Antic The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Jon Greer, Business Reporter   In this interview, we’ll hear the perspective of an Atari outsider — a newspaper reporter who covered Atari. Jon Greer was a business reporter for the San Jose Mercury News newspaper from 1981 to 1986, and business reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1986 to 1988. As part of his beat, he covered Atari; Chuck E. Cheese; and Catalyst Technologies, Nolan Bushnell’s incubator.   This interview took place April 17, 2015.   Teaser quotes:   “Atari was transforming the valley from Dull Engineer Valley to exciting consumer electronics valley.”   “I think Jack [Tramiel] had...a very undeserved bad reputation...He was one of the few guys — if anybody, maybe the only one - who knew how to take over this business.”

Jess Jessop   Jess Jessop was a software engineer at Commodore, writing diagnostics for the Commodore 64. Then at Atari, he started in the test and repair group for the Atari 400 and 800 SALT diagnostic cartridge, then moved to corporate research, Atari's R&D department under Alan Kay, where he was hardware team leader for the Sierra Project, Atari's unfinished laptop product.   This interview occurred April 15, 2015.   Teaser quotes:   "We brought up an APRANET node there in my cubicle. We played with e-mail at a time when you could send it and it would maybe get there today, maybe weeks from now."   "I spec'd out, for two guys, a 600 line a minute band printer with a quietized cover that cost $30,000 in 1980. It went right through. It was delivered next week."

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: We discuss new atari archive sites. Randy tells us all about BASIC XL Kevin delves into the sordid history of DorsETT Educational Systems Bill Kendrick fills us in on  a panoply of stuff, including a brain transplant for your 8-bit.   Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevins Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari books scans at archive.org ANTIC feedback at AtariAge   What we’ve been up to Jewel-encrusted Atari XL Alan Watson’s Gold Mine game at AtariMania New Computing Pioneers Interview Transcript Site Bob Kahn digitized material at Archive.org Atari PILOT II "Inside Atari DOS" by Bill Wilkinson and Compute! Books "Atari Player/Missile Graphics in BASIC" by Philip C. Seyer “The VisiCalc Book, Atari Edition” by Donald H. Beil Podcast Episode of Inverse Atascii about VisiCalc for the Atari Floppy Days episode on the Atari 400/800, part 3 of 3 SIO2SD   Interview Discussion Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge

Thomas Cherryhomes   Thomas Cherryhomes recently deciphered the Educational System Master Cartridge and decoded the “talk and teach” system used by Dorsett Educational Systems. He has created a C library called eduendcode which allows people to create new lessons using that format. Thomas and I are currently working to digitize and archive 46 sets of Dorsett courses.   To hear some background about Dorsett Educational Systems and their educational cassettes, listen to my feature about that topic in episode 23 of ANTIC.   This interview occurred on June 2, 2015.   Links All About Cassette Tapes - Atari document   Strong Bad Email #45, if he used an Atari 800   Complete set of archived Dorsett Educational Systems cassette tapes   Teaser quotes:   “I decided on a whim to approach Joe Decuir. Joe wrote me back about five minutes later. ‘Hello Tom. I am very impressed with your research and your findings.’”   “If you want to make your own tape formats on the Atari, go right ahead. You can bit-bang the POKEY

Pab Sungenis, developer   Hi, I’m Randy Kindig and this is an interview-only episode of Antic, The Atari 8-bit computer podcast.  Our guest for this show is Pab Sungenis, a long-time (and current) developer for the Atari 8-bits.  A long time ago, Pab wrote a popular piece of bulletin board software called AtariLink BBS.  He also developed an off-line mail reader.  He was also more recently involved briefly with enhancements to the SpartaDOS alternative DOS, arguably one of the best DOS’s ever developed for the Atari 8-bit.  His current project is an exciting one where he is working to develop a new programming language to target the Atari 8-bits.  I hope you enjoy this.   Teaser Quotes: “I kinda got into the habit of: if you need it, write it.”   “It surprised me when my hacks of Keith's (Ledbetter) programs started finding their way onto Compuserve.”   “What if you took Action! and you added object-oriented programming?”   Links: Pab Sungenis Website   Blog   grumpy cat for 2600 at YouTube   grumpy cat blog

