ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Larry Reed, Childware Larry Reed was a programmer for Childware, where he worked on two educational games for the Atari 8-bit computers: Word Flyer and D-Bug, both of which were published by Electronic Arts. This interview took place December 6, 2015. Teaser quotes: "I'll tell you, working with FORTH on the Atari was great until we exceeded the memory capability of the Atari, and then it was a royal pain in the ass." "'Anybody who thinks there is a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either.'" LINK http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-childware-inc_developer_298_8_G.html

Tony Nicholson and John Babinchak II, Hi-Res Magazine In this episode, two interviews for the price of one: two people who helped create Hi-Res Magazine — the computer magazine that only published four issues. First, we’ll hear from Tony Nicholson, the publisher of Hi-Res magazine; then John Babinchak, the editor of the magazine. Hi-Res was a short-lived magazine dedicated to Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 computers. It was published from late 1983 to early 1984. Although they didn’t publish months on the cover, I believe the first issue would have have a cover date of November 1983. Subsequent issues would have been January 1984, March 1984, and the final issue was May 1984. Hi-Res came to the Atari magazine party late in the game, fighting against magazines with established advertiser and subscriber bases. A.N.A.L.O.G. magazine started in January 1981, and ANTIC magazine’s first issue was April 1982. Creative Computing was starting its tenth year around that time. You can read all four issues of Hi-Res at www.atarimagazines.com/hi-res/. The interview with Tony took place September 24, 2015, the interview with John on September 29. LINKS Hi-Res at AtariMagazines.com: www.atarimagazines.com/hi-res/. Hi-Res at archive.org: https://archive.org/details/@savetz?and[]=hi-res%20magazine

Kevin Hayes, Atari Games Ireland On this interview episode, we take a trip to Ireland, and to the coin-op side of Atari. Kevin Hayes was Controller for Atari Irerland Ltd. in 1978, then became manufacturing director. Later he moved to California where he was VP of Manufacturing for Atari Games, then vice president of Operations. This interview was recorded December 7, 2015. Teaser quote: "They had goats grazing on our property, and ... he killed one of their goats, he slaughtered it. ... the owner of the goat came on the property and wanted to be compensated for it."

