Stephen Romejko: APX Melt-Down, Moon Marauder Stephen Romejko published two games through Atari Program Exchange: Melt-Down and Moon Marauder. Melt-Down was first available in the winter 1982-1983 APX catalog. Moon Marauder was first available in the fall 1983 APX catalog, where it won third prize in the consumer category. This interview took place on April 14, 2018. "Melt-Down was causing some special issues ... Apparently the American Nuclear Society took offense to it. ... 'People would devel...
Jul 04, 2018•29 min
Allan Moose, Atari Assembly Language Programmer's Guide Allan Moose was co-author of the book Atari Assembly Language Programmer's Guide, which was published by Weber Systems in 1986. He wrote the book with his wife and writing partner, Marian Lorenz. She passed away in 1992. The two also wrote many articles for Antic and A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing magazines. Their articles included many about display list interrupts and vertical blank interrupts, and pretty mathematical graphics routines. This inte...
Jun 29, 2018•1 hr
In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: In this five-year anniversary episode of ANTIC, we reminisce back to show #1 all those years ago, our friend Nir Dary tells us all about Atari Invasion, Jeff Fulton of the Into the Vertical Blank Podcast gives us a game review of Star Island, plus all the Atari 8-bit news that we could find. Happy 5-Year Anniversary to us! READY! Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevin's Book "Terrible Nerd" New Ata...
Jun 24, 2018•2 hr 6 min
Larry Breakwell, Toronto Atari Programmers Society Larry Breakwell was founder of the Toronto West Atari Computer Support Group, then president of the Toronto Atari Programmers Society, which was the largest Atari user group in Canada. He adapted the Atari version of the book " Academy on Computers Hands-On Atari 400/800 Beginner's Manual " from a version of the book focused on the Commodore PET. These beginners manuals were part of the Academy on Computers, a self-directed learning activity bas...
Jun 14, 2018•24 min
Mike Sandau, Atari-CB Radio Hacking In the mid-1980s, Mike Sandau and his friend connected their Atari 8-bit computers to their citizens band radios to create a small radio-telephone computer network. Their "DIALOG" project combined the radio hardware with custom software (first in Atari BASIC, then later in Action!) to allow chatting, broadcasting messages, and binary file transfers over the air. Mike has uploaded the software, source code, and screenshots to the Internet Archive, and placed it...
Jun 08, 2018•30 min
Charlie Kulas: Musical Pilot, UpN Down Charlie Kulas published Musical Pilot, an educational game, through Atari Program Exchange. Musical Pilot first appeared in the fall 1983 APX catalog, where it was awarded third prize in the Learning category. He later worked at McT (AKA Microcomputer Technologies), a company that was contracted to program games by Sega. There he programmed the game UpN Down for the Atari 8-bit computers. This interview took place on April 20, 2018. Musical Pilot in the fal...
Jun 04, 2018•59 min
Youth Advisory Board: Yoon Park This is the sixth in a series of episodes featuring interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. This time, I got to talk with Yoon Park. 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 Yoon. Before these interviews, I like to read from...
May 31, 2018•18 min
Youth Advisory Board: Musa Mustafa This is the fifth in a series of episodes featuring interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. If you're just joining us: In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting 20 kids, aged 14 though 18, from around the U.S. to share their opinions about computers, test software, and promote Atari's computers at events. This is an interview with Musa Mustafa, who was one of those kids. A March 25, 1983 article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel by Lore...
May 29, 2018•41 min
Youth Advisory Board: Robert Allbritton This is the fourth episode in a series of interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. Robert Allbritton was one of the 20 kids who, in 1983, were accepted into the Youth Advisory Board, a group of teenagers who were able to take a trip to Atari's headquarters in California, enjoy free 1200XL computers, and he even got to work at Atari's booth at the Consumer Electronics Show. Robert was, and still is, friends with John Dickerson, another Yout...
May 26, 2018•32 min
Youth Advisory Board: John Dickerson This is the third episode in a series of interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. A quick recap: In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting 20 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, mostly regular kids, some computer geeks, and a couple of celebrities. This interview is ...
May 23, 2018•47 min
Youth Advisory Board: Anneke Wyman This is the second episode in a series of interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. In 1982-1983, Atari invited 20 kids, aged 14-18, to be on its new Youth Advisory Board. Atari was looking for well-rounded, computer-literate kids, with equal representation of sexes and a mix of ethnic groups. Anneke Wyman (now Anneke Wyman de Boer) was one of those kids. A wire service article about the Youth Advisory Board, by Kathy Holub, ran in several newsp...