John-Michael Battaglia   John-Michael Battaglia worked as a copywriter at Atari for about a year from 1981 through 1982, writing manuals and box copy for Atari 2600 and 5200 video games. He wrote the manuals for Atari 5200 Football, Space Dungeon, WaterWorld, Phoenix, and Adventure. He later worked at Catalyst, Nolan Bushnell’s incubator for technology startups.   This interview took place March 2, 2015.   LINKS John-Michael's web site   Digital Press interview with John-Michael   Teaser quotes:   “Debacle, yes. Debacle is quite the right word. That was probably my proudest moment.”   “I think of my first day I probably sent e-mails to my friends saying: you’ll never believe where I am now. I’m playing video games and getting paid for it.”   “It was another one of those instances where a writer could actually have input into the game design, provided the game designer was open to that kind of feedback.”

Steve Molyneux, German Software Development Manager   Steve Molyneux was Atari’s Software Development Manager in Hamburg, Germany from 1981 through 1984. He was responsible for the European side of Atari Program Exchange, and launching games at European trade shows.   Parts of this interview discuss adult situations, and are not appropriate for children.   This interview occurred on April 13, 2015   LINK 2008 photos of Atari Europe HQ   Teaser quotes:   “...In sort of private helicopters up to this chalet. I mean the amount of money that they spent when we had Warner money. . .”   “Castle Wolfenstein? That was definitely a no-no in Germany. I mean, that was just something you couldn’t talk about, you just couldn’t sell.”

Fred D'Ignazio, prolific writer   Fred D'Ignazio wrote more than 20 computer books, including Atari in Wonderland and The Atari Playground. He hosted four television shows about computers and robots, and was the "gadget guru" on Good Morning America. He was an associate editor and columnist for Compute! magazine, where he wrote the columns World Inside The Computer and On The Road With Fred D'Ignazio.   This interview was conducted April 10, 2015.   Teaser quotes:   "Katie and the Computer, my advance was $300. And I had to split it with my illustrator."   "You know Nolan Bushnell, right? ... He'd put his arm around me and say, 'Fred, How's it goin' in the world of the ankle biters and the little people?'"   "You could hear a pin drop after my speech. There was just this embarrassed silence, like 'Who the freaking heck is this joker they hired to speak at our convention?'"   LINKS   Fred reads to us   Fred Demonstrates the Amiga on Tom York’s Morning Show   Fred’s videos and articles   Fred’s articles in Comp

Cassie Maas, Atari Marketing and Tech Support   Cassie Maas started at Atari as a sales order processing clerk; then as a member of the marketing team, she evaluated new product ideas; then she worked in technical support, where she was the high-end technical support for word processing, and managed a BBS for user groups. She contributed to the 1984 book "InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari" and wrote for Antic magazine and Infoworld.   This interview occurred on April 6 and April 14 2015. Check the show notes atAtariPodcast.com to see the letter to Spencer Villwock that we discuss, plus links to her Atari writing.   Links http://i.imgur.comCassie's letter to Spenserp5IW6MC.jpg   InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari   Cassie's articles in Antic magazine   Teaser quotes:   “I was really excited about the computer and I said, ‘Do you think I could get a job there?’ He laughed and snorted... Within a year I not only had a job at Atari, I had his job.”   “I’m not accepting your resignation. You’re going to be la