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: our annual holiday buying guide for Atari 8-bit lovers, we announce the winner of the interview transcription contest, I test all of the BBUC game contest entries, and we outright start bribing people to donate to archive.org. 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 Kevin KansasFest 2015 Session - https://archive.org/details/Kansasfest2015SessionsHowToGetInterviews part of https://archive.org/details/kansasfest Gideon Marcus digitized many disks fromJacksonville Atari Computer Enthusiasts and Lotsabyes, put them online at http://sdfo.org/jace/ Tricky Tutorial #11 Memory Map Tricky Tutorial #6 Sound and Music News Bill Wilkinson has died Kevin’s 2014 interview with Bill - ANTIC Interview 7 - The Atari 8-bit Podcast - Bill Wilkinson, OSS Retro Gamer Magazine - http://www.retrogamer.net/ Project Atari 13130 Teaser (2600, 5200, 7800, 130XE and Lynx in one case) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFHLxpdGhao&feature=youtu.be also another teaser video where 10p6 shows the universal cart adapter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF9vDI1Fny8 Atariteca Mr. Atari to release new game called Lost In Space on Christmas day - http://atariteca.blogspot.com/2015/12/video-publicaran-lost-in-space-en.html new game Bobby Bearing - conversion from C64 by mariuszw on AtariAge - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241972-new-game-port-bobby-bearing/ Star Raiders on GitHub - https://github.com/XioNYC/StarRaiders Star Raiders II - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb03mSdMaYc 1400XL went for sale on ebay by bob1200xl on AtariAge 1400XL discussion - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/244786-1400xl-on-ebay/ A neat infographic on some Atari Floppy drives. And it’s in both Spanish and English - http://atariteca.blogspot.com/2015/11/el-mejor-disk-drive-para-atari.html PRO-PROMPT Cart +OG Disk +OG 9pin Plug + COMPU= ATARI 800XL ABBUC Software Contest Results - http://www.abbuc.de/atari/software-ressort/81-software/softwarewettbewerbe/1764-software-wettbewerb-2015 ABBUC winners at atarionline.pl - http://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=nowinki&ucat=1&subaction=showfull&id=1445715619 ABBUC software competition 2015 thread at AtariAge - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/235115-abbuc-software-competition-2015/ Vintage is the New Old - Paulo Garcia - www.vintageisthenewold.com PC World: “This Old Tech: There’s nothing like M.U.L.E. on an Atari 800 to bring a family together” by Benj Edwards - http://www.pcworld.com/article/3008912/software-games/this-old-tech-theres-nothing-like-mule-on-an-atari-800-to-bring-a-family-together.html First episode of The Atari XEGS Cart by Cart Podcast - Episode 0 - https://www.facebook.com/AtariXEGS.and.8Bit.Game.Podcast/ , http://xegs8bit.com/ Upcoming Shows: VCF Southeast 4.0 - April 2 & 3 2016, Roswell, GA VCF East - April 15-17, 2016 - InfoAge Science Center, 2201 Marconi Rd., Wall, NJ, 07719 - http://www.vintagecomputerfederation.org/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ New at Archive.org Computer Magazine Archives - https://archive.org/details/computermagazines?sort=-publicdate&and[]=bang Computer Manuals - https://archive.org/details/computermanuals?sort=-publicdate Atari 800 XL User's Handbook By Weber Systems Inc - https://archive.org/details/Atari800XLUsersHandbookByWeberSystemsIncSearchable Atari Explorer Magazine - https://archive.org/details/AtariExplorerOnline A collection of digitized scans from a large cache of documents related to the game publisher Infocom - https://archive.org/details/infocomcabinet Holiday Recommendations Rainbow sticker $5.25 on eBay 800XL iPhone case, $22.91 - http://www.redbubble.com/people/binman/works/13604428-atari-800xl?p=iphone-case Glasses from MotoGlass. 10% for the next two weeks if you mention ANTIC podcast - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009331201970 Attract mode Tshirt $15.99 - https://www.etsy.com/listing/208328221/poke-77128-this-is-my-attractive-atari?ref=related_listings# 3D printed XEGS 3D printed 800XL and 1050 - https://www.etsy.com/listing/229656809/mini-atari-800xl-and-1050-disk-drive-3d?ref=shop_home_active_3 Atari 2600 RF TV Coaxial F Plug Female Adapter Home Applications and Games: for the Atari 400/800 Computer - kindle $1.99 or paper $9.99 - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0934523061?keywords=timothy%20banse&qid=1449423083&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3 The Atari Book, Second Edition - https://www.imagineshop.co.uk/bookazines/the-atari-book-second-edition.html SIO2BT - bluetooth in an SIO plug by Marcin Sochacki (Montezuma) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.atari.montezuma.sio2bt, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3-191R-U_S1blpUTFBsRW1iRUE, http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241984-sio2bt-ordering-thread/ STAR RAIDER (RAIDERS) (LABEL ERROR!) - ATARI 400/800/XL/XE CARTRIDGE * V RARE *, $25 on eBay PRO(C) Magazine - up to issue #7, 1.5 or 2 euros, or T-shirts, stickers, patches - http://proc-atari.de/ Midi-maze setup: cart (Lance Ringquist, http://atarisales.com ) , Midi-Mate (Bruce Carso, B&C ComputerVisions, http://www.myatari.com ), midi cable - Approx. $80 total XL power supply from BEST that won’t die and kill your 800XL at the same time (Brad Koda, http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/ ) $20-$30 plus shipping MaxFlash cart pre-loaded from AtariMax - 8 Mbit flash cart for $40 + shipping - http://www.atarimax.com/ Edladdin controllers http://edladdin.com/Atari-2600-7800-Controllers_c2.htm Of the Month Internet Archive telethon coming noon Dec 19-noon Dec 20 - http://www.archive.org Programming Languages Segment tiny-c by OSS - https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=C, http://atariage.com/forums/topic/245227-oss-tiny-c-copyright-c-1978-tiny-c-associates-1982-oss-inc/, https://archive.org/details/tiny-c_manual Closing Yerz Myey wrote this for this year’s Glucholazy Atari Party 2015 (XL/XE MOD Compo) - https://soundcloud.com/yerzmyey/yerzmyey-mono-adventures For more micromusic/lo-fi come to: yerzmyey.i-demo.pl/ If You're interested in making digi-music for XL/XE, You can use NeoTracker by Epi; requires at least 128K - http://yerzmyey.i-demo.pl/NEO17INS.COM

