ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Michael Darland, Microperipheral Corporation and Sofcast Michael Darland was co-founder of Microperipheral Corporation, and president of Sofcast, a system that sent computer data over AM and FM radio. Founded in 1979, Microperipheral Corporation produced 300 BPS modems for several brands of microcomputers, including models compatible with the Atari 8-bit computers. Using telecommunications software called TariTerm, the Atari compatible-modems worked with the Atari 850 interface, or by connecting directly to the SIO bus. Michael was also co-founder of Sofcast. Launched in August 1984, Sofcast was a system that sent computer programs and other data over traditional AM and FM radio stations. Listeners would use a $70 receive-only modem, called a Shuttle Communicator, to receive the programs that were transmitted over radio waves at up to 4800 bits per second. According to an article in the June 1986 issue of Modern Electronics magazine, "The software itself actually originates at the radio studio as a tape recording of what is essentially a modem's output. It's the same as if you fed an ASCII file through a modem, but recorded the modem's output instead of sending into a telephone line." An article in PC Magazine, May 28, 1985, provides more detail: "The show's format falls under the bailiwick of Robert E. Lee Hardwick, a veteran radio announcer of 25 years. Harwick's articulate voice serves as the common thread tying together the distinct parts of the weekly 30-minute show. At the microphone, Hardwick interviews guests like Bob Landware, developer of software for synthesizing music on PCs, or he demonstrates computing curios such as the Ghostbusters theme played over a Commodore computer speaker. ...What separates Hardwick's show from its counterparts, though, is the transmission of software, or sofcasts. Midway through the show, Hardwick advises the listening audience to ready their equipment for sofcasts. He briefly describes the program or data file to be sent and counts down the sofcast like a rocket launch. A 1-second beep follows, after which the actual software is broadcast. This typically lasts 10 to 12 seconds, terminated by another 1-second beep. Then Hardwick's voice returns. To transmit or download software across the air, Hardwick cables a device called a Shuttle Encoder to the serial interface port of his PC. With a program written by Microperipheral, he transfers the file to be sofcast to the Encoder, which converts it to analog signals. These signals can be taped or broadcast directly. ... The show is subsequently played on two AM stations in the Seattle/Tacoma area on Sunday nights, KAMT...and KXA. ...On the receiving end, the audience has an AM radio tuned to the show. Prior to the sofcast, listeners attach a Shuttle Communicator to the radio. A cable coming from the Communicator connects to the radio earphone jack. Another cable connects the battery-powered Communicator with the computer through the serial port. ...A special program, also developed by Microperipheral, is executed on the computer... It accepts a stream of data sent by the Shuttle Communicator to the serial interface and writes the data to a disk file. Since the show first went on the air in August 1984, Hardwick has sofcast a plethora of programs. The list includes spreadsheets, flight simulators, picture files, and games aimed at Commodore, Atari, Macintosh, Radio Shack, and IBM PC computers, among others. The public-domain programs distributed through the sofcast were initially received by only a few computers because of the limited availability of Shuttle Communicators." Later in the article, it says: "One of the biggest tasks facing Hardwick and his colleagues is to convince radio stations to air the show. ...Sofcast airs Sunday nights, sandwiched, on one station, between two religious broadcasts, a time when there 'is no revenue possibility at all, and hasn't been for 20 years.' Yet a computing audience is tuning in, and businesses can reach them through advertising without paying exorbitant rates." Sofcast would grow to broadcast on 30 radio stations in the United States. Michael Darland's co-founder for both ventures, Donald L. Stoner, was a world-renowned ham radio operator who died in 1999. This interview took place on May 24 and May 31, 2020. "Software Takes To The Air" in PC Magazine 1985-05-28 "Free BASIC programs by Radio" in Modern Electronics 1986-06 "Software On The Air" in Computer Shopper 1985-08 Cable Systems Talk to Computers by Donald L. Stoner Wave of Future in Computer Software May Come Over The Radio Sofcast receive-only modem Donald L. Stoner obituary Microconnection modem review in InfoWorld, Sep 20, 1982 Microperipheral Launches Low-Cost Videotex System Microconnection User Manual 2.0 Microconnection User Manual 4.0 Microperipheral Corporation Sofcast FSK data communication system patent Microperipheral Corporation Sofcast data communication system patent

