The Ted Dabney Experience

TDE EP16 - Art of Atari author Tim Lapetino

Tim Lapetino on the underrated yet enduring legacy of Atari creative director George Opperman, and behind the scenes on both The Art of Atari and the forthcoming Pac-Man: The Birth of an Icon.

TDE EP15 - Atari Programmer Bob Flanagan

Honing his coding skills producing games for the Apple II, Bob Flanagan joined Atari in 1984. It was a difficult time for the company and the industry as a whole, yet Bob still managed to work on some of their best loved releases, including Paperboy, Marble Madness and Gauntlet. Bob tells us about collaborating with the brilliant but demanding Mark Cerny, having Ed Logg as a mentor and his experience of designing the swashbuckling Skull & Crossbones.

TDE EP14 - Q*Bert co-creator Jeff Lee

Jeff Lee was the original video artist at D. Gottlieb and Company, designing the character Q*Bert and working on titles such as Krull, The Three Stooges and the late Kan Yabumoto’s seminal Mad Planets. Jeff talks to The Ted Dabney Experience about his days at Gottlieb (later Mylstar) and, most importantly, the origin of Q*Bert’s vestigial limb.

TDE EP13 - Atari veteran Dennis Koble

Recruited by the company in 1976, Dennis Koble was one of Atari’s earliest coin-op game designers. Koble stayed with Atari for five years and was responsible for such notable titles as Avalanche, Sprint 2 and Dominos, before leaving to co-found Imagic. In 1984 Dennis would return to coin-op as Director of Software for Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell’s Sente. At no point did he sit in a hot tub.

TDE EP12 - Atari market researcher Carol Kantor

TDE EP11 - GCC’s Steve Golson (Ms. Pac-Man, Super Missile Attack)

The inimitable Steve Golson reminisces about his days evading Atari’s radar with GCC, subsequently being co-opted by the former for arcade classics such as the frantic Food Fight and the singular Quantum, and of course Crazy Otto (aka Midway’s Ms. Pac-Man).

The Retro Asylum Interview

A brief introduction to The Ted Dabney Experience podcast. Originally released as a segment for the Retro Asylum Christmas Special episode, 2020.

TDE EP10 - Rampage co-creator Brian Colin

We talk with Rampage co-creator Brian Colin about the early days at Bally Midway, applying his traditional animation know-how to the seminal Discs of Tron and meeting The Rock.

TDE EP09 - Kevin Hayes of Atari Ireland

The Ted Dabney Experience podcast talks with Kevin Hayes, former Managing Director of Atari Ireland. If you played an Atari arcade game in Europe during the proverbial Golden Age of video games, including popular third-party licences such as Cinematronics’ Dragon’s Lair, it bore Kevin’s fingerprints. We also discuss goat slaughter, littering and smoking the reefer.

TDE EP08 - The Pit co-designer Andy Walker

TDE Podcast takes you from the North East Yorkshire coastal town of Bridlington to Miami Beach with one of the very few Brits to have developed coin-op videogames for the American market during the Golden Age, Mr Andy Walker.

TDE EP07 - Joust and Sinistar designer John Newcomer

An in-depth discussion with John Newcomer, designer and lead developer of one of the most unique and enduring arcade games of the Golden Age, Joust. John talks to The Ted Dabney Experience about his influences and inspirations, hits and misses, his design philosophy, videogame violence and working with Eugene Jarvis, Warren Davis and the late, great Python Anghelo at Williams Electronics. And rubber chickens.

TDE EP06 - Doug Wismer of Canadian monitor manufacturer Electrohome

Electrohome supplied CRT monitors to all the big-name video arcade game manufacturers of the Golden Age, including Atari, Gremlin and Midway. Doug talks to us about how the company was saved from potential oblivion by arcade gaming; the pen, paper and handshake conception of Atari’s first vector monitor (over a pinball machine in Chuck E. Cheese) and the finer details of doing business with an early-Eighties JVC. Naturally, Paul asks about hot tubs at Atari.

TDE EP05 - Mike Hally of Atari on Lucasfilm, Star Wars, lost classic Akka Arrh and Gravitar

Mike Hally devoted a quarter of a century to Atari, from the Sunnyvale years through Time Warner, literally turning off the lights when the company (that most of us would recognise) closed its doors for good in 2002. The Ted Dabney Experience talks with Mike about the gentleman’s arcade game, Gravitar, lost classic Akka Arrh, shooting aliens on toilets and of course Atari’s seminal coin-op title, Star Wars.

TDE EP04 - Owen Rubin of Atari on Space Duel and Major Havoc

The Ted Dabney Experience Podcast talks to Space Duel designer Owen Rubin about the frontier days of videogame creation at Atari, the volatility of vector hardware, the original Boss Key, disco dancing, and Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell’s infamous pool parties.

TDE EP03 - ACAM Founder and President Gary Vincent

The Ted Dabney Experience Podcast catches up with a long-time friend, ACAM’s Gary Vincent. We discuss Gary’s early days at Funspot, NH, his participation in Randy Fromm’s Arcade School, Funspot’s transition from electromechanical to video arcade and the establishment of ACAM. Gary shares his views on repairing ageing CRT monitors, The King of Kong and its continued legacy, the Covid-19 lockdown and the future of The American Classic Arcade Museum.

TDE EP02 - Gorf and Robby Roto Developer Jamie Fenton

TDE sits down with Jamie Fenton, the developer of the original multi-game shooter, Gorf. We dig deep into Jamie’s early life and career with Dave Nutting Associates and Midway, covering transgender issues, Datsun sports cars, Larry Cuba of Star Wars SFX fame, the original US military application of the Gorf flight stick, the ill-fated Robby Roto, and the fascinating (yet ultimately aborted) development of Ms.Gorf.

TDE EP01 - Q*Bert Co-Creator Warren Davis

TDE talks to Q*Bert co-creator Warren Davis about the early days of videogame design at Gottlieb, lost Laserdisc classic Us Vs Them, his time at Williams Electronics working alongside Eugene Jarvis, and hanging out with Aerosmith.