Roland Gustafsson, Print Shop Companion Roland Gustafsson wrote The Print Shop Companion, an add-on package for Brøderbund's popular Print Shop software, which added a printable calendar, font and page border editors, and other features. He first developed the program for the Apple ][, then ported the software to the Atari 800 and Commodore 64. In the retro-computing community, however, Roland is best known for his work on the Apple ][, where he specialized in designing copy protection as well a...
Jun 23, 2016•34 min
Chuck Gibke, Air Raid! Chuck Gibke, published one piece of software for the Atari computer: Air Raid!. The game first appeared in the winter 1982-1983 APX catalog, where it won second prize in the entertainment category. This interview took place on April 22, 2016. "Winning the contest generated a little bit of prizes you could pick from Atari stuff, which was pretty amazing. There was like $2,000 worth of stuff. ... Several boxes of stuff showing up at the house one day and I thought that was j...
Jun 21, 2016•21 min
Steve Cavin: Minotaur, Juggles' House, Juggles' Rainbow Steve Cavin started at Cromenco where he built computer kits and tested hardware. Later he wrote several programs for the Atari 8-bit computers: Minotaur, which was published by Atari Program Exchange — it first appeared in the fall 1981 APX catalog; and the Atari versions of Juggles' House and Juggles' Rainbow, educational games published by The Learning Company. He also wrote "The Five Letters", a hangman-style game that - so far - I have...
Jun 19, 2016•32 min
Neil Harris: Commodore, Atari, GEnie Neil Harris started at Commodore as a member of the VIC-20 launch team, then continued to be a writer, programmer, and product manager there. He moved to Atari, where he was from 1984 to 1988. There he was hardware products manager, director of communications, and director of publications. He worked on Atari Explorer magazine, and wrote a bit for other publications including Compute!'s First Book of Atari and STart magazine. He later moved on to the GEnie onl...
Jun 17, 2016•1 hr 17 min
Jay Jaeger, APX Space War Jay Jaeger released one program for the Atari computers: Space War, which was published by Atari Program Exchange. It appeared in the fall 1983 APX catalog. This interview took place on March 16, 2016. Teaser quote: "It took a couple revisions back and forth. The program was fine; getting the documentation right, and yet have them be happy with it, was a little frustrating. But managed to get it done." Space War in the fall 1983 APX catalog Space War at AtariMania Space...
Jun 15, 2016•28 min
Joel Gluck: Babel, Attank!, Pushover, Fun-FORTH Joel Gluck published four programs through Atari Program Exchange: Babel, Attank!, Pushover, and Fun-FORTH. The first, Babel, was published when he was just 16 years old. He later worked at Atari's corporate research under Alan Kay. He also wrote a few articles for A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing magazine. Babel was available in the first APX catalog, fall 1981, where it won second prize in the Entertainment category. Pushover first appeared in the summer 1...
Jun 13, 2016•46 min
Ted Kahn, Atari Institute for Educational Action Research Ted Kahn was creator of the Atari Institute for Educational Action Research, which awarded major grants of Atari home computer products, and consulting services to individuals, schools, and non-profit organizations. The group granted more than $1.25 million in products and services to about 100 innovative people and projects around the US and overseas. He also co-wrote the books Atari Games and Recreations, and Atari PILOT Activities and ...
Jun 11, 2016•1 hr 13 min
Rob Zdybel, Star Trek, Missile Command, Bug Hunt Rob Zdybel was a long-time employee at Atari, having worked there from 1979 to 1996, when the Tramiels left. Rob has a long line of credits including Pigs in Space, Real Sports Football, Stellar Track and Star Trek for the Atari 400/800, SOS for the Atari 2600, Missile Command for the Atari 5200, and Bug Hunt for the Atari XE. He also designed the system BIOS for the Atari 5200. Rob mentions the SYLVIA game system in the interview, although he cou...
Jun 09, 2016•1 hr 20 min
Lane Winner: Graph-It, XEP-80, De Re Atari Lane Winner was an Atari employee for about a decade: he worked in the software development support group, as a programmer, and as an engineer. He is the author of Atari's Graph-It, contributor to De Re Atari, and designer of the XEP-80 80-column peripheral. Lane wrote several early releases for Atari Program Exchange: BASIC Cross-Reference Utility, BASIC Renumber Utility, and Variable Changer. This interview took place April 20, 2016. "OK, Lane. When y...
Jun 07, 2016•50 min
Dave Menconi, Atari Customer Service and User Group Support Dave Menconi started at Atari in 1982 doing customer support for the Atari computers. Later he moved to the marketing group, where he helped support the Atari users groups. Dave wrote the program "Dancin' Man" for Antic magazine, and wrote several articles for Atari Connection magazine. In this interview, we discuss Chris Crawford, Ted Richards, and Mike Albaugh, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on April 19, 2016...
