editor at Compute! Publications from 1980 until 1986. He wrote and edited articles for Compute! Magazine and Compute!'s Gazette. His Linkedin profile says that his "primary responsibility was crafting BASIC and assembly language software creations. Secondary was managing other young programmers." Charles' wrote and ported many type-in programs for the Atari 8-bit and other computers. His Atari programs included FontMaker, a character set editor and The Atari Wedge, for adding commands To Atari BASIC. His most popular and well-known program was SpeedScript, an assembly language word processor that was available first for the Commodore 64 in the March 1985 issue. In subsequent issues -- one month after another -- versions were published for VIC-20, then the Atari 8-bits, then the Apple II. Each version was a type-in listing that -- after excruciating hours of careful entry -- would build a powerful, functional word processor. C