Antic The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 76 - The Bill Kendrick Show In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Bill Kendrick gets more mentions than when he’s on the show, Kay discovers he owns more Atari disk drives than the rest of the Atari community combined, and we discuss all the news rocking the Atari 8-bit world. 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 Worms? Source code archiving - https://github.com/savetz/worms  Atari Speed Reading Receipts - https://archive.org/details/atari-speed-reading-receipts  News  800XL PCB remake: https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-pcb-soldering-and-troubleshooting https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-bill-materials-bom https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-pcb-remake ATasm, a command-l

ANTIC Interview 408 - David Maynard, Electronic Arts Worms? David Maynard created the game/simulation "Worms?" Published by Electronic Arts in 1983, it was a launch title -- one of the five initial releases from the company. David, one of EA's first employees, wrote Worms? for the Atari 8-bit in FORTH. It was later ported to the Commodore 64. Worms is an interactive version of Paterson's Worms, a family of cellular automata devised in 1971 by Mike Paterson and John Conway. It is an unusual program, in which the player teaches wormlike creatures how to move on a hexagonal grid -- what direction to move in various situations. The worm's goal is to to grow and survive, and to capture more space on the grid than its competitors. Up to four worms could play simultaneously, with any combination of human- and computer-controlled worms. But the program's manual didn't tell you all that straight off. In fact, here's the first thing you saw after opening the package: "You will find detailed instructions enclosed. Do

Guy Nouri, Interactive Picture Systems Guy Nouri 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.. Its next program was Movie Maker, an animation program. Next came three educational titles for the Atari: Trains, a business simulation; Grandma's House, a sort of digital dollhouse; and Aerobics, a fitness program. The company also created Operation Frog, virtual dissection software for the Apple II and Commodore 64; and First Draft, an outline processor that helped kids plan their writing. This interview took place on March 7, 2021. PAINT! manual First Annual IPS Computer Film Show PAINT! in K-Power magazine

Atari at the Science Fair: Michael Fripp: Silent E An article was published in the Daily Press newspaper of Newport News, Virginia on February 13 1985, titled "Best in Show at Science Fair: Computer program helps young readers conquer the 'silent e' challenge'. Two years ago Michael Fripp wanted to make sure his younger brother didn't face a hard time learning how to deal with the "silent e" principle in reading lessons. Putting his own Atari computer to work, Michael developed a fun, educational computer program designed to teach then 6-year-old Daniel how to successfully pronounce words like "cap," "tub" and "man" when an "e" is added to each. "I remember the trouble I had with 'silent e' and didn't want him to have that trouble," says 13-year-old Michael, an eighth grader at Queens Lake Intermediate School. "There are lots of math but few English programs for computers. I hope to bridge that gap." Michael went on to expand the "silent e" program, complete with more detailed instruction and graphics, th

Heidi Brumbaugh, Antic and START Magazines Heidi Brumbaugh worked at Antic Publishing, where she started off as editorial clerk, then was promoted to editorial assistant, for both Antic magazine and START magazine, then was programs editor for START Magazine. She wrote many articles for Antic and START, including three programs for the 8-bits published in Antic: Red, White and Blue, a board game; Hot and Cold, a Master Mind-type game; and Antic Prompter, a teleprompter application. She met her husband through Antic publishing, START author and programmer Jim Kent, who also created the Cyber Paint program for Atari ST. This interview took place on February 28, 2021. List of Antic articles by Heidi Brumbaugh List of START articles by Heidi Brumbaugh Heidi's programs at Atarimania Heidi's review of Linkword Languages Cyber Paint by Jim Kent 2013 Interview with Jim Capparell, Founder of Antic Magazine

Atari at the Science Fair: Scott Ryder: Atari-Controlled Robot Here's an article from The Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) dated April 15, 1982: "Science proves Fair game to young minds". "Joseph Paul Ogas, 17, has designed a cheaper way to manipulate material beneath a microscope. Garey Nishimura, 13, has evaluated the relative flammability of several household fabrics. Theirs were the big winners among the 693 projects that filled the Fresno Convention Center Exhibit Hall for this year’s California Central Valley Science and Engineering Fair. "There were other interesting projects that didn’t win big [such as] 'The Effects of Birth Control Pills on Plants,' and 'Determining the Correlation Between Canine Howling, Cockroach Activity and Earthquake Prediction'." And later -- in the article's final paragraph, the reason for this interview: "Runners up [included] Scott Ryder, a sixth-grader at Ayer Elementary School: "Can an Atari 800 Control a Robot With Software?" Can an Atari 800 control a robot with sof

ANTIC Episode 75 - Video Wars In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… we discuss the merits of Sophia vs. VBXE for video upgrades, kick off the BASIC 10-liners contest, discuss some new games, and talk about numerous hardware upgrades that are coming. 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 Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games - https://amzn.to/3k8avzS  Code for Atari8BitBot (https://twitter.com/atari8bitbot) now on GitHub - (https://github.com/savetz/Atari8BitBot)  PC BASIC Bot - https://pcbasicbot.com  ACE80XL cart - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/  Interview with Claus Buckholz and Lance Ward - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-292-claus-buchhoz-lance-ward-ace-80 i