May 20, 2018•27 min
Youth Advisory Board: Kerrie Holton and Tina Bartschat This is the first in a series of episodes featuring interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting 20 teenagers from around the United States to share their opinions, test new software, and promote Atari's computers at trade shows. The group consisted primarily of regular kids - some computer geeks, but most well-rounded teenagers. The group also included a couple of celebrit...
May 17, 2018•49 min
Hal Segal, Association of Time-Sharing Users Hal Segal was founder and president of the Association of Time-Sharing Users, and the Association of Small Computer Users, and several other groups dedicated to early computer systems. The Association of Time-Sharing Users was formed in 1974: it published a newsletter, which Hal wrote, as well as directories of terminals, applications, database management systems, and so on. Group members held meetings in various cities around the United States. Hal i...
May 14, 2018•38 min
Steve Englehart, Atari Advanced Games Group Steve Englehart worked in the Advanced Games Group of Atari, where he developed ideas for new computer games. He was the designer of E.T. Phone Home!, Final Legacy, and Garfield for the Atari 8-bit machines, and worked on several unfinished games. He wrote the manual for Eastern Front: 1941. This interview took place on November 17, 2017. A video version of this interview is available. Video version of this interview Steve's web site ANTIC Interview 67...
May 11, 2018•32 min
Jack Smyth, The Learning Company and Add-On Software Jack Smyth was the first CEO of The Learning Company, the educational software publisher best known for Reader Rabbit and Rocky's Boots. He was also involved with Add-On Software, a company that sold CP/M software for several computer platforms, including the Atari 8-bit line. The company built a hardware card, for use with the Atari 1090XL peripheral expansion box, that would have added CP/M functionality to Atari computers. That device was n...
May 07, 2018•38 min
Bryan Talbot, APX Cartoonist Bryan Talbot published one program for the Atari computer: Cartoonist, which was published by Atari Program Exchange. It first appeared in the fall 1983 APX catalog, where it was awarded first prize in the systems/telecommunications category. This interview took place on December 8, 2017. "I was just trying to contemplate what to do, and finally — I'd been going to all the missionary classes and I did the thing that they taught us to do. I just knelt down on the floo...
Apr 30, 2018•1 hr 11 min
Dwight Johnson, Lake County Atari Computer Enthusiasts Dwight Johnson was founder of Lake County Atari Computer Enthusiasts, a users group based in Waukegan, IL. He started the group in April 1983. The group still exists today as a general PC computer users group, and is now called Lake County Area Computer Enthusiasts. This interview took place on April 12, 2018. Lake County Area Computer Enthusiasts
Apr 28, 2018•19 min
Colin Hume, Computer War Colin Hume worked at Thorn EMI for about a year, where he programmed one game for the Atari 8-bit computers: Computer War. Computer War was based on the 1983 movie War Games. Thomas Cherryhomes joined us to ask Colin some questions of his own. This interview took place on April 12, 2018. "Of course it was so totally different. There was no specification, no one ever checked through your code. There was no documentation. There was no maintenance." Computer War at AtariMan...
Apr 25, 2018•21 min
Matthew McGinley, Elite Personal Accountant Matthew McGinley was the creator and publisher of Elite Personal Accountant, financial management software for the Atari computer. He released it in mid-1985 after working on it for several years. The review of Elite Personal Accountant by Stephen Roquemore in Antic magazine said, "This new program from a small company has just about every capability built into it that anyone could dream up. And the manual is one of the finest I have ever encountered. ...
Apr 22, 2018•36 min
Cynde Moya, Collections Manager at Living Computers: Museum + Labs Cynde Moya is Collections Manager at Living Computers: Museum + Labs. Located in Seattle, Washington, Living Computers is a computer museum that provides hands-on experiences using computers ranging from micros to mainframes. (Last time I was there, there was a Xerox Alto, an Apple I, and yes, an Atari 400 with a number of game carts, plus big iron like a Control Data 6500 and DEC PDP-10 - all those machines and more usable by vi...
