ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Adam Billyard, Chop Suey/ElektraGlide Adam Billyard's first three games for the Atari 8-bit computers were "Bellum", "Henri", and "Chop Suey,". Bellum was published through the Atari Program Exchange, although Adam never received any royalty from Atari for it. "Chop Suey" was one of the first modern-style fighting games for the Atari 800. He followed this up with a pair of three-dimensional games: "ElektraGlide," a racing game for the Atari 8-bit; and "Q-Ball” for the Atari ST. If you’re not familiar with any of these games, it's probably because you live in the U.S. Three of his five games were originally released by the U.K.-based English Software and received more publicity in Europe than the versions distributed by Mindscape in the States. This interview took place May 15, 2015. Teaser Quote: “Years later they said ‘did you not get the check for $30?’ which I thought was just completely bizarre.” Links: Adam’s Polystream, the next generation of fully streamed interactive entertainment Adam’s Interview at Halcyon Days

Glenn The 5200 Man Glenn Botts is better known to Atari 8-bit users as "Glenn The 5200 Man.” Glenn was perhaps the most widely-known Atari software cracker, because he had a unique specialty. Most pirates removed copy protection from software, making it so it was copyable and able to be shared for free. Glenn’s skill was in taking games that were developed for the Atari 5200 game system, and converting them so they would run on the Atari 8-bit computers. Many of the games created for the Atari 5200 were not released for the computers, so Glenn’s system conversion cracking had the unique effect of creating games for the Atari computers that otherwise would not have existed. The Atari 5200 was very similar in architecture to the Atari computers, but not 100% compatible — for one thing, the 5200 carts physically didn’t fit into the Atari computers. Also, the joysticks were very different, with the 5200 using analog joysticks and the computers using digital joysticks. This is the first time that Glenn’s identity has been revealed to the general public. This interview took place September 11, 2015. Teaser quote: “It was so easy that it actually was very annoying that Atari themselves never would release these games on the 800.” Links: Glenn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Amiga_4000 Glenn on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Amiga4000

Bruce Poehlman, The Last Starfighter/Star Raiders II Bruce Poehlman only worked at Atari for a year — from June 1983 until July 1984 — but he told me “it was an interesting year.” Bruce coded the game The Last Starfighter for the Atari 5200 and 8-bit computers — a game that was never released. Two years later, he was contracted to re-brand the game as Star Raiders II. Teaser quotes: “We have this contract with a movie, and we think you game with little tweaks might be able to fit the theme of that movie. And that movie was The Last Starfighter.” “That bonus, within six months of my starting there, went from $40,000 to $20,000. Then in another three months it went to $12,000 then it went to $8,000.”

Dan Horn, Infocom Dan Horn stated as a programmer at Scott Adams’ Adventure International, where he programmed the Atari version of Treasure Quest. Then he moved to Infocom where he was technical director, then became head of the microcomputing group. This interview took place on May 21, 2015. Teaser quotes: “The feelies were really the copy protection. If you had a feelie, you were compelled — not really for copy protection purposes — but you were compelled to have it because it was cool.” “With the Atari we had thousands of colors. We had the rippling, shimmering effect, and we had all this other stuff. Now, most of it never got to an Infocom game. But it was cool!”

Leslie Wolf, Product Manager for Atari Logo and AtariLab Leslie Wolf was a product manager at Atari from 1981 through 1984. She managed the design and development of educational hardware and software products such as Atari Logo software and AtariLab. In this interview, we talk about Pricilla Laws, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on May 15, 2015. Teaser quote: “I had gone over to my guys in the manufacturing operation and I said, ‘You know what? They don’t know you’re here. Keep working until you don’t get a paycheck anymore.’” LINKS Antic magazine article about AtariLab

Dr. Priscilla Laws, AtariLab AtariLab was a hardware and software package for the Atari 400 and 800 computers. The AtariLab Starter Set with Temperature Module was released in 1983. The Light Module add-on was released in February 1984. AtariLab was developed at Dickinson College under the direction of physics professor, Dr. Priscilla Laws. Dr. Laws joined the faculty at Dickinson in 1965. She has dedicated herself to the development of activity-based curricular materials and computer software to enhance student learning in introductory physics courses — which started with AtariLab. This interview took place May 14, 2015 Teaser quotes: “I saw somebody dip a thermistor into cold water — ice water — and a real-time cooling curve was appearing on the screen. And it blew me away.” “So, Ron said: ‘I watched Ray Kassar open the safe, and he pulled $200,000 in bills out of the safe. He handed it to the woman and he said “Please say no more.”’” LINKS Priscilla Laws’ bio 1984 Atari Connection article about AtariLab Promoting the Diffusion of Undergraduate Science Curriculum Reform: The Activity-Based Physics Suite as an Example by Priscilla Laws

