ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast ANTIC Interview 265 - Ronald Borta, Roklan Software
Ronald Borta, Roklan Software
Ronald Borta was co-founder of JACC, which made educational software under contract for Atari, where he programmed Atari States and Capitals and Atlas of Canada, and other software for the the Atari 400 and 800 computers. He moved to Roklan Software, the company that programmed hundreds of titles for the Atari computers and many other platforms of the time.
Roklan published a number of cartridges for the Atari computers, including Deluxe Invaders and Gorf. The company also produced Pac Man (published by Atari), Gyruss (published by Parker Brothers), Wizard of Wor (published by CBS), Mickey in the Great Outdoors (published by Disney), and myriad other game and educational titles. The company also created software for the Atari 2600 and 5200, Apple //, Commodore 64 and VIC-20, Texas Instruments 99/4A, ColecoVision, Intellivision, and other platforms.
He is known as the first person to have patented software.
This interview took place on December 9, 2016.
Teaser quotes:
"$25,000 that I got from Atari doing Pac Man turned out to be the best investment I ever made."
"I only did video games that did not feature violence against people. Then I end up in weapons systems."
1994 interview with Ronald in Atari Explorer Online: http://cd.textfiles.com/crawlycrypt2/txtfiles/aeo/aeo_0314/aeo_0314.txt
Roklan listing at GDRI: http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Roklan
ANTIC interview with Fred Thorlin: https://archive.org/details/FredThorlinInterview