Ken Balthaser, Atari Manager of Software Development   Ken Balthaser stated at Atari as part of a skunkworks group where he wrote software for speech hardware, then became manager of application software development. He oversaw the creation of the SWEAT system software, which were development tools for non-programmers to make graphics and sound assets; and the creation of arcade conversions such as Centipede and Defender to the 8-bit platform.  Prior to Atari, he was part of the team that created all of the software for the CyberVision 2000, an early personal computer that was sold by Montgomery Ward.   Ken is the father of Eunice Wlcek, an Atari employee whom I previously interviewed.   This interview was conducted April 9, 2015.   Teaser quotes:   "Those were really hectic, crazy days. I mean, at that point, Atari was the fastest growing company in the world. No company had ever grown that fast that quickly. ... And just as quickly, it flamed out."   "There were a lot of people involved in the creation of t

Eunice Wlcek, Atari Quality Assurance   Eunice Wlcek started at Atari as a secretary in the sales and marketing department, then moved to quality assurance where she did software testing. Later, she worked as a QA tester at Mindset, the graphics workstation company which was founded by several former Atari employees.   This interview was conducted March 19, 2015.   Teaser quotes:   “‘You’d be a great Ms. Pac Man.’ They made me Ms. Pac Man and I always had to dress up for these events with this big Pac Man costume on.”   “Mike’s company car was a Porsche. Whenever he wanted something done I got to take it and drive that around. And go do errands with the Porsche.”

Curt Vendel & Marty Goldberg, Atari Historians   Welcome to Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, one of the hosts of the podcast, and your host for this episode.  To give you a little background on this interview and where it came from, I also host another podcast on retrocomputing called Floppy Days, where I cover various vintage computers in the order that they were introduced.  I recently covered the Atari 400 & 800 computers and had asked Curt Vendel and Marty Goldberg, Atari historians, to help cover the history portion of the podcast.  I used excerpts from that interview on the podcast, but only used a small portion of the interview for that.  So, I thought I would air the entire interview, since it covers Atari computers, on Antic.   In this interview we discuss the history of the 400 & 800 in-depth, as well as discussing the passing of Steve Bristow, an Atari icon, the status of the Atari history books by Curt & Marty, and much more.   This interview was conducted Februar

Tom Hudson is a name familiar to readers of A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing magazine. He worked at A.N.A.L.O.G., where we wrote articles, games, maintained the A.N.A.L.O.G. TCS bulletin board system. His game credits include LiveWire, fire Bug, and Planetary Defense. He also wrote the popular DEGAS paint program for the Atari ST; and CAD-3D, a 3D graphics package, in conjunction with Gary Yost.   This interview was conducted April 17 2015.   LINKS Tom’s web site Tom on Twitter List of Tom’s software on AtariMania   Teaser quotes:   “Oh boy, probably one of the worst cases of vaporware I’ve ever seen.”   “We were dealing with stuff like cassette duplication. . . and none of us were crazy about that. I said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do a bulletin board? Have it’s so it’s subscription. Anybody who’s on the bulletin board won’t need to get cassettes anymore, because they can just download the stuff.”

David Kano, Hex-A-Bug   David Kano wrote the Hex-A-Bug debugger which was published by Atari Program Exchange. He also wrote two educational software titles for the Atari: Monkey See Monkey Spell, and Don’t Shoot That Word, which were both published by Hayden Software.   This interview was conducted March 24 2015.   Teaser quotes:   “I remember when I showed them the finished product they said ‘That’s great, except the monkey is too realistic. It’s too scary. Kids will be scared of that monkey.’”   “It was back in the day, when they were so desperate for programmers, they were taking anybody that seemed like they might be smart enough to learn how to do it. And then you learned on the job.”   LINKS   Hex-A-Bug in APX catalog   David’s Blog

Nicholas Lefevre, Attorney for Commodore and Atari   Nicholas Lefevre was in-house counsel for Commodore under Jack Tramiel during the time of the Commodore 64, then in-house counsel for Atari after Jack Tramiel bought it.   This interview took place April 10, 2015.   Teaser quotes:   "Particularly with Jack Tramiel, he was willing to give you enough rope to hang yourself. He was not a micromanager."   "At one point I think we had 160 or so collection lawsuits against us in the initial Atari years."   "I think really happily back on my Commodore times, less so on the Atari ones."   "When you made a computer, made it cheap, shipped it out, and sold it, that was perfect for Jack."   Nicholas Lefevre listened to his interview and send along these corrections to his statements:   "I did notice a couple errors in what I said which could be in an errata but they are probably not significant enough. At the beginning of my discussion of the Microsoft Multiplan story I introduced it by saying these things happened in