ANTIC Special Episode: My Atari by Suzanne Ciani   Over the years many of the people I've interviewed have generously sent me all different kinds of historical Atari material — including source code, schematics, documentation, books and articles, and design documents — and allowed me to share them. This is the first time someone has sent me a professionally produced song they created for Atari. After I published my interview with Suzanne Ciani, she sent me an email: she had found an unpublished Atari spot in her archives. It's a tune titled "My Atari". She sent it to me and graciously allowed me to share it with you. She wrote "I don't think it is a final. There are a bunch of mixes. Maybe you could shed some light on this as to whether it was ever used." Well, I'd certainly never heard it before, and don't think it was ever used. I suppose it might have been used internally by Atari, but it wasn't released to the public. Suzanne later said that she believes it was a demo for a campaign, but as far as she k

Dan Kramer, Atari Trak-Ball Controllers Dan Kramer worked at Atari from 1980 to 1984 in the consumer engineering group where he created products for the home computers and home video games. He championed the creation of the Trak-Ball accessories for the Atari game consoles and computers, and received a patent for his digital-to-analog interface for the Atari 5200 trak-ball. He also worked on the French (SECAM) version of the Atari XL computers, the Atari 2700, and various other projects. This interview took place on December 18, 2020. Playing Catch-Up: Dan Kramer (2005 interview): https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/97175/Playing_CatchUp_Dan_Kramer.php Patent: Digital-analog conversion for shaft encoders: https://patents.justia.com/patent/4496936 Video version of this interview at YouTube: https://youtu.be/l0E6BCrhka0

ANTIC Episode 74 - Name Wars In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… Kevin (er... Kay) and Randy have a name fight and, as usual, we bring you all the Atari 8-bit news that’s fit to print. 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 Party Dec 19 - https://www.facebook.com/groups/281252672436874  Kay’s 2020 Post-Mortem - https://www.patreon.com/posts/2020-post-mortem-45658000  Retrotink zero-latency HDMI converter - https://www.retrotink.com/product-page/2x-mini  Sid Meier’s Memoir - https://amzn.to/3oyobG4  BASIC games Kay recovered - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/315354-a-few-basic-games-i-recovered/  SIO2PC-USB case - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/product/sio2pc-universal-interfa

The Famous Computer Cafe This is a podcast episode featuring three interviews with people who created a radio show that did hundreds of interviews. The Famous Computer Cafe was -- not a restaurant -- but a radio program that aired from 1983 through the first quarter of 1986. The program included computer news, product reviews, and interviews. The program was created by three people — who were not only the on-air voices, but did all the work around the program: getting advertisers, buying air time, researching each day's computer news, booking interviews -- everything. Those three people were Andrew Velcoff, Michael Walker (now Michael FireWalker), and Ellen Fead Hansen (later Ellen Walker, now Ellen Fields.) For this episode of Antic, I got to talk with all three of The Famous Computer Cafe's proprietors. There were several versions of the show, which aired on several radio stations, primarily in California. A live, daily half-hour version allowed phone calls from listeners. Taped versions (running a half

John F. White: Writing Strategy Games On Your Atari Computer & Superquerg John F. White is author of the book Writing Strategy Games On Your Atari Computer and the creator of Superquerg and Negaquerg, computer chess programs that were distributed in New Atari User magazine. He was also a contributor to the UK computer magazines Popular Computing Weekly, Personal Computing, Practical Computing, and Computer Weekly, often writing about computer chess and game strategy. His book Writing Strategy Games On Your Atari Computer, published in 1983, offers “techniques for intelligent games,” with advice and BASIC code for programming tic-tac-toe, checkers, chess, and other board games. New Atari User’s description of SuperQuerg — it was a “disk bonus,” not a type- in program — was: “SuperQuerg Chess is a third generation program with alpha-beta pruning and iterative deepening. An alpha-beta window is also employed. Uses Shannon A and B strategies, killer heuristic and chopper functions, new methods for searchi

ANTIC Episode 73 - Randy’s Personality Board In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… we have a ton of Christmas gift ideas for that Atari nerd in your life (even if that nerd is you); we find out Randy has a broken personality board; and we bring you the Atari 8-bit news to fill out your life. 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 https://twitter.com/Atari8BitBot  Recent Interviews  ANTIC Interview 400 - Suzanne Ciani, pioneer in electronic music - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-400-suzanne-ciani-pioneer-in-electronic-music  News  River Raid “Cold Winter” for the Atari XL/XE Article at Vintage is the New Old - https://vintageisthenewold.com/river-raid-cold-winter-for-the-