ANTIC Episode 70 - Who Wants a FujiNet Anyway… I do! In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… we discuss the roll-out of the first 50 units of FujiNet, "virtual" shows remaining this year, new software, hardware and all the current Atari news riding the waves. 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 Grue Next Without For What We've Been Up To FujiNet - https://fujinet.online Lurking Horror, Infocom text adventure - http://monsterfeet.com/grue/notes/38 Atari Memopad from Wade at Inverse ATASCII - https://inverseatascii.info/2015/04/01/s1e14-atari-memo-pad/ SIO2BT - https://github.com/TheMontezuma/SIO2BT News Atari 1600xl prototype pics - Jim Tittsler - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/310176-new-atari-1600xl-prototype-pics-on-twitter/ Revive1027 Revived - Dragonstomper (Sascha Kriegel): AtariAge thread - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/271589-revive1027-order-thread/page/6/?tab=comments#comment-4614352 ABBUC forum - http://www.abbuc.de/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10455 Decrunch 2020 Demo Party was held in Poland - https://atariteca.net.pe/intros-atari-participantes-del-decrunch-2020/ ABBUC Magazine #141 - http://www.abbuc.de Atari dust covers at Retro Ready. - https://retroready.one/collections/atari/dust-covers Old Games Finder - http://www.oldgamesfinder.com/ Steve Boswell (Atari8bit) - De Re AVGCART - https://atari8bit.net/de-re-avgcart/?fbclid=IwAR1Y9clA_WOgBhStZnE33AzCHqpY9MkF-G5GZZ64-6I2kn5xm_WrZrDF8Ok New game on cartridge "Adam Is Me" pre-order - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/309962-new-game-on-cartridge-adam-is-me-pre-order-starts-today/ Shows Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people): September 12-13, VCF Midwest, Elmhurst, IL - http://vcfmw.org/ CANCELLED, but there was a call for virtual exhibits October 10 - 12, VCF East, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ GONE VIRTUAL + LIVE. NOTE: You can order a t-shirt to support the VCF events at http://vcfed.org/wp/t-shirts/ for $20 + shipping Event page created by Chicago Classic Computing - http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html?fbclid=IwAR3Fm5hf7PCQj0yXBxXvj9J8Mp8GDwD2w1bfD_qktpPOnNYNoQUmN_EpgB8 Event page created by Floppy Days - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/ Event page on Vintage Is The New Old - https://vintageisthenewold.com/vintage-is-the-new-old-releases-new-events-calendar/ YouTube videos this month Atari 800xl and 1010 loading with Rambit turbo upgrade - Mat Barker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gomWkGo5Q-g Atari 800XL motherboard restoration and system overview (Pimp My Eight, episode 6, part 1) - The Byte Attic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scifA1AUZlo Dead Atari 800XL gets Sophia RGB after repair - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHreoZNTIY New at Github Effectus - ACTION! Cross-compiler - https://github.com/Gury8/effectus Parallel data transfer between the Atari 8- bit computers and the modern world via the Atari's joystick ports - https://github.com/codingbychanche/atariParallelDataTransfer Bruce Lee Construction Kit (BLCK): build your own Bruce Lee for Atari 8-bit - https://github.com/fa8ntomas/blck Sally-to-W65C02S-adapter https://github.com/TheByteAttic/Sally-to-W65C02S-adapter Commercial https://archive.org/details/Hey_Australia_1982_Atari_AU_a.mp4 New at Archive.org https://archive.org/details/games-for-your-atari-600-xl/mode/2up (w disk image!) https://archive.org/details/mace-journal-v-5n-6-july-1985 New Atari User/Page6 https://archive.org/details/newatariuserpage6?sort=-publicdate Listener Feedback Rob Sherman - BBS - southernamis.com interview with Konstantinos Giamalidis (TIX) from Greece - https://atariteca.net.pe/tix-mi-objetivo-es-producir-la-mejor-version-de-los-sprites-de-8-bits-para-prince-of-persia/ "Compute!'s Third Book of Atari", first chapter, "Exponents" by Matt Giwer - https://www.atariarchives.org/c3ba/page003.php Possible side effects of listening to the Antic podcast include stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat; drowsiness, dizziness, feeling nervous; mild nausea, upset stomach, constipation; increased appetite, weight changes; insomnia, decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm; dry mouth, intense hate of Commodore, and Amiga lust. Certain conditions apply. Offer good for those with approved credit. Member FDIC. An equal housing lender.

