ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

In this episode of Antic the Atari 8-bit podcast: Nir Dary talks about all the available memory upgrade options (You need more memory!), we discuss what we've been up to in the Atari world, give you all the Atari 8-bit news that's fit to print, and tell you about our "of-the-month" finds. 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 ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue What we've been up to Vintage Computer Party in Indy - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/260834-indianapolis-area-vintage-computer-club/?hl=%2Bindy#entry3668612 Ultimate 1MB - http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=67 "Art of Atari" book by Tim Lapetino - http://amzn.to/2hrX54h "Atari Playground" by Fred D'Ignazio - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0810457709/?tag=ataripodcast-20 "Atari DOS 2.5 - 1050 Disk Drive Owner's Manual" - http://www.atarimania.com/documents/Atari%20DOS%202.5%20-%201050%20Disk%20Drive%20Owner's%20Manual.pdf Kevin's 2016 In Review - http://atariaction.tumblr.com/post/155282564737/2016-in-review Loyd Dorsett FBI FOIA Response Mark Reid — Getaway! archives and development documents Trinity and Seastalker: http://monsterfeet.com/grue/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/savetz News RECOIL 3.5.0 - View retro graphics formats: Atari, Amiga, Apple II, ZX81, more - http://www.techcentral.ie/recoil-3-5-0/ Mac GraphicConverter Awesome new 3D printed case for the Atari Ultimate Cart Dropcheck 1200XL Cartridge port extension ATR8000 on eBay The 8-bit High Score Club Season 14 - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/260911-high-score-club-season-14/ Pro(c) Atari Magazine Issue #12 & Boxed Software - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/260700-p-r-o-c-a-t-a-r-i-issue-12-available-now/#entry3670879 Pro(c) Magazine Website - http://www.proc-atari.de/ Fairlight game - http://atariteca.blogspot.com/2016/12/completan-port-de-fairlight-para.html Buy a piece of Atari stock! - http://scripophily.net/atcorfampion.html Joystick Breadboard Breakout - http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Joystick-Breadboard-Breakout-for-C64-VIC20-Atari-2600-VCS-Development/332087625644 Vintage is the New Old - http://www.vintageisthenewold.com/ Benj Edwards - "Baked at Atari" song - http://www.techsongs.com/index.php/2016/06/23/baked-at-atari/ https://soundcloud.com/benjedwards/baked-at-atari#t=0:00 Upcoming Shows: Atari Invasion - Feb. 18, 2017 - Marsveen, Holland - http://atari-invasion.nl/ VCF East - March 31 through April 2, 2017 - Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ VCF Southeast 4.0 - April 2 & 3, 2017, Roswell, GA - http://vcfse.org/ Tandy Assembly - October 6-8 - Chillocothe, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/ https://www.facebook.com/events/671911082972172/ CoCoFest - April 22 & 23, 2017 - Lombard, IL - http://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/index.shtml KansasFest - July 18-23, 2017 - Kansas City, MO - http://www.kansasfest.org New at Archive.org https://archive.org/details/ForYourInformation https://archive.org/details/SilicaShop19880420 https://archive.org/details/Atari1200XLHomeComputerFieldServiceManualRev01 https://archive.org/details/Atari1027PrinterFieldServiceManualRev01 https://archive.org/details/Mosaic64KSelectNewsletterIssue1 Mark Reid — Getaway! archives and development documents https://archive.org/details/adventure-international-catalog-v2n4-1981 https://archive.org/details/adventure-international-catalog-v2n5-1982 https://archive.org/details/high-technology-software-catalog-1982 https://archive.org/details/the_tracer_201701 https://archive.org/details/book_atari_software_1983 Of-the-Month JOY-2-PIC Joystick to Microchip PIC MCU ICSP Programmer​ at Ataribits - http://ataribits.weebly.com/joy2pic.html Mathy van Nisselroy home page - http://www.mathyvannisselroy.nl/index.htm AtariLand - http://atariland.org/ - Rick Matias Nir Dary Segment - Memory Upgrades Memory upgrade tech info - http://home.arcor.de/walter.lojek/MyATARIHomepage/old_hp/MemUp/MemUp.HTM Memory upgrades banking scheme - http://www.atarimania.com/faq-atari-400-800-xl-xe-what-kinds-of-extra-ram-and-ramdisks-can-be-installed_73.html Software that support more than 64k ram - http://www.atarimania.com/faq-atari-400-800-xl-xe-what-programs-support-more-than-64k-ram_74.html Best Electronics 256k Memory upgrade kit - http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/800xl.htm#Wizz B&C ComputerVisions Memory upgrade - http://www.myatari.com/atarixlh.txt Lotharek Ultimate 1mb - http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=67 Ctirad 576XE external memory upgrade - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/232856-ram320xe576-order-thread/?hl=%20ctirad and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8M3wbwAzlQ Antonia 4MB memory upgrade - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/249405-new-4mb-ram-expansion/?hl=%20antonia and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkyXepEq4WI How to install ATARI 400 Upgrade to 48k from 16k - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBqqfqjb-x8 1MB Simm ram expansion - http://satantronic.atari.sk/?str=xe_1mbram Hiassoft 512k SRAM upgrade - http://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/#sram512k Byte Magazine Article on 256k memory upgrade - http://atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=362652

Steve Gerber, VP of International New Product Development Steve Gerber was head of the Atari Software Acquisition Program. In October 1981, Atari opened its first Regional Software Acquisition Center, managed by Steve, in a 4,000 square-foot location that also housed the Atari Program Exchange (APX). Later Steve was Atari's VP of International New Product Development, in charge of software development for non-US markets. This interview took place on January 17, 2017. Teaser quote: "I had these guys that were in a barn that was built in 1100-something that had set it up to be their "office" somewhere in northern England, in the middle of nowhere. They had come up with a ... baseball cap that you'd put on and you could move the cursor with your eyes."

Mark Pelczarski, Penguin Software Mark Pelczarski was the founder of Penguin Software — later renamed to Polarware. Penguin published many graphics programs and games for Apple II, Atari 8-bit, and other platforms. The company's programs included Magic Paintbrush, Graphics Magician, Pie Man, Spy's Demise, The Spy Strikes Back, and Transylvania. Mark was editor of Softside Magazine for a time, and an editor of the book The Creative Apple, published by Creative Computing. This interview took place on January 10, 2017. Teaser quote: "It was not a competitive industry, really ... There wasn't too much as far as trade secrets. It was like, 'Hey, I figured out how to do this.' There was a lot of exchange of ideas and collaboration between the companies." The Digital Antiquarian on Penguin Software: http://www.filfre.net/2012/09/the-magnificent-penguin/ Wikipedia on Penguin Software: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Software Mark's web site: http://graphicsmagician.com/polarware/ Graphics Magician at AtariMania Penguin Software games at AtariMania Wikipedia on Mark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pelczarski ANTIC interview with Doug Carlston

Sheldon Leemon: Instedit, Circuit Lab, Mapping the Commodore 64 Sheldon Leemon was the creator of Instedit, a character set editor; and Circuit Lab, an electronics learning program that he co-created with with Mark Davids. Both programs were published by Atari Program Exchange. He wrote for several computer magazines, including Softside — where he wrote many reviews, and a game called Outer Space Attack; Compute!, and Creative Computing. He also wrote several computer books, including Mapping the Commodore 64, Compute's AmigaDOS Reference Guide, and Inside Amiga Graphics. This interview took place on January 9, 2017. In it, we discuss Arlan Levitan, Jerry White, and several other people that I've previously interviewed. There are links to those interviews, and Sheldon's programs and articles, in the show notes at AtariPodcast.com. Teaser quotes: "They're having so much fun that they don't want to take time to stop. Having a meal? It could take half an hour or an hour! You could be doing really cool stuff with that half an hour or an hour." "We looked at people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as the really bad guys. ... He wants to charge money for something that everybody else is giving away for free." Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/PnaFEyaJm_E Instedit in the winter 1982-1983 APX catalog Circuit Lab in the summer 1983 APX catalog Outer Space Attack in SoftSide magazine Some of Sheldon's articles in Compute! magazine: http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/index/index.php?author=Sheldon+Leemon Some of Sheldon's articles in Creative Computing magazine: http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/index/index.php?author=Sheldon+Leemon Arlan Levitan interview Jerry White interview