Jun 05, 2016•40 min
Stan Ockers, public domain game programmer Stan Ockers started on the KIM-1 single board computer, where was was co-author of The First Book of KIM with Jim Butterfield. He later got an Atari 400, and became a prolific author of public domain programs which were distributed by users groups and in Antic magazine. His game credits include Chicken, Frog, and Bats, all of which were published in early issues of Antic magazines. Some of his programs were also published in Page 6 magazine. This interv...
Jun 03, 2016•20 min
Harry Guiremand, SynChron Harry Guiremand wrote SynChron, a calendar application, which was published by Synapse Software in 1983. This interview took place on April 15, 2016. Thanks to Wade at the Inverse ASASCII podcast for his research and suggestions. You can hear Wade's thorough review and walkthrough of SynChron at the Inverse ATASCII podcast. Teaser quote: "I had a password system where if you didn't guess the password correctly, you had to wait a little bit longer each time you missed it...
Jun 01, 2016•15 min
Greg Thrush and Marian Dillashaw: Stock Management and WordGo Greg Thrush published two programs through Atari Program Exchange: Stock Management and — with his wife Marian Dillashaw — Wordgo. Stock Management first appeared in the fall 1982 APX catalog, where it won first prize in the business and financial applications category. Wordgo first appeared in the summer 1983 catalog. This interview took place on March 4, 2016. Teaser quote: "If nothing else, it got them a little excited about techno...
May 30, 2016•23 min
In this episode of Antic the Atari 8-bit podcast, we are joined by Rob McMullen to discuss hacking on Jumpman, we explore several new hardware projects and new games. And we jump in the time machine to visit computer clubs in the 1980s. 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 SpartaDOS...
May 28, 2016•1 hr 47 min
Wes Horlacher, Magic Melody Box Wes Horlacher published one program in Atari Program Exchange: Magic Melody Box. Magic Melody Box first appeared in the winter 1982-1983 APX catalog, where it was awarded second prize in the education category. It was also published as Boîte à Musique by Atari France. Teaser quotes: "These machines aren't just for accounting and computation and mathematics. We can do creative things. Let's see what we can do with these machines to actually inspire the least thing ...
May 26, 2016•27 min
Steve Smith, ANTIC chip Steve Smith was an engineering technician at Atari from 1977 until 1979, where he worked on the development of the Atari 400 and 800 computers. He was one of the technicians who designed the ANTIC and CTIA chips. In this interview, we discuss Liza Loop, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on February 9, 2016. Teaser quotes: "...Huge roomful of 1 MhZ but not 1.1 MhZ devices. So that's what they put in the peripherals, was 6507 that they had surplus lyi...
May 24, 2016•50 min
Clyde Spencer: Stereo 3-D Graphics and Isopleth Map Making Clyde Spencer published two programs through Atari Program Exchange: Stereo 3-D Graphics Package and Isopleth Map-Making Package. Stereo 3-D Graphics Package was first available in the winter 1982 APX catalog, and Map-Making in the Spring 1982 catalog. Clyde was also co-founder of the Bay Area Atari Users Group, and wrote some reviews for Antic magazine. This interview took place on March 1, 2016. In it, we discuss Liza Loop and John Cra...
May 22, 2016•1 hr
Robert Waldman, Financial Asset Managment System Robert Waldman wrote Financial Asset Managment System, which was published by Atari Program Exchange. It first appeared in the Fall 1981 APX catalog, where it won second prize in the personal finance and record keeping category. As explained in my interview, Robert submitted a program called Atari 800 Olympic Gamebook System to Atari Program Exchange but it was not accepted or released. Robert sent me his only copy of the never-before-published Ol...
May 20, 2016•28 min
Tod Frye, Asteroids Hi, there! Welcome to the next in the series of Atari-related interviews being produced by Antic, the Atari 8-bit computer podcast. My name is Randy Kindig and I'll be leading this interview. Most notably, while working at Atari, Tod Frye developed the 400/800 version of Asteroids and the 2600 version of Pac-Man, converting them from the coin-op version. He has many other games to his credit. He later worked for Axlon, Nolan Bushnell's company. This interview was conducted on...
May 18, 2016•46 min
Ursula Wolz, early computing and education Ursula Wolz was thinking about computers and education in the early days of personal computing. She worked on Apple ][ games for Children's Television Workshop, consulted for Atari Research on their endeavors in educational software, and taught Logo to some of the first students who learned it. This interview took place on February 12, 2016 Teaser quote: "It was one of the first games that was completely graphical ... Because the kids using it might not...
