Antic The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Dennis Zander: Artworx, Hazard Run, Strip Poker   Dennis Zander was one of the founding partners of the software publishing company Artworx. He programmed a number of games and educational titles, including Hazard Run, Rings of the Empire, Monkeymath, Giant Slalom, Intruder Alert!, Monkeynews, and others. He collaborated with Roger Harnish on Artworx popular Strip Poker game. This interview took place on June 13, 2019. In it, we discuss Art Walsh, whom I previously interviewed. Atarimania's list of Dennis' games Dennis' software at Archive.org ANTIC Interview 284 - Art Walsh, Dynacomp and Artworx Z-Stuff for Trains

Bruce May, Unreleased Magic Castle Game In 1982 Bruce May created Magic Castle, a game for the Atari 800 computer. He finished the game but was unable to find a publisher for it, so hardly anyone played it. In October 2019 he sent me scans of his original documents regarding Magic Castle: his design notes, and even rejection letters from the three companies that he submitted the game to: Catalyst Technologies, Avalon Hill, and Origin Systems. He hasn't been able to find the floppy disks with the game, but he does have printouts of the source code — which he also scanned and sent to me — so it could potentially be resurrected by the Atari community. This interview took place on October 13, 2019. Bruce's Magic Castle documents  Michael Sternberg got Magic Castle running again! 

Wolfgang Burger, President of Atari Bit Byter User Club Wolfgang Burger is the president and a founding member of the Atari Bit Byter User Club, the world's largest user group dedicated to the Atari 8-bit computer. The group was founded in 1985 in Herten, Germany. Today, the group has about 500 members from around the world. The group's quarterly magazine — still produced on an Atari computer — is almost certainly the longest continually published computer magazine anywhere. This interview took place on August 28, 2019, during the Fujiama Atari conference in Lengenfeld, Germany. Wolfgang doesn't speak much English, and I don't speak any German, so Roland Wassenberg provided real-time language translation. ABBUC web site

Bruce Irvine, Atari VP of Software Bruce Irvine was Atari's Vice President of Software — heading the company's new computer software division — from September 1980 through approximately July 1982. Among other responsibilities, he oversaw Atari Program Exchange and the opening of Atari "software acquisition centers." After leaving Atari, he co-founded Mindset Corporation with Roger Badertscher. This interview took place on November 7, 2019. In it, Bruce mentions Steve Gerber, Fred Thorlin, Dale Yocum, and Manny Gerard, all of whom we have previously interviewed. Infoworld — Atari Opens Second Software-Acquisition Center ANTIC Interview 268 - Steve Gerber, VP of International New Product Development ANTIC Fred Thorlin interview ANTIC Dale Yocum interview ANTIC Interview 78 - Manny Gerard, The Man Who Fired Nolan

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast:  Kevin hobnobs with Atari celebrities at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, Brad and Randy find out they’re podcast hosts #2 and #3, respectively, and together we cover all the Atari 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  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue   Donate to Ted Nelson project at: https://paypal.me/Savetz  TEH: Tech Enthusiast Hour - https://tehpodcast.com  What We’ve Been Up To 1088XLD by The Brewing Academy https://thebrewingacademy.com  Charlie Kulas' Leafer Madness — Development Notebook - https://archive.org/details/LeaferMadnessDevelopmentNotebook/ , https://twitter.com/KevinSavetz/status/1190788999884886017  Incognito from Lotharek - https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=275  Atari Projects book by Jason Moore -

ANTIC Special Episode — Atari 800 series computers: 40 years This is Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast. I'm Kevin Savetz. On Saturday, October 19, 2019 I had the privilege of taking part in a panel at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. The session was titled "Atari 800 series computers: 40 years." The panelists were Joe Decuir, one of the hardware designers of the Atari 400 and 800; David Crane, who was one of the developers of the Atari's operating system before he famously left Atari to co-found Activision; and myself. The session was attended by roughly 50 people. There were some difficulties getting Joe's computer to throw its video to the projector, and you can hear some fussing with that in the recording before it gets resolved. I had a great time participating in this panel celebrating the Atari 800's 40th birthday. Joe Decuir's slide deck for this panel Joe Decuir 1977 Engineering Notebook Joe Decuir 1978 Engineering Notebook

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast:  Kevin comes back from Fujiama with a report and Bill Lange joins us to talk about the David Ahl Collection that he acquired. 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  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue   Donate to Ted Nelson project at: https://paypal.me/Savetz  TEH: Tech Enthusiast Hour - https://tehpodcast.com  What We’ve Been Up To Fujiama (some photos http://abbuc.de/~atarixle/fuji/2019/ ) Pac man source project https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=PAC-MAN and https://archive.org/details/pacmansourcecode  Gift of chocolate from Austria from Siegfried Lenz https://twitter.com/KevinSavetz/status/1167000448412409857  Caverns of Mars poster https://archive.org/details/AtariCavernsOfMarsPoster  VCF Midwest - http://vcfmw.org/  SDrive MAX cases from S