Charles Marslett, MYDOS and FastChip Charles Marslett wrote floppy disk and hard drive drivers for Percom, and was the creator of MYDOS, a disk operating system for the Atari 8-bit computers that offered support for double density sectors, subdirectories, and hard drives. He also created FastChip, a hardware add-on for the Atari, sold by Newell Industries, that claimed to speed up floating point routines by 300%. He also created the A65 Assembler, a macro assembler. He has released the source code for MYDOS and FastChip. This interview took place on July 13, 2020. Charles' web site MyDOS at AtariWiki MyDOS 3.0 User Guide A65 Assembler at AtariWiki ANTIC Interview 212 - Wes Newell, Newell Industries ANTIC Interview 7 - The Atari 8-bit Podcast - Bill Wilkinson, OSS ANTIC Interview 11 - The Atari 8-bit Podcast - David Small ANTIC Interview 22 - The Atari 8-bit Podcast - Kathleen O'Brien, OSS Michael Abrash Zen of Assembly Language by Michael Abrash Zen of Assembly Language by Michael Abrash: free eBook version; code at GitHub

ANTIC #69 Show Notes, July, 2020 Title: Bill Collector Guests Bill Lange - https://twitter.com/BillLange1968 Bill Kendrick - https://twitter.com/billkendrick Nir Dary - https://twitter.com/ndary Bill Winters - https://twitter.com/TheGuruMeditate What We've Been Up To https://archive.org/details/stx_Program_Protection_Methods_for_the_Atari https://archive.org/details/program-design-international-captivity-manual News ABBUC Magazine - http://abbuc.de uDOS (ultra small DOS) - http://www.abbuc.de/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10347#p86149 Screaming Wings 2000 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/308643-improved-version-of-screaming-wings/ Atari 8-bit Display List Encoder - https://github.com/jtsom/DisplayListDecoder Atari 1064 memory expansion for 600XL - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-1064-Speichererweiterung-für-600-XL-RAM-Expansion-working/203022106013?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 , http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/XL/xlperipherals/1064.html Atari800MacX 5.0.4 - https://github.com/atarimacosx/Atari800MacX Atari Wall Art - https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/584958100/atari-wall-art-logo-sticker-decal?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=atari+computer&ref=sr_gallery-2-16&organic_search_click=1 Flop65 - http://flop.atariportal.cz/index.en.php Atari copyright registrations - https://archive.org/details/atari-copyright-registrations/ Kilobyte Magazine - https://retro.wtf/ Run Your Favorite 8-bit Games On An ESP32 - https://hackaday.com/2020/06/09/run-your-favorite-8-bit-games-on-an-esp32/ Bonus Life Computers - https://bonuslifecomputers.com/ Shows July 24-25, KansasFest - https://www.kansasfest.org/ (virtual) August 1, VCF West, http://vcfed.org/wp/2020/05/24/vcf-west-2020-will-be-a-virtual-event/ Aug. 20 - Aug. 23, 2020, Fujiama, Lengenfeld, Germany - http://abbuc.de/~atarixle/fuji/2020/ September 12-13, VCF Midwest, Elmhurst, IL - http://vcfmw.org/ , CANCELLED (might go virtual) October 10 - 12, VCF East, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ YouTube Atari 1200XL with UAV, Sophia DVI and Ultimate 1MB - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNj4vOQSv0o SIDE3: Final Progress Update - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65QOMDfYric Feedback Corey Huinker - https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmyjoystick/comments/gzr1tc/atari4001981seigelike_game/ Adam Trionfo Family Computing TV Show (Wikipedia) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubxigAp14Jg Ad for Family Computing TV Show - https://archive.org/details/family-computing-18/page/n103/mode/1up