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: we learn about new software and hardware for the Atari. We learn about marketing. We learn that we’re . . . Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevins Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari books scans at archive.org ANTIC feedback at AtariAge Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge What we’ve been up to Eight Bit Fix - Paul Westphal Northwest Retro Computing and Video Game Club “Interesting Times” Podcast with Joe Streckert VCF Midwest Suburban Chicago ATarians (SCAT) “Atari Inc: Business is Fun" at Amazon Atari Book site Dungeon Hunt News New version of Atari++ and new BASIC++ by thorfdbg on AtariAge Sprint 1 Ported to the Atari 800XL by Norbert Kehrer New game called AtariNet from slor (James Wilkinson) Episodes 5 and 6 of XE-Lent Arcade Games by Kieran Hawkin, arcade conversions for the 8-bits: Part 5 (Q-Bert, Millipede, Donkey Kong) Part 6 (Super Breakout, Lode Runner) Chicken Lips Radio Commodore Podcast with Earl Evans and Todd George Atari Lynx Game by Game Podcast Electric Dreams BBS Podcast PROC Atari Shop Ultimate Cart pre-orders - electrotrains The Atari GUI OS Brings Point And Click Goodness To An Old Platform (TechCrunch) link to interview (Episode 15) with Jonathan Halliday This Atari-Themed Music Video Is An 8-Bit Adventure We Can Get Behind (YouTube Video) IMA turns car into giant ‘Pole Position’ video game: article at Indy Star article at Mashable Retrochallenge 2015/07 ABBUC 2015 Update! SIO2BT now ready for pre-order Portland Retro Gaming Expo October 17-18 in Portland OR AtariXLBox allows emulating the Atari 800 and 800XL computers and 5200 console on Xbox (Microsoft) systems Kevin on Atari Wiki for his contributions to preserving Atari 8-bit history New at Archive.org Magatari Magazine V1N9 Gray Chang's Claim Jumper Development Notebook Atari Employee Headcount Report Program Stuff kevin uploaded ANTIC Podcast Collection at Archive.org Bill’s Modern Segment Tempest Xtreem Homepage Purchase Tempest Xtreem from Video61 Tempest Xtreem demoware version (including download) at AtariMania Video of Tempest Xtreem demoware version at YouTube ANTIC Interview Episode 17: Sal Esquivel ANTIC Interview Episode 9: Lance Ringquist (Video61) "An ox looks at Tempest" video at YouTube (Tempest Xtreem review begins at 34:45) Tempest 2000 at Wikipedia Tempest at Wikipedia Delta Space Arena (2015) at Video61 Venture (2012) at Video61 Of the Month 5200-daptor Contiki AtariAge thread on Contiki - user ol.sc video of configuring Contiki, bringing up the web browser, searching on Google for 'atari' and finally surfing to the Dragon Cart website Closing RETROKOMP Demo Party Load Error Party Invitation by LAMERS (end of show music)

Harold Lee, Home Pong Designer and the Man Who Hired Jay Miner In 1974 an engineer by the name of Harold Lee had become burnt out from his work designing arcade game boards and he quit and left Atari. No sooner had he left then he would receive a call from Allan Alcorn. Al asked Harold a question - "Could Pong be put on a chip?" Harold said it could be done and suddenly he found himself now hired back at Atari as an outside consultant. Harold and Al worked on the design and the chip was finished in the latter half of 1974. It was, at the time, the highest performing chip used in a consumer product. Harold was kind enough to talk about his experiences working for and with Atari and the fact that he was the one who hired the legendary Jay Miner into Atari. This interview took place on April 25, 2015. Links The Pong Story

John Schulte and Feridoon Moinian, Dorsett Educational Systems John Schulte and Feridoon Moinian were both employees at Dorsett Educational Systems, the company that created the Talk And Teach educational cassette tapes which were sold by Atari. Dorsett also sold many more cassette-based classes directly via mail order, for the Atari, TRS-80 Color Computer, and other platforms. Feridoon worked primarily as a programmer, and John was primarily an editor. As my co-interviewer for this discussion, I invited Thomas Cherryhomes, an expert in the technical aspects of the Talk and Teach system. I interviewed Thomas previously on this podcast, in ANTIC interview 57. Nearly every educational cassette tape that Dorsett released for the Atari has been digitized, they’ll all available at Archive.org, there’s a link in the show notes at AtariPodcast.com. This interview took place on June 25, 2015. Teaser quote: “He [Loyd Dorsett] would tell them, “Shall we go have lunch now?’ Yes. ‘OK, let’s go downstairs and we’ll have some lunch.’ He’d take them downstairs, and on top of the little five-foot refrigerator was a Styrofoam cup that had 10 Cents written on it. That was 10 cents that you’d do on the honor system to buy a packet of Cup of Soup. ... This is the way he would entertain people because you were stuck out in the middle of nowhere, it was 20 minutes to get to a restaurant. But he would actually pull coins out of his pocket and say ‘My treat.’” LINKS Interview with Thomas Cherryhomes Dorsett Educational Cassette Tape Archive

Peter Rosenthal, Marketing and Strategic Planning Peter Rosenthal worked at Atari from March 1979 thru the middle of 1983. He joined Atari as a marketing research associate in the consumer division, and served as Vice President of Business Development in the Home Computer Division, then Vice President of Strategic Planning. After Atari, he moved to marketing and sales at Designware, an educational software startup that published software for the Atari 8-bits and other platforms. This interview took place on May 18, 2015. Teaser quote: “That tension between marketing and engineering is not unique to Atari. I’ve been around now long enough to see lots of other companies and very often when a company’s sales goals aren’t achieved or product reviews are less favorable than one would like, I think generally marketing is the butt of the argument as to why it wasn’t successful.” Links Designware software list at AtariMania