Apr 19, 2018•47 min
Mike Matthews, Alien Group Voice Box That voice you just heard in an Alien Group Voice Box II connected to an Atari 800. Voice Box was a external speech synthesizer box for the Atari 400 and 800. Voice Box, and its successor Voice Box II, was marketed by "The Alien Group" starting in July 1982. The device used the Votrax SC-01A speech synthesizer chip to add speech and singing to the Atari. Versions were also available for the Commodore 64 and Apple II computers. The Alien Group was actually an ...
Apr 16, 2018•21 min
Winchell Chung, Avalon Hill games Winchell Chung worked at Avalon Hill computer games, where he was the Atari 8-bit computer programmer. He worked on Nuke War, B-1 Nuclear Bomber, Free Trader, Paris in Danger, and Vorrak. His best known game is probably Gulf Strike. This interview took place on April 10, 2018. "A good game with lousy graphics doesn't sell, but a lousy game with great graphics will." Atarimania's list of Winchell's games Winchell on Twitter Atomic Rockets...
Apr 11, 2018•48 min
This is ANTIC, the Atari 8-bit podcast. I'm Kevin Savetz. I love old computers. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you knew that already. I also love musical theater. So when I found out about Bits & Bytes, a 1983 musical about computers — well, that's right in my wheelhouse. Bits & Bytes was an educational touring production, created by South Coast Repertory Theater, a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California. It was a 45-minute musical show, aim...
Apr 07, 2018•1 hr 21 min
In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: In our 50th episode, Kevin tells us about all his secret tours, we tell you about upcoming contests, review new books, and read lots of feedback from our listeners. 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...
Mar 22, 2018•1 hr 31 min
William "Ted" Farmer, Eastern Front (1941) Scenarios Ted Farmer created one product for the Atari 8-bit computers, with an unwieldy name: "Eastern Front (1941) Scenarios For 1942, 1943, 1944". The disk of add-on scenarios for Eastern Front 1941 first appeared in the fall 1983 APX catalog, alongside Chris Crawford's Eastern Front (1941) scenario editor, the program that Ted used to create the scenarios. This interview took place on January 27, 2018. Teaser quote: "Some time later, I got a message...
Mar 06, 2018•36 min
Douglas Wilder, Ultimate Renumber Utility Douglas Wilder published one program though Atari Program Exchange, Ultimate Renumber Utility, which he co-wrote with his father, Justin Wilder. It first appeared in the winter 1981 APX catalog, but was featured in the catalog for less than a year: in the winter 1982 catalog, it was replaced by BASIC/XA, which did renumbering as well as other functions for programmers. This interview took place on January 26, 2018. Teaser quote: "So we got enough money o...
Mar 03, 2018•27 min
Jerry Horanoff, Carina BBS Software Jerry Horanoff was the creator of the Carina bulletin board system software for the Atari 8-bit computers, and later, Carina II. The October 1986 issue of ANTIC Magazine wrote: "This expandable, module-based bulletin board software package is written in understandable BASIC and includes XMODEM upload/download transfer protocol, message editor with word processor-like functions and a total of 44 commands, including 17 sysop functions. It operates at 300, 1200 o...
Feb 15, 2018•50 min
In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: In this first episode of 2018, we talk about the fact that ANTIC has been downloaded over ½ million times, we get a surprise visit from Thomas Cherryhomes, who talks about PLATO for the Atari, we offer Atari 8-bit gift options for Valentine's Day, Nir Dary tells us about some things he's been exploring, plus all the Atari 8-bit news that we could find. Happy New Year! READY! Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMaga...
Feb 10, 2018•1 hr 26 min
Rawson Stovall, The Vid Kid newspaper column As you no doubt gleaned from the clips of his appearances on CBS Morning News and The Tonight Show, Rawson Stovall was only a child when he started writing a syndicated newspaper column in which he reviewed computer games and home video games. The column, called Vid Kid, appeared in 20 newspapers around the United States. He was in fact the first nationally syndicated reviewer of video games in the country. He is author of The Vid Kid's Book of Home V...
Feb 02, 2018•58 min
Chris James, Thorn EMI Chris James worked at Thorn EMI, where he was a programmer and later a project manager. Later he founded James Software, which specialized in game conversions to various computer platforms. His long list of Atari game credits includes Darts, Tank Commander, and several jigsaw puzzle games such as European Scene Jigsaw Puzzles and Hickory Dickory Dock. He is also the husband of Hanan Samara, whom I interviewed previously, and whom you can hear providing color commentary in ...
Jan 29, 2018•21 min