May 16, 2016•24 min
Owen Rubin: Major Havoc, Space Duel Owen Rubin worked in Atari's coin-op division from 1976 to 1984 — he is best known for his programming work there on Major Havoc, Space Duel, and Battlezone. He also served as a go-between between the arcade division and the consumer division, where the Atari home computers were created. After that, he was a game designer at Nolan Bushnell's Bally Sente. In this interview, we discuss Ed Rotberg, whom I previously interviewed. This interview contains some coars...
May 14, 2016•1 hr 34 min
Randy Glover, Jumpman Randy Glover is the creator of one of the best games for the Atari computers, Jumpman, which was published by EPYX. He also created the sequel, Jumpman Junior, and programmed the swimming competition portion of Summer Games. Randy ported Jumpman to the Commodore 64 and created another C64 game, Lunar Outpost. This interview took place on May 7, 2016. I am joined on this interview by Rob McMullen, host of the Player/Missile Podcast, who has been working to reverse engineer J...
May 12, 2016•1 hr 25 min
Mike Silva, Syncalc Mike Silva worked at Synapse, where he wrote the Syncalc spreadsheet application. In this interview we talk about Ihor Woloseko, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on February 11, 2016. Teaser quotes: "If I had put out a game ... it would have sold a few thousand copies and that would been it. So I just got dumb lucky by being talked into writing a spreadsheet instead." "These guys, a lot of them, they were in the world - some of them - before they were ...
May 10, 2016•48 min
Richard Lindgren, APX financial software Richard Lindgren published two programs in Atari Program Exchange. Real Estate Cash Flow Analysis first appeared in the winter 1983 APX catalog, where it won first prize in the business and professional applications category. Strategic Financial Ratio Analysis was first available in the summer 1983 catalog, where it took second prize in the home management category. Richard also wrote the program Banjo Picker, "Program your Atari to make sounds like an au...
May 07, 2016•19 min
Marcin Sochacki, SIO2BT Marcin Sochacki, also known as Montezuma on AtariAge, is originally from Poland and currently lives in Germany. In recent years he developed theSIO2BT, or SIO to Bluetooth for the Atari computer line. This hardware allows you to connect your Atari to your modern computer,tablet, or smartphone to share files. Mar-TEEN also developed the NVC (Next Valid Character) software, a tool for organizing files on SD cards for SIO2SD. And, if that weren't enough, he also developed th...
May 04, 2016•1 hr 10 min
Al Casper: Counter, My Spelling Easel, Equestrian Al Casper published three programs with Atari Program Exchange. His first, Counter, was first available in the fall 1982 APX catalog. It won first prize in the learning category in that catalog. Counter was also released in a French language version by Atari France. Next was My Spelling Easel, which was first available in the spring 1983 catalog, and won second prize in the learning category. His third program was Equestrian, which appeared in th...
May 02, 2016•38 min
Michael Crick, Frogmaster Michael Crick created the game Frogmaster, which was published for the Atari computers by Atari Program Exchange. It first appeared in the summer 1982 APX catalog, where it won first prize in the entertainment category. Michael later made a version of Frogmaster for the Commodore 64. He created two other C64 games: Break Street (a break dancing game), and Go For the Gold (an Olympics style game) as well as TERSE, a programming language for the C64. Frogmaster cost $22.9...
Apr 30, 2016•34 min
On this episode of Antic the Atari 8-bit podcast, we venture out into the big scary world — both Randy and I went to VCF SouthEast, and Kevin went to the museum. The winners of the 2016 10-line BASIC programming contest are announced, and Bill Kendrick drops knowledge about the demo scene. 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 AtariA...
Apr 28, 2016•1 hr 37 min
Yakov Epelboim: Pushky and Devilator Yakov Epelboim is a Russian immigrant who published two programs for the Atari 8-bit computers. Pushky (which I learned is the Russian word for "cannons") was published by Atari Program Exchange, and first appeared in the Winter 1982-1983 APX catalog for $22.95. He also wrote Devilator, which he self-published as Zebra Company. Both programs were written in machine language, and both are unusual games, a little off the beaten track from other games of the era...
Apr 26, 2016•38 min
John Palevich: Dandy and Deep Blue C Compiler John Palevich wrote several programs which were published by Atari Program Exchange: the Chameleon CRT Terminal Emulator; Mantis Boot Tape Development System; Deep Blue C Compiler and its source code on a product called Deep Blue Secrets; and Dandy, a graphical dungeon crawl game that is famously the inspiration for the arcade classic, Gauntlet. He later worked in the advanced projects division at Atari, working on Atari's unfinished Eva computer pro...
Apr 24, 2016•1 hr 14 min