Suzanne Ciani, pioneer in electronic music Suzanne Ciani is a pioneer in electronic music, Grammy-nominated composer, and recording artist. In the 1980's, she created music for television commercials, corporate tags, and audio logos for Atari as well as many other companies. She also created the soundtrack for the 1980 Bally pinball machine, Xenon. In addition to being an early adopter of electronic music, she educated the world about it, demonstrating sound design techniques on The David Letterman Show, 3-2-1 Contact, and other popular media. This interview took place on November 5, 2020. Suzanne Ciani's web site Suzanne Ciani Creates The Soundtrack For A Pinball Machine A Life In Waves trailer Suzanne Ciani interview in ANP Quarterly Vol 2/No 7 2012 Suzanne Ciani interview in LA Times Music Blog Suzanne Ciani on Letterman Suzanne Ciani on 3-2-1 Contact Atari Video Game Summer commercial This interview at YouTube  After the interview, Suzanne found an unreleased Atari song 

ANTIC Episode 72 - Pick and Place In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… we have as a guest Mr. Gavin Haubelt who runs the Vintage Computer Center and who is feverishly producing #FujiNets for the Atari community, Brad as the host of this episode shows why he’s considered the master of segues, and we talk about all the new hardware available or coming (such as the world’s smallest Atari 8-bit). 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/with_replies and https://atari8bitbot.com/  Weather app for #FujiNet: https://gitlab.com/bocianu/weather  https://www.howtogeek.com/697300/a-vintage-atari-is-an-amazing-weather-terminal-in-2020/  ABBUC membership and

Jim Tittsler, Atari 1600 prototype Jim Tittsler got my attention with a tweet, an old photo of a computer in a PC-style case, connected to Atari joysticks and disk drive. In the tweet, Jim wrote: "A prototype of what we hoped would become the #atari 1600: an Atari 800 grafted on to an IBM PC compatible. A Jekyll/Hyde mashup allowing you to plug in cartridges, SIO drives, and  PC expansion cards. It seemed a good idea at the time." So I reached out to Jim to learn more about that computer, and his time at Atari. Jim worked in Atari's Special Projects Group, where he worked on several pie-in-the-sky, unreleased, home computer projects including the Atari 1600. When Atari was sold to Jack Tramiel, he was re-hired, where he worked on the Atari ST, the Atari PC-1 IBM compatible, and other projects. He worked at Atari for more than a decade. This interview took place on September 9, 2020. Video version of this interview at YouTube Jim's Atari 1600 tweet Atari Museum on the Atari 1600

Dan Noguerol (Farb): Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative Two interviews with the same person, recorded more than four years apart. Dan Noguerol is better known to the Atari community as Farb. He is the mastermind behind the Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative, and years ago created SIO2Arduino, an Arduino-based disk drive emulator. I interviewed Farb on August 29, 2019, where we talked primarily about the Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative. That interview took place at the Fujiama Atari event in Lengenfeld, Germany. Our friend Roland Wassenberg sat in on the interview. Shortly after doing that interview, I learned that Randy Kindig had also interviewed Farb, on April 20, 2015, but got busy and hadn't published the interview. So in this episode, two interviews with Farb: my more recent interview first, then we'll go back to 2015 to hear Randy's interview. ... Since this interview was recorded, I received my SuperCard Pro, and have used it to digitize a couple hundred Atari disks.

ANTIC Episode 71 - Goodbye, Curt Vendel In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast...we say goodbye to good friend and Atari legend Curt Vendel and bring you lots of other Atari news. 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/with_replies and https://atari8bitbot.com/  https://twitter.com/Atari8BitBot/status/1307715507391324162/video/1  Indy Vintage Computer Club - https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndyVCC/  Recent Interview Shows K’s twitter thread about Sofcast - https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1299759503039062016?s=20  News  Curt Vendel died Aug 30 - https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-09-08-gaming-historian-curt-vendel-dies-at-53 and ht

Youth Advisory Board: Steve Cohen This is the eighth in a series of episodes featuring the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting teenagers from around the United States to share their opinions about computers and video games, test software, and promote Atari's computers at events. The group consisted of kids aged 14 through 18, including Steve Cohen. He attended George Washington High School in Denver Colorado, where his teacher, Dr. Irwin Hoffman, taught. George Washington High School received a grant from the Atari Institute for Education Action Research, Atari's educational support arm, The Atari Institute Newsletter (fall 1982) wrote: "High school students in a model math and computer program will use their grant of ATARI Home Computer systems to develop individual and group research projects in their own fields of interest. Extensible programming languages, such as FORTH, will be used to develop new syntax for use in other high school subjects: el

Kai and George Esbensen, Micro-Ed Software I first heard about the Micro-Ed software company when a member of the Atari community sent me a batch of educational cassette tapes to digitize. The tapes had titles like Maps and Globes, Punctuation, and Spelling Level E. Intriguingly, the tape labels said "Micro-Ed, creators of more than 2,500 programs, pre-school through adult." 2,500 programs? Why had I never heard of this company? I asked 4AM, a software preservationist specializing in the Apple II — and specializing in little-known educational software — if they had heard of the company. The answer was also no. So I started to research. A two-page advertisement in Compute! magazine issue 4, May 1980, provided my first glimpse into the company: "LOOK at all the MICRO-ED programs for the PET!" The titles listed include Agreement of Subject and Verb; Run on Sentences; Higher, Same, Lower; Word Demons; and (oddly) Usage Boners. Many of the software tapes were sold in packs, for instance $84 for a pack of 12 ele