Alan Ackerman, MPP Alan Ackerman co-founded Microbits Peripheral Products (MPP) with John Wiley. MPP made modems and printer interfaces for the Atari 8-bit computers. MPP also published software: Microfiler and Assault Force 3-D. The company would re-structure to become Supra, a giant in modems which became the largest hardware manufacturer for Commodore Amiga computers. This interview took place on October 2, 2015. Teaser quote: “The volumes got to be insane. ... You know, at that point if we had a product we were selling 5,000 units a month, we thought that was pretty damn good.”

Alan Stratton, plant controller Alan Stratton was Atari’s plant controller, managing the financial functions in the El Paso, Texas manufacturing facility. He was also involved with the infamous dumping of game cartridges in the Alamogordo, New Mexico dump. This interview took place on October 2, 2015. Teaser quotes: “A rumor got out that we were going to search people as thy left the floor, as they left shift. Later that evening as we went into the lavatories, the floors were littered with cartridges and PC boards that were fully functional.” “This was all planned in advance, until the landfill opened up a brand new cut - a brand new area - so that we could be on the very, very bottom.” “If I had an auditor come in, I’d sit him down at an Atari game console or my computer, and have him play some games. Boy that audit went sweet after that.”

Aric Wilmunder: Star Raiders II, Temple of Apshai Here’s how Aric Wilmunder introduced himself to me: “When The Last Starfighter didn’t do well in the theaters and marketing re-branded the Atari 800 Last Starfighter game as Star Raiders II, they didn’t take into account that there was already an actual sequel to Star Raiders that was just a few months away from completion. I was the designer and solo engineer who worked for about a year on the project as a member of an R&D team inside Atari Coin-Op. A friend helped me copy the disk image a few years back and when I saw Steve Hales post your tweet about the source code [for Star Raiders] I thought there might be some interest. “The game was close to being finished, but there were still parts that needed polishing like the enemy AI, so I’ve been hesitant to release it since it might be judged as a finished work. I’d hate to wait 30 years to release the game just to get a bad review.” Aric Wilmunder started writing programs on the Exidy Sorcerer computer, then worked at Automated Simulations, writing the Atari 8-bit conversions of Star Warrior; Crush, Crumble, and Chomp; and Temple of Apshai. Next he worked at Atari’s corporate research department, where he worked on Chris Crawford’s Gossip game. Then, in the R&D department at Atari coin-op, he created Star Raiders II for the Atari 8-bit computers — a game that was never finished nor released. Later he worked at LucasFilm games, where his work included the XEGS version of Ballblazer. This interview took place December 5, 2015. Teaser quotes: “A music video on the Atari 800. So it was video and art being displayed on the Atari 800 that was in sync with music that was playing off of a CD.” “[In Star Raiders] Because you’re targeting the Xylons, you’re putting them in your crosshairs, you’re actually their A.I. ... All they had to do was this very simple A.I. to move around, and the closer you track them, the more accurate they become. ... [Doug Neubauer] let the player fight themselves.” LINKS Download Star Raiders II ATR file and documentation (click Show All): https://archive.org/details/StarRaidersII_Wilmunder Video of unreleased, unfinished Star Raiders II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb03mSdMaYc Aric’s web site: http://www.wilmunder.com/Arics_World/1980s.html Custom PC Magazine article about SCUMM and interview with Aric (see page 86): http://issuu.com/duongkim/docs/custom_pc_-_2015.10 AtariAge discussion about Star Raiders II: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/246591-wilmunders-star-raiders-ii-released/