Dorothy Siegel, Pioneer in Computer Music I'm Kay Savetz, and this is ANTIC: The Atari 8-bit podcast. This interview, however, is about events that happened before Atari released its first computers. This interview is with Dorothy Siegel, a pioneer in computer music. The music she created was on an IMSAI 8080 computer and a clarinet. The First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival was held August 25, 1978 as part of a show called Personal Computing '78 held at the Philadelphia Civic Center. In 1979, Creative Computing Magazine published a record album, also titled First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival. The 12" 33 RPM record was of music performed at the festival: 18 pieces, including Dorthy's. Dorothy was co-founder of Newtech, along with her husband Michael Abram and business partner Stuart Newfeld, a company that built add-on music cards for two S-100 bus computers: the IMSAI 8080 and the Southwest Technical Products Corporation 6800. The Newtech Music Cards cost $59.95 each. (Newtech was not the same company as NewTek, the company that sold the Video Toaster in the 1990s.) Dorothy performed Johann Wanhal's Rondo from Sonata in B-flat for Clarinet and Piano. The IMSAI, with three Newtech music boards, performed the piano part, and Dorothy accompanied it on clarinet. I'm going to play the song now. It's about four minutes long. Regarding Dorothy's song, the album notes read: "Newtech's music card for the S-100 bus is essentially a digital-to-analog converter controlled by an output port on the computer. The analog output is fed into amplifiers to be heard. This approach to computer music synthesis is extremely flexible since hypothetically any possible sound can be created. In actual practice the performance of the music circuitry is somewhat limited by the speed of the host computer. Each card can produce up to three voices output to one channel. Newtech's music software consists of a BASIC program which converts music into binary tables, and a machine-language interpreter to play the music with three voices and different envelopes. The piece on this record uses three cards each playing one voice." Check the show notes for an extensive list of links to people that we talk about and the articles that Dorothy wrote for ROM Magazine and Popular Electronics. You can hear the entire First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival at VintageComputerMusic.com or buy the album on a remastered audio CD directly from Dave Ahl of Creative Computing Magazine. This interview took place January 7, 2014, when I was doing research for a book about the first personal computer magazines. Although I've decided not to write the book, I am publishing the interviews that I did while doing the research. Personal Computing '78 flyer Popular Electronics magazine, January 1975 Edward Miller's Piece for Clarinet & Tape Stan Viet Electro-Harmonix ANTIC Interview 332 - Mike Matthews, founder of Electro-Harmonix ANTIC Interview 280 - David and Betsy Ahl, Creative Computing Magazine Samuel Abram, Dorothy's son ROM Magazine Issue 4: Scott Joplin on Your Sci-Fi Hi-Fi by Dorothy Siegel ROM Magazine Issue 5: Make Me More Music, Maestro Micro by Dorothy Siegel Popular Electronics November 1979: CP/M: The Standard Microcomputer Software Interface by Dorothy Siegel Listen to/download First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival album Buy the album on a remastered audio CD from Dave Ahl

Tracy Frey, Atari Birthday Girl There's an article in the New York Times, dated April 9, 1982: "8-Year-Old's Birthday Party in a Computer Center." The story, written by Barbara Gamareklin, is about the birthday party of Tracey Pizzo — now Tracey Frey — which took place at the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, DC. Quoting the article: Tracy Pizzo decided that Chunky's Cheese Pizza Parlor was not the place for her eighth birthday party after all. She chose the Future Center of the Capital Children's Museum, where her 13 guests were able to try their hand at the video games on 20 Atari 800 microcomputers. Without waiting to remove their coats and jackets, the girls, most of them 6 to 8 years old, rushed toward the glowing multicolored screens. In no time they were engrossed in computer games — from Asteroids and Find Hurkle to Lemonade Stand. "Go, Megan, go!" cried 6-year-old Enid Maran, who was still wearing her black kid gloves. "We have to explode those little stars." Megan Thaler worked her control lever and sent a stream of blue and red simulated antiaircraft fire across the screen in the direction of a small green airplane. Tracy's mother, Peggy Pizzo, said that Tracy's older sister, Cara, had been to the Future Center on a school field trip "and Tracy got so excited when she heard about it that she insisted we have a computer birthday party." ... "Tracy said the reason she wanted to come was because her friends liked to push buttons," said 11-year-old Cara, who had baked the white birthday cake with pink frosting that had "Eight" spelled out in strawberries. "What is your name?" the Birthday Banner computer asked. "And how old are you now? Are you a boy or a girl?" As Tracy typed in the answers and her friends serenaded her with "Happy Birthday," a five-foot computer tape slowly emerged from the machine, reading in letters six inches tall: "Happy Birthday Tracy."... Tracy, aided by her friends, Katherine Herz and Annamaria Hibbs, tried out her entrepreneurial skills at Lemonade Stand. ... Tracy played Hangman with her father, Dr. Philip Pizzo. She said, "Make it hard, but not too hard," as she closed her eyes and her father entered the word "Christmas" for her to guess, each incorrect guess slowly forming a hangman's noose on the screen.... Asteroids is the only noneducational game offered in the computer room... Computer birthday parties cost $5 a person, with a minimum of eight in a party... As for Tracy Pizzo, as she and her friends filed down the hall to the balloon-festooned party room for ice cream, cake and presents, she pronounced the day "just perfect." (end quote) In 1981, Atari donated 30 Atari computer systems to the Capital Children's Museum. The contribution allowed the museum to establish the Future Center "computer learning environment", to put computer programs in exhibits, and to create a software development lab. By the way, the Capital Children's Museum still exists — it's now called the National Children's Museum, but there probably aren't any Atari computers around to play with anymore. This interview took place on June 26, 2020. NYT — 8-Year-Old's Birthday Party in a Computer Center: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/09/style/8-year-old-s-birthday-party-in-a-computer-center.html Picture of Tracey and her friends: https://imgur.com/a/pD7RTF6 National Children's Museum https://nationalchildrensmuseum.org

David Gedalia, Atari-controlled Telescope Listener Paul Somerfeldt sent me a blurb he found in a book titled "The Dobsonian Telescope" by David Kriege and Richard Berry. The book reads: "Computer-controlled Dobsonian telescopes entered amateur astronomy in the late 1980s. An outstanding early example was David Gedalia's 10-inch f/4.5 Dobsonian driven by an Atari 800XL computer, shown at the 1987 Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. With the Atari driving altitude and azimuth stepper-motors, the telescope would move automatically to coordinates entered on the computer's keyboard. David was a third-year engineering student when he built this telescope." I sought out David to find out more about his Atari-controlled telescope. This interview took place on May 29, 2020. Photos of David with his telescope The Dobsonian Telescope by David Kriege and Richard Berry New Horizons in Amateur Astronomy by Grant Fjermedal

Brad Stewart, Covox Brad Stewart was the co-founder and chief designer of Covox, the company that created Covox VoiceMaster. VoiceMaster was speech digitizer and voice recognition hardware for the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, and Apple II computers. Covox's own demonstration audio tape describes it well, although the demo tape that I found doesn't mention the Atari. This interview took place on May 21, 2020. Aerosynth Brad's blog post about Covox Voice Master Kay plays with VoiceMaster in 2014 Covox Voicemaster Demo cassette A Bionic Approach to Speech Processing Escape from Planet X at AtariMania

Henry and Nancy Taitt, Creative Learning Association Henry Taitt was founder of the Creative Learning Association, which created books and classes about how to program computers in BASIC. Henry, along with his wife Nancy Taitt, ran the company from 1982-1988. The book series, TLC For Growing Minds — TLC means Thinking, Learning, Creating — delivered self-paced lessons about the BASIC programming language. Versions of the series were available for Atari 8-bit, Apple II, IBM PC, TRS-80, and other platforms. Each platform series had seven books with color-coded covers: the red cover was level 1, orange for level 2, yellow for level 3, and so on down the rainbow. Another series offered platform-agnostic microcomputer projects. The material was used as the bases for in-person classes at computer labs around the United States. Creative Learning Association also published a newsletter and a "national registry of computer programers" highlighting students who had progressed in the book series. I have been able to find and scan some of Creative Learning Association materials and upload them to The Internet Archive. This interview took place on April 14, 2020. TLC for Growing Minds book scans Nancy Taitt died in 2022. Her obituary.

Claudia Cohl, Editor-in-Chief of Family Computing and K-Power Magazine Claudia Cohl was the editor-in-chief of Family Computing Magazine for its entire run. Published by Scholastic, the magazine ran for 49 issues, from September 1983 through September 1987. Then it published 11 more issues, though August 1988, as "Family and Home Office Computing." Finally, it was rebranded "Home Office Computing". Claudia remained editor there until a new division was formed, and she moved to the Professional Publishing department to focus on magazines for teachers. In a 1983 New York Times article "Children's Magazine for a Computer Age," Claudia is quoted: "Our magazine is primarily for parents. Parents feel confused about computers and software and they feel they have no place to turn. We think parents will be using our magazine themselves or with their kids. Children will be picking up the magazine too." Claudia was also editor-in-chief of K-Power magazine, a computer magazine for kids. Only eight issues of K-Power were published, running from February 1984 to November/December 1984, after which it was merged with Family Computing. Our interview took place in two portions, on June 29, 2018 and December 11, 2019. Read Family Computing at Internet Archive Read K Power at Internet Archive Wikipedia on Family Computing New York Times article "Children's Magazine for a Computer Age"