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." Roklan software at AtariMania 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

Paul Cubbage, Atari Program Exchange Paul Cubbage was Director of Atari Program Exchange. There, he was head of reviewing software submissions and publishing the APX catalog. He worked at Atari from April 1981 through January 1984. This interview took place on October 3, 2016. Teaser quotes: "First catalog, we went around and found every last utility or piece of software that we could put out there, unashamedly." "People used to complain about our royalty and I'd say 'Go to a flea market and sell [your software] off the back of your station wagon. The royalty is the royalty. I know it's not much." Fred Thorlin interview: https://archive.org/details/FredThorlinInterview John Palevich interview Art Prag interview Gray Chang interview: https://archive.org/details/Atari_Gray_Chang_Interview

Bill Stealey, co-founder of MicroProse Software Bill Stealey was co-founder of MicroProse Software, with Sid Meier. They started the company in 1982, and Stealey ran the company until it was sold to Spectrum Holobyte in 1993. MicroProse specialized in flight simulation and war games — the company's games for the Atari 8-bit computers include F-15 Strike Eagle, Hellcat Ace, Kennedy Approach, Silent Service, Solo Flight, Spitfire Ace, Chopper Rescue, Crusade in Europe, and Floyd of the Jungle. This interview took place on January 3, 2017. Teaser quote: "He learned a new technique so he made a flight simulator out of it. And Solo Flight beat out Fight Simulator that year at Handleman." Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/VFDKbseZrlY Bill on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ZoomieWildBill Wikipedia On Bill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Stealey Wikipedia on MicroProse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroProse MicroProse Software at AtariMania The Digital Antiquarian on MicroProse

Dan Corona, Atari Engineering Manager Dan Corona was Atari employee #9 — staring in 1972, where he remained until the Tramiel takeover in 1984. Dan was Engineering Manager, and worked in many divisions: coin-op, pinball, handheld games, and consumer. This interview took place on November 29, 2016. Teaser quote: "It pretty much killed the company. You know, you can't continue building the same thing over and over again and not create anything new."

Steve Ahlstrom: SynFile+ and PaperClip Steve Ahlstrom was half of The 4th Works, with Dan Moore. Together they programmed SynFile+, which was published by Synapse; and PaperClip, published by Batteries Included. The team also created BackTalk, a telecommunications program; and Sherlock, a disk sector editor utility. This interview took place on October 4, 2016. Teaser quote: "What's weird is, every now and then -- and this is, what, 40 years later -- I still get a random e-mail asking me for support for Sherlock or for SynFile, which is kind of strange." ANTIC interview with Ron Luks ANTIC interview Gary Yost Inverse ATASCII on SynFile+: https://inverseatascii.info/2014/12/16/s1e6-synapse-synfile/

Ben Smith, Atari sales and service This interview is part of the set of interviews we've done where we talk to many of the people still out there providing hardware, software, and/or support for our favorite computer. This interview is with Ben Smith, of Bravo Sierra Computers. As you will hear during the interview, Ben has been in the business of selling, servicing and supporting Atari items for about 32 years as of the recording of this episode. I hope you find this interview interesting and let Ben know that you appreciate all he has done and continues to do for the Atari community. This interview took place on March 26, 2016. Links: Bravo Sierra Computers - http://www.aracnet.com/~atari/ http://www.atari.org