Courtney Goodin, Compu=Prompt teleprompter Compu=Prompt was the first electronic, personal computer based teleprompter, which ran off of an Atari 800XL computer. It was created by Courtney Goodin, who won an Emmy award for it, for “Pioneering Development in Electronic Prompting.” He also created the Atari graphics programs Color Print and Graphic Master, both of which were distributed by Datasoft. This interview took place on December 4, 2015. Teaser Quotes: “This software is probably one of the most expensive pieces of software sold that ran on the Atari.” “We sold systems to companies like IBM, we sold to JC Penney, we sold them to the Defense Intelligence Agency - the government.” LINKS Photos of the device from the eBay listing: http://imgur.com/a/oc6S6 Device on eBay Proprompt: http://proprompt.com 1984 InfoWorld article mentioning Compu=Prompt Antic magazine article about Color Print and Graphic Master: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v2n10/ComputerArt.html

Anthony Jones, Atari UK Anthony Jones was general manager of Atari’s headquarters in the United Kingdom. Later he moved to the United States, where he was group product manager in the marketing arm. There he worked on the Mindlink controller, a controller for the Atari that strapped to your forehead with a headband. Later, he worked at Nolan Bushnell’s Catalyst Technologies incubator. This interview took place on September 22, 2015. Teaser quotes: “As opposed to a video game where it gets faster and faster as you go on the game (in the older games at least) this one was kind of the opposite: the more you relaxed, the higher your score cranked. It was quite a surreal experience.”

Forrest Mozer, Pioneer in Digitized Speech Forrest Mozer invented and patented the first integrated circuit speech synthesizer in 1974. He licensed this technology to TeleSensory Systems, which used it in the Speech+ talking calculator. Later, National Semiconductor also licensed the technology, used for its "DigiTalker" speech synthesizer. In 1984, Mozer founded Electronic Speech Systems to develop and market speech synthesis products. In 1994, Mozer and his son Todd, founded Sensory Circuits, Inc., now Sensory, Inc., where they developed the RSC-164 speech recognition integrated circuit. Mozer has 17 US patents in the areas of speech synthesis and speech recognition. Electronic Speech Systems did the work to add digitized speech to several games for the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 computers. You can hear digitized speech created by ESS in the Atari versions of Kennedy Approach by MicroProse, 221B Baker Street by Datasoft, and Ghostbusters by Activision. The Atari versions often had fewer spoken phrases than the Commodore 64 ports of the same games — probably due to the Atari’s smaller amount of RAM and floppy disk capacity vs. the C64. For instance, The Atari version of Ghostbusters says the title, but leaves out “He slimed me!” Commodore talking games - thanks to ESS - also included — among others — Talking Teacher by Imagic, Solo Flight by MicroProse, Friday the 13th by Domark, Desert Fox by Accolade, and Impossible Mission by Epyx. Thanks to Mark Keates for extensive background information for this interview. Keates has created a pair of demos for the Atari, in which he ported the Commodore 64 digitized speech from Ghostbusters and Impossible Mission to play on the Atari computers. This interview took place on September 14, 2015. Teaser quote: “You spent a long time. You spent — to produce a minute of speech, you would spend ... it would be many hours of work.” LINKS Wikipedia on Mozer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_S._Mozer Article about Access Software, speech in Beach-Head: http://www.filfre.net/2014/08/access-software/ Interview with Dennis Caswell of Impossible Mission: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk/interview/caswell.htm Aiming High - A Biography of Masayoshi Son: http://amazon.com/dp/B00F77T9A8/?tag=ataripodcast-20 Ghostbusters audio clips: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/32274-ghostbusters/#entry3339309 Impossible Mission audio clips