Jason Scott, Internet Archive   Jason Scott is a digital historian and documentary filmmaker who for several years has worked for the Internet Archive, a nonprofit that has worked to save as much online - and offline - culture as possible. He is also known to attend the occasional vintage computer festival, so as luck would have it, ANTIC and Jason were in the same festival at the same time, and we interviewed him on May 2, 2015 on stage at Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 3.0.   LINKS   The Internet Archive Pole Position - The Animated Series Jason on Twitter Jason’s Blog

Hello, and welcome to another interview edition of Antic, the Atari 8-bit Podcast.  I am Randy Kindig.  I am extremely honored to bring to you today an interview with one of the true pioneers of the personal computer, one of the primary designers of the Atari 400 & 800, Mr. Joe Decuir.  Joe worked closely with Jay Miner, Steve Mayer and others to design a computer in the days when personal computers were just in their infancy.  Joe shares with us the thoughts and reasoning that went into the design of the 400 & 800 and thus brings all of us a little closer to being a part of an amazing time in computer history.  Please enjoy!   Teaser Quotes:   “we wanted to build the next great game system and we wanted to build a computer”   “we were designing for home users not office people”   “We don't get to have slots; that drove us crazy”   “In retrospect, I wish we had built an 800-series machine with one built-in disk drive that was right on the bus”   Links:   Portland Retro Gaming Expo PRGE 2013 - Joe Decu

David Heller, Dr. C. Wacko   David Heller may be better known to Atari users by his pen name - Dr. C. Wacko. As Dr. Wacko, David wrote the books "Dr. C. Wacko's Miracle Guide to Designing and Programing Your Own Atari Computer Arcade Games" and "Dr. C. Wacko Presents Atari BASIC" as well as similar books for other platforms. He also wrote the book "Free Software For Your Atari" (and similar books for other platforms) and Space Knights, a unique product that was a novella that included related Atari games on disk. He also wrote for The Atari Connection magazine.   This interview took place April 20, 2015.   Teaser quotes:   "I think they sold well over 100,000 copies of that book. And they were very successful."   "A young engineer came up to me... and he says, 'You know, I am a professional software engineer now because I got so excited about writing software from your Dr. Wacko books.'"

Steve Carden, RealDOS   Steve Carden maintains RealDOS, a free, command-line DOS that's multiplexer capable, and still being actively maintained to work with modern hardware.  He also works on a variety of hardware products, some of which are available to Atari hobbyists, and some of which aren't. Steve also helped take over maintenance of BBS Express from Keith Ledbetter.   This interview took place February 27, 2015.   LINK Steve's web site   Teaser quotes:   "Just the fact that we have an Atari, that was never designed to be on the Internet, OK? -- NEVER designed to be on the Internet -- on the Internet."   "Anybody who has an XE keyboard, sooner or later is going to have a keyboard failure. At least that's been my run-in with them."

On this episode of Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast, AND Inverse ATASCII, the Atari 8-bit productivity podcast, we record live from Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 3.0!!   On this show we interview attendees with Atari stories, find out who's going to win the grand prize for our game show (hint: It's someone you may know!), and answer questions from the audience.  Come join us for the most fun-packed show we've had yet this month!     Links mentioned in this episode:   Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevins Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari books scans at archive.org ANTIC feedback at AtariAge   Show Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 3.0   Boisy Pitre Interview Liber809   Wade - Atari Portfolio UK Based Portfolio site with information about the system and a software repository Information about the system and how to load a binary program by hand (without file transfer) Atari Portfolio Wiki Atari Portfolio Information   Sources for game show Michael Current’s Atari Tim