Andrew and John Lenz: Atari Still in Productive Use in Store It’s very difficult these days to find vintage computers still in productive use out in the wild.  Andrew and John Lenz have an Atari 8-bit still in use, at the time of this interview, in the picture framing department at Lenz Arts in Santa Cruz, CA, a store that sells art materials and custom framing services.  The Atari computer has over 200,000 hours of operational time. (That's on and in use!) Running a program written in BASIC by Andrew in the mid-1980s. According to Andrew, it boots from a floppy every morning without fail. Store Web Site - http://www.Lenzarts.com

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast:  We try to catch up after being on hiatus for 2 months by bringing you all the Atari news we could find and we learn a new word in the process. 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  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue   Donate to Ted Nelson project at: https://paypal.me/Savetz  TEH: Tech Enthusiast Hour - https://tehpodcast.com    What We’ve Been Up To Whiz Kids - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiz_Kids_(TV_series)  KansasFest Megapodcast -  http://rcrpodcast.com/episodes/2019/7/28/rcr-episode-196-chicken-missile-kansasfest-megapodcast-i-don.html   Kevin’s Atari floppy drive stash - https://twitter.com/KevinSavetz/status/1158039012017205250  American Computer Museum, Bozeman, MT - https://acrmuseum.org/  Indy Vintage Computer Club - https://www.facebook.c

John Anderson: Rally Speedway and Arex John Anderson worked at Adventure International, where he coded several games: Eliminator, Rear Guard, and Sea Dragon for the Apple II, then Rally Speedway and Arex for the Atari 8-bits. This interview took place on May 22, 2019. In it, we discuss Scott Adams and Russ Wetmore,  both of whom I have previously interviewed. List of John's games at Atarimania John's web site ANTIC Interview 113 - Russ Wetmore ANTIC Interview 25 - Scott Adams, Adventure International   Video version of this interview

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: We have a special round table episode with Nir Dary, Darren Doyle, Roland Wassenburg, Thomas Cherryhomes joining the usual hosts of ANTIC where we discuss what everyone is up to in the Atari 8-bit world, including the latest shows (VCFSE and VCFE).  It’s an Atari mega-show! 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 ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue   Donate to Ted Nelson project at: https://paypal.me/Savetz TEH: Tech Enthusiast Hour - https://tehpodcast.com Links Mentioned in Show: The Modern Atari 8bit computer (Nir Dary) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmzjD_biYJ5hQf-MoK9Ztcw AVG Cart - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/278212-avgcart/ Atari ERIC kiosk - http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/400800/ERIC/index.html Type-In Task Force - http://ataribasiclisti

Roy Goldman, Daisy-Dot   Roy Goldman was the creator of Daisy-Dot, a typesetting program for the Atari 8-bit computers which he published from about 1987-1990. There were three versions of Daisy-Dot, the original plus Daisy-Dot II and Daisy-Dot III. The earliest version was freeware, and later versions asked for payment for access to special features.   This interview took place on May 11, 2019. After we talked, Roy sent me scans of memorabilia from that time, see the links below for those.   Roy's Daisy-Dot Memorabilia scans   Roy's Software on AtariMania   Compactor Detector   Roy's (old) site describing Daisy-Dot   Inverse ATASCII podcast review and screenshots   Daisy-Dot II review in Antic magazine   Daisy-Dot III review in Antic magazine   Programming with Daisy-Dot fonts in Atari Classics magazine

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: Kevin regales us with his exploits in the 10-Line BASIC Contest, we discuss the renewed efforts to show off Midi-Maze on the Atari 8-bits, and the entire staff prepares to be involved in several great shows this year ... 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 ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue   Donate to Ted Nelson project at: https://paypal.me/Savetz TEH: Tech Enthusiast Hour - https://tehpodcast.com What We’ve Been Up To Renderific is an SVG renderer for Atari 8-bit computers, written in Turbo-BASIC XL. It tries to parse SVG Tiny files and draw them on screen and/or on an Atari 1020 plotter. - http://github.com/savetz/Renderific.  It was featured on Hackaday - https://hackaday.com/2019/03/08/svg-rendering-comes-to-8-bit-atari-computers/ Xformer 10 emulator runni

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: Bill Lange joins us as a special guest, and he has lots of Atari Pascal news; we have all the Atari news fit to print, and more shows coming in 2019 than you can shake a stick at ... 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 ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue   Donate to Ted Nelson project at: https://paypal.me/Savetz TEH: Tech Enthusiast Hour - https://tehpodcast.com What We’ve Been Up To VCF East XIII -- Bill Lange -- Atari 8 Bit Maintenance and Repair https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWkzZr-ZOdo Bill Lange fixed Atari 822 Thermal Printer - https://www.facebook.com/groups/181644898539691/permalink/1963165623720934/ MagFest: A four day/24 hours a day celebration of (M)usic (A)nd (G)ames -National Harbor, MD  near Washington D.C. - https://www.magfest.org/ Old School

