ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Ed Rotberg, Rotberg Synthesizer Ed Rotberg worked programmer in Atari’s coin-op division, where he worked on Atari Baseball, Battlezone, Blasteroids, Hard Drivin’, and other coin-op games. He consulted for the Atari consumer side, where he created demos for the Atari 800 — including working on the music for the in-store demo — and the Rotberg Synthesizer music software. Check the show notes atAtariPodcast.com for downloads of the Rotberg Synthesizer and Rotberg Scrolling Marquee software (which I acquired and uploaded toarchive.org after this interview took place.) This interview took place April 28, 2015. Teaser quote: “My good friend Dan Pliskin wrote a tune called Disco Dirge that we programmed into the earliest version of the Rotberg Synthesizer to play at the bachelor party, as kind of a joke. Because Chris who was getting married was a disco fan, he was a disco buff and we all *hated* disco.” Links: Rotberg’s sound article in Antic magazine Article at archive.org Version of the same article in Softside Rotberg Scrolling Marquee Rotberg Synthesizer

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: Randy delves into Altirra BASIC, there’s another podcast to dilute our listenership, Kevin reports back from KansasFest, and there’s lots of new Atari stuff to download at Archive.org. Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevins Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari books scans at archