ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

David Stoutemyer, The Soft Warehouse David Stoutemyer was co-founder of The Soft Warehouse, a company that specialized in mathematics software for several computer platforms. The company published three programs through Atari Program Exchange. Algicalc and Polycalc first appeared in the summer 1982 APX catalog for $22.95 each. Algicalc was described as a "valuable tool for students and teachers of algebra and calculus and for professionals who want a quick way to perform operations in symbolic algebra and calculus." It won third price in the education category in that catalog. Polycalc was described as "a computational tool for performing symbolic algebra and calculus operations. It differs from ALGICALC in that POLYCALC supports polynomials that are generalized to permit fractional and negative powers of variables, and the program can use many unassigned variables, whereas ALGICALC can use only one. However, POLYCALC is essentially a polynomial system rather than a rational expression system." Their third Atari program was Calculus Demon, which was first available in the fall 1982 catalog. It also cost $22.95, and was described as "a comprehensive tool for automatically deriving symbolic partial derivatives and indefinite integrals of expressions." This interview took place on January 29, 2016. Links: Ways to implement computer algebra compactly by David Stoutemyer: http://www.sigsam.org/bulletin/articles/178/stoutemyer.pdf International Derive User Group: http://www.austromath.at/dug/

David Crane, Pitfall! and Atari 400/800 OS David Crane started his programming career at Atari, making games for the Atari 2600. He also worked on the operating system for the Atari 800 computer, as well as the games Outlaw and Howitzer, which were sold through APX. David left Atari in 1979 and co-founded Activision, along with Alan Miller, Jim Levy, Bob Whitehead, and Larry Kaplan. While at Activision, he was best known as the designer of Pitfall! This interview took place October 23, 2015 Links “Meet David Crane: Video Games Guru”, HI-RES Vol. 1, No. 2 / January 1984 / page 46 - http://www.atarimagazines.com/hi-res/v1n2/davidcrane.php David Crane Interview at Good Deal Games - http://www.gooddealgames.com/interviews/int_David_Crane.html PRGE 2015 - David Crane (Activision) - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbinkHyWde8

Bill Rice, HYSYS Bill Rice published one program in the Atari Program Exchange catalog: HYSYS, or Hydraulic Program. It was a tool that did calculations for sizing hydraulic systems and components. HYSYS first appeared winter 1982 APX catalog. This interview took place on January 27, 2016 Teaser quote: "So you can imagine with something like a hydraulic program, they're like 'No we've got our scientific calculators and we look really cool punching in these numbers. We're not going to get a home computer and do that.'"

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: I cause a robot invasion in Portland, Bill Kendrick goes ultra-mega-retro gaming with Game ‘N Watch inspired games for the Atari, Randy wraps up the retrochallenge, and we still manage to keep the podcast under 3h 21m. 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 What we’ve been up to “The Atari Book Volume 2” - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BKS5SHU/?tag=ataripodcast-20 BASIC Tenliners Contest 2016 - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247971-basic-tenliners-contest-2016/ Axlon Andy Robot, ANTIC VOL. 3, NO. 12 / APRIL 1985 - http://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n12/profiles.html Interview Discussion Luis Baeza transcribed Glenn the 5200 man - http://computingpioneers.com/index.php/Glenn_The_5200_Man News Atari SuperBowl Ads (article) Atari SuperBowl Ads (video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iuh58zxuMk Usborne releases 80’s computer books Star Raiders II source code (multiple versions) - https://archive.org/details/StarRaidersII_Wilmunder Star Raiders II Design Docs Star Raiders II Program Notes Atari 1050 2.5" Hard Drive Case by xlrone - Thingiverse - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1310706 Atari 1050 SD Card reader - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:625606 Omnivore Omnivore Blog - http://playermissile.com/omnivore/ Wade created a new map for Getaway using it - http://playermissile.com/blog/ Atari Vault brings over 100 classic arcade games to Steam in Spring 2016 Rainbow Walker Ported to 5200 PC Mag - The Golden Age of Atari Home Computers by Benj Edwards Season 13 of the 8-bit Atari High Score Club on AtariAge - http://atariage.com/forums/forum/60-8-bit-high-score-club/ Atari Board - http://atari.boards.net/ The Strong Museum Acquires Collection of Atari Design Materials Bomber Deluxe edition - http://www.proc-atari.de RetroChallenge - http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/retrochallenge-2012sc/ Upcoming Shows: VCF Southeast 4.0 - April 2 & 3 2016, Roswell, GA - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-southeast-4-0/ VCF East - April 15-17, 2016, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://www.vintagecomputerfederation.org/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ KansasFest - July 19-24, 2016, Kansas City, MO - https://www.kansasfest.org VCF West - August 6-7, Mountain View, CA - http://www.vintagecomputerfederation.org/uncategorized/vcf-west-is-back/ Chicago CoCoFest - April 23-24 - http://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ New at Archive.org APX Correspondence - https://archive.org/details/APX_Programmer_Correspondence An Introduction to Selling the Atari 400 Computer System - https://archive.org/details/AnIntroductionToSellingTheAtari400ComputerSystem Bill’s Modern Segment ArSoft Corporation - http://www.arsoft.netstrefa.pl/ Interview with Arkadiusz "Larek" Lubaszka - http://www.retronagazie.eu/wywiad-arkadiusz-larek-lubaszka/ Game & Watch Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_%26_Watch Nintendo Wikia entry - http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Game_%26_Watch Super Mario Wiki entry - http://www.mariowiki.com/Game_%26_Watch Gunpei Yokoi @ Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi Octopus Official page: http://www.arsoft.netstrefa.pl/programy.htm#octopus YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9nC6vzJSZk Nintendo Wikia entry for original: http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Octopus Super Mario Wiki entry for original - http://www.mariowiki.com/Octopus_(Game_%26_Watch) Parachute 2011 Official page: http://www.arsoft.netstrefa.pl/programy.htm#parachute2011 Atarimania: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-parachute-2011_27759.html Nintendo Wikia entry for original: http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Parachute Super Mario Wiki entry for original: http://www.mariowiki.com/Parachute Feedback Reverse-engineered, extensively documented assembly language source code of STAR RAIDERS directly from the binary file of the ROM cartridge by Lorenz Wiest - http://github.com/lwiest/StarRaiders

Jerry Falkenhan, Finance Software Jerry Falkenhan had three programs published by Atari Program Exchange: Family Cash Flow, Family Budget, and Family Vehicle Expense. Atari bought Family Cash Flow and Family Budget and packaged them as an Atari-branded product, Family Finances. This interview took place on January 26, 2016. Teaser quote: "I get my first royalty check. I'll never forget: $35,000. I go down to Wells Fargo and they wouldn't cash the darn thing." Picture of Jerry during our Skype session: http://i.imgur.com/5y2yFMc.png Inverse ATASCII podcast on Atari Family Finances: http://inverseatascii.info/2015/01/27/s1e9-atari-family-finances/ Inverse ATASCII podcast on Family Vehicle Expense: http://inverseatascii.info/2015/10/13/s2e02-apx-family-vehicle-expense/

Bill Louden, CompuServe and GEnie Bill Louden was part of the team that built CompuServe, the first consumer online service, where he was director of the computing, games, entertainment, e-mail, chat, and forum products. He went on to be the founder of the GEnie online service (General Electric Network for Information Exchange.) This interview took place October 15, 2015. Teaser quotes: "You know, we expected at CompuServe customers to spend $10 to $15 a month. ... We never expected people to come online and spend $1,200, $2,000 a month playing MegaWars." "We're there to serve the customer so I want [a name] that sort of embodies a service configuration, and it's magical. It's something new. And the best name they came up with was Albert, for Albert Einstein. This cost me $50,000. I literally came home from that meeting crying."

Jerry Jewell, co-founder of Sirius Software Jerry Jewell was co-founder of Sirius Software. Sirius published many Atari titles including Alpha Shield, Capture the Flag, Fast Eddie, Gruds in Space, Sneakers, Wavy Navy, and Wayout. The company was probably best known in the Apple ][ world, but also published software for the Commodore and other platforms - more than 160 titles in all. This interview took place October 15, 2015. Teaser quotes: "In the latter days it got down to where a game would sell for two weeks, three weeks, and then it would die." "It was like the boys hadn't discovered girls yet and my job was to keep them from doing that ... Whatever it took to keep these guys off the streets and away from alcohol and women, it would keep them busy, you know? Keep them programming." On-Line and Sirius Finalize Merge Plans: https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA6 AtariMania's list of Sirius software for Atari: http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-sirius-software_publisher_1418_8_G.html

Bob Polaro Bob Polaro was an Atari employee from 1978 through 1984, where he wrote several programs for Atari Program Exchange — very early programs in the APX catalog: Lemonade, Mugwump, Preschool Games, Reversi, Space Trek, and Dice Poker. He also wrote the States & Capitals and European Countries & Capitals educational programs for the Atari computers, both published by Atari. He programmed several games for the Atari 2600, including Defender and RealSports Volleyball. This interview took place on January 22, 2016. Teaser quote: “At that time they were starting to request that we put in easter eggs, which kind of took the whole idea away. It was supposed to be hidden, and yet, it ended up being part of the design at some point.” Links: Bob’s web site: http://www.polaro.com Lemonade in Antic magazine: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n6/lemonade.html

Dave Pratt, founder of Digital Vision (ComputerEyes) Dave Pratt was founder of Digital Vision, the company that made ComputerEyes for the Apple //, Commodore 64, and Atari 8-bit computers. ComputerEyes was a slow-scan video digitizer that plugged into the joystick port (on the Atari version). You'd connect a video camera or VCR into the ComputerEyes box, and software on your computer would create a black-and-white or greyscale version of the image on the computer screen. This interview took place October 12, 2015. After we did this interview, Dave set up a nice web site with a history of Digital Vision and photographs of the early products, at www.Digital-Vision-Inc.com. Teaser quotes: "Even just running tight machine language loops, it barely could keep up with that kind of rate pulling samples from the scan lines." "That same signature from the very first scan -- literally the very first scan that was done by the prototype initial product -- literally, that same image was used to sign the company's checks for half a dozen years." Digital Vision History site: http://www.Digital-Vision-Inc.com Dave’s personal web site: http://www.dvpratt.com Antic magazine review of ComputerEyes: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n8/VideoStar.html ComputerEyes in Creative Computing magazine: http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v11n7/70_Choosing_an_image_process.php

Thomas Hudson, Atari sales trainer Thomas Hudson was a trainer for Atari, where he taught computer store owners and others about the Atari 8-bit computer line, and attended trade shows to show off Atari's computer products. Later he became a product manager for three products: light pen, touch tablet, and mouse. In this interview we discuss Andrew Soderberg, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on January 21, 2016. Teaser quotes: "And one was this little device that you plugged into the thing, and you moved it around to control the cursor. And he said "I don't know what this mouse thing is, but nobody is ever going to use a mouse on a computer.'" "He called me up at work, and in the unmistakable voice said, 'Tom, this is Alan Alda. I've run into a little problem, and I think you're the only person that can help me. ... I've got a bunch of friends coming over tonight, I wanted to show this program off to them...'" Links Tom's web site: http://thehudsons.com/tom-and-patty/ Tom Swift fan fiction: http://tomswiftfanfiction.thehudsons.com/TS-Yahoo/author-TH.html