Philip Bouchard - MECC, The Oregon Trail Philip Bouchard spent over 30 years designing computer software, 18 of which were focused on educational software. He was the principal designer for the Apple II games The Oregon Trail and Number Munchers. The Oregon Trail is a computer game originally developed in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1974. The original game was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail.   "The Oregon Trail" is the world's longest-running video game franchise. This interview took place August 26, 2017. Links: Philip’s personal Web site - http://www.philipbouchard.com/ The Philipendium, Insightful stories about science, nature, language, and education - https://medium.com/the-philipendium “How I Managed to Design the Most Successful Educational Computer Game of All Time” article by R. Philip Bouchard - https://medium.com/the-philipendium/how-i-managed-to-design-the-most-successful-edu

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: late-breaking up-to-the-minute Atari news, Randy disappears mid-episode, and we hear what Atari was like in Chile... 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 ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue   Donate to Ted Nelson project at: https://paypal.me/Savetz TEH: Tech Enthusiast Hour - https://tehpodcast.com What We’ve Been Up To Kevin’s year-end blog - http://atariaction.tumblr.com/post/181930826652/kevins-2017-post-mortem Atari CX401: General Accounting System - https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=The%20Atari%20Accountant%20Series Official start of BASIC 10-Liners 2019 edition is January 30 - http://gkanold.wixsite.com/homeputerium/forum/_2019/official-start-of-2019-edition-is-january-the-30th Turban - TUrboBAsic Nifty - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/244686-tu

Stan Gilbert, Tricky Tutorials Hello, and welcome to an interview-only episode of Antic, The Atari 8-bit computer podcast. Stan Gilbert worked for Educational Software (previously known as Santa Cruz Educational Software) in the early 80’s and developed several products in the Tricky Tutorial series for the Atari 8-bit computer line.  He later also worked for Apple. This interview took place July 29, 2017. Links: Antic Magazine August 1987 - Vol. 6 No. 4 LINKBAS.BAS, LINKBAS.EXE: Link BASIC (with compiled version), programming utility by Robin Alan Sherer and Stan Gilbert, 99 (BASIC, binary load) http://www.elisoftware.org/index.php?title=Tricky_Tutorial_No._9_GTIA_Graphics_(Atari_8-Bit,_5_1/4%22_Disk)_Educational_Software_-_1983_USA,_Canada_Release - Tricky Tutorial No. 9 GTIA Graphics (Atari 8-Bit, 5 1/4" Disk) Educational Software - 1983 USA, Canada Release The Adventures of Proto - http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-adventures-of-proto-_125.html Stan on LinkedIn - https://www.lin

In this special Holiday episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: Nir Dary regales us with stories about SilliVenture 2018.  We share Atari gift ideas for yourself or others for Christmas.  Plus, all the Atari 8-bit news we could find... 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 ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue   Donate to Ted Nelson project at: https://paypal.me/Savetz TEH: Tech Enthusiast Hour - https://tehpodcast.com What We’ve Been Up To 1088XEL - https://ataribits.weebly.com/1088xel.html Atari CX401: General Accounting System - https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=The%20Atari%20Accountant%20Series http://atari8bitads.blogspot.com/2017/12/atari-bean-counter.html SDrive Max -  https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=SDrive-MAX Atari News Pole Position Graphics hack - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go2

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: What we’ve been up to in the past month PLUS all the Atari 8-bit news we could find... 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 ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue   Donate to Ted Nelson project at: https://paypal.me/Savetz TEH: Tech Enthusiast Hour - https://tehpodcast.com ANTIC Interview Index - here What We’ve Been Up To SDrive Max: Atariwiki - https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=SDrive-MAX Step-by-Step (German) - http://www.abbuc.de/~atarixle/readthread.php?f=15&t=9451&start=0 1 half SIO cable - https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=128 case - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2718842 Tandy Assembly - http://www.tandyassembly.com Living Computer Museum - https://livingcomputers.org Portland Retro Gaming Expo - http://www.retrogamingexpo.com  

George Morrison: Alpha Systems, Atari Software Protection Techniques books   George Morrison was founder of Alpha Systems, a company that produced many hardware and software products for the Atari computers, including The Parrot, and audio digitizer; MagniPrint II, a printing utility; and The Impersonator, hardware for copying cartridge-based programs; and other products. He was author of two books — Atari Software Protection Techniques and Advanced Atari Protection Techniques.   This interview took place on October 16, 2018. In it, we discuss Ed Stewart and Richard Leinecker, both of whom I have previously interviewed.   AtariMania's list of George's utilities   AtariMania's list of Alpha Systems' games   Atari Software Protection Techniques   Advanced Atari Protection Techniques   Space Walker   Talk is Cheap by Ed Stuart   ANTIC Interview 244 - Ed Stewart and Ray Lyons, APX Letterman   ANTIC Interview 153 - Richard Leinecker, Your Atari Comes Alive