ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Ted Toal, Cyan Engineering Ted Toal was a software developer at Cyan Engineering, an Atari research group. He worked on Atari's unreleased picture telephone as well as other projects. This interview took place January 24, 2016. Teaser quote: "He wanted to have toys that would be able to listen to sounds in a room and figure out where the sounds were coming from, and like maybe be able to turn towards the sound."

Peter Donoso, Atari Explorer magazine Peter Donoso was managing editor of Atari Explorer magazine from September 1991 through February 1993, primarily covering Atari during the ST era. This interview took place on November 23, 2015. Teaser quote: "[Jack Tramiel's] vision and his ability to find technology that was ahead of the market ... was just remarkable. I mean, he continually had these visionary ideas which he was able to actually implement."

Bob Brodie: User Group Manager for Atari Hi and welcome to another special interview edition of Antic the Atari 8-bit computer podcast. My name is Randy Kindig and I'll be providing the interview questions for this episode. I'm extremely pleased to provide this interview with a name well-known in the Atari community: Mr. Bob Brodie. Bob worked for Atari as User Group Manager and later Director of Communications from 1989 to 1994. Bob was directly involved in many of the Atarifests in that timeframe and I recall personally meeting him at an Atarifest in Indianapolis. I think you'll find that he has many interesting stories and perspectives concerning his time working for the Tramiels and even a story involving an Atari 1450XLD. I personally want to thank Bob for the time he spent talking with me, even calling me back when he remembered additional information or stories he thought might interest everyone. Bob is a classy guy and I enjoyed talking with him immensely. This interview took place on February 17, 2016. Quote "Oh, about 6 ½ feet up in the air, I see a 1450XLD, unboxed, just sitting there!" Links Dateline Atari! with Bob Brodie on GEnie - http://textfiles.com/games/CONSOLES/brodie.txt New User Group Coordinator, ROVAC ZMAGAZINE, Issue #171, August 22, 1989 - http://www.textfiles.com/magazines/ZNET/0170.txt INTRODUCING BOB BRODIE, START Columnist Makes His Debut, START VOL. 5 NO. 7 / APRIL/MAY 1991 - http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv5n7/bob_brodie.html Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rgbrodie San Leandro Computer Club - http://slcc.bdgeorge.com

John Harris: Jawbreaker, Frogger, Mouskattack John Harris created the games Jawbreaker, Frogger, and Mouskattack for the Atari 8-bit computers. He worked at Sierra On-Line and later Synapse Software. He later created video character generator systems based on the Atari machines. This interview took place June 10, 2016. Teaser quotes: "Literally — I mean, a day or two difference could have made — gosh, my goodness, what a huge difference in my life if I had gone into that store a couple of days earlier." "He just said, you know, 'I'll give you $1,500 a month to live on for two months, and if you haven't finished a game in two months, you won't make it in this industry anyway.'" "The general public opinion was, 'Oh, this is just more Jawbreaker.' ... But I still kind of have a fondness for it." AtariMania's list of John's software John in Halcyon Days: http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/HARRIS.HTM Jawbreaker in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawbreaker_(video_game) John Harris in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harris_(software_developer)

Bob Alkire and Steve Saunders, Rainbow GPU Bob Alkire and Steve Saunders worked in Atari's Corporate Research lab under Alan Kay, where they worked on the Rainbow GPU. Rainbow was a next-generation graphics chip (after ANTIC) which was never released. This interview took place on June 10, 2016. The first voice you hear is that of Bob Alkire. Teaser quotes: Steve: "And they basically went around the table and said, 'This computer project has software in it, therefore it belongs in my division.' — 'No, this project has hardware in it, therefore it belongs in MY division.'" Bob: "But he has a Kermit The Frog tie tack. I say, 'Nice tie tack.' He says, 'This is a close personal friend of mine.' I look up, and it was Jim Henson." Steve: "A trunk of the research lab had a completely fictional manager named Arthur T. Fishel." Wikipedia on Sierra and RAINBOW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Sierra

Eric Freeman: Bootleg and Weakon Eric Freeman published two programs through Atari Program Exchange: Bootleg and Weakon. Bootleg first appeared in the summer 1983 APX catalog: the catalog called it "a search-for-booty maze game submitted from New Zealand," and it received a rare full-page description in that catalog. Weakon was only available in the final APX catalog, winter 1983. That game was later published by Antic software. This interview took place on May 26, 2016 — for me — May 27 for Eric in New Zealand. Teaser quote: "I actually took both of the games on an overseas holiday with me and knocked on the door at Atari. This would have been in March of 1983. And someone from the Atari Program Exchange came out to meet me." Bootleg in the summer 1983 APX catalog Weakon in the winter 1983 APX catalog Eric's games at AtariMania Wikipedia on W and Z bosons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W_and_Z_bosons

Max Manowski, Wizard's Revenge Max Manowski wrote Adventure, a text adventure game that he released into the public domain to Atari users groups. Later, he modified Adventure and called it Wizard's Revenge, which was published by Atari Program Exchange. Wizard's Revenge was available in the fall 1981 APX catalog, the very first APX catalog. This interview took place May 27, 2016. Teaser quote: "In this adventure, each node that you went to was a separate file. And if you went to a node that didn't exist, then you could write the node as you were playing. You could write the node and say what happened." AtariMania's list of Max's games Wizard's Revenge in the fall 1981 APX catalog Gaming After 40 playthrough of Wizard's Revenge Wizard's Revenge re-typed by the author

Frank Paris, Mathlib for Deep Blue C Frank Paris wrote Mathlib for Deep Blue C, a library of floating-point functions for use with the Deep Blue C programming language. Mathlib first appeared in the fall 1983 APX catalog, where it won second prize in the systems/telecommunications category. The Deep Blue C compiler was written by John Palevich, whom I previously interviewed. You can contact Frank at: frankparis at comcast dot net. This interview took place on May 27, 2016. Teaser quote: "6502 assembly language, it was just a dream come true for me. I mean, it was just so simple compared to the languages I was used to." Mathlib entry in the fall 1983 catalog Frank's book, The Embrace of Celestia: http://online.flipbuilder.com/lasm/tqas/ Interview with John Palevich

In this three-year anniversary episode of Antic the Atari 8-bit podcast — we uncover an abundance of Atari source code, documentation, and engineering notes; Bill explores Five Dots, a new game; and we debate the fate of the 1200XL. 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 What we've been up to Norwegian Museum of Science & Technology Morse Code Tutor at APX Paul Westphal at Eight Bit Fix - http://www.eightbitfix.com PromoVision Pro-1000 software at archive.org PromoVision discussion at AtariAge Promovision Pro 1000 Youtube video Wes Newell Interview Source and Manuals Discussion on AtariAge Link to all Wes Newell scans on Internet Archive Databar - The Monthly Bar Code Software Magazine TI 994/A edition Atari Databar program from magazine Atari Databar programs in ATR format - https://archive.org/details/AtariDatabarOSCARSoftware PoC||GTFO Philippe's write-up of decoding the Databar format - wiki.yobi.be/wiki/Databar_decoding Philippe's decoding script on github - github.com/doegox/Oscar Rose City Atari Club meeting with speaker Joe Decuir Shot video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XjiX1nA3AI Joe - two engineering notebooks to scan. Here's the first one Presentation video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XjiX1nA3AI Here's the slide deck American Computer Museum in Bozeman, MT - http://www.compustory.com/ SIO2BT - Interview with Marcin Sochacki SIO2BT ordering thread on AtariAge Interview Discussion Rob Zdybel interview Neil Harris interview Ted Kahn Interview News Atari Party - http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/atariparty/ Alan Ackerman, co-founder of MPP and Supra, died in March ANTIC Interview 106 - Alan Ackerman, MPP MPP/Supra product and design note pictures Sys-Check 2.2 - tf_hh on AtariAge Bally Alley Astrocast (Adam Trionfo and Chris Federico) - http://www.ballyalleyastrocast.libsyn.com/ AtariBytes(2600) Podcast - http://ataribytes.libsyn.com/podcast Atari Kong Podcast (2600) - http://atarikong.com 3D Atari video by Oliver Rapp AtariAge 8-Bit User Age Demographics New video reviews: Amigos Plays Atari 800 - BoatOfCar on AtariAge ABBUC Software competition 2016 (AtariAge) , ABBUC Software Competition 2016 (ABBUC) AtariLand Deepth0ught Archive - Kernal on AtariAge (Rick) "Easy to Learn, Hard to Master - The Fate of Atari" Atari.io (Justin) has appointed the 26th of every month as Atari Day New at Archive.org Mark Simonson sent a fat folder of Twin City Atari Interest Group newsletters to scan. 22 are online so far, with more to come - https://archive.org/details/@savetz?and[]=TAIG 1989 Bellcom Public Domain Shareware Catalog 1990 Bellcom Catalogue Supplement MWPDS Public Domain Software Catalog for Atari Allan: https://archive.org/details/FoodFightAtari https://archive.org/details/OSSNewsletterOctober1984 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalogue Spring 1983 Edition - https://archive.org/details/APXBritishCatalog https://archive.org/details/AtariXLHandbook Bill's Modern Segment Gitlab page for 5dots (with source & ATR disk image downloads) - https://gitlab.com/bocianu/5dots WAP-NIAK website - http://wapniak.atari.org.pl/ Atari.org.pl info (with large zip download) about WAP-NIAK competition (Polish) Atariteca post about the WAP-NIAK 2016 competition results (Spanish) AtariOnline.pl post about the WAP-NIAK 2016 competition results (Polish) "5 dots is from zero to assembler" thread at AtariOnline.pl (Polish) Wojtek "bocianu" Bociański's JavaScript proof-of-concept of the game - http://mimuma.pl/5dots/

Kathy and Phil Bergh, I'm Different! Kathy and Phil Bergh published one program through Atari Program Exchange: I'm Different!, which first appeared in the inaugural APX catalog, winter 1982-1983. The program won third prize in the Education category in that catalog. It was one of the few commercial programs developed in the PILOT language. Kathy and Phil also wrote three articles — also about PILOT — for ANTIC magazine. This interview took place on May 24, 2016. Kathy and Phil's articles in ANTIC I'm Different in the winter 1982 APX catalog I'm Different at AtariMania I'm Different on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCaFpm9LHcE Teaser quotes: "'Consumer Reports Tests Educational Software' and so he made a big production of 'Let's see if our game is in it.' ... and it turns out, Consumer Reports did indeed review our game." "They must have sold a few because I remember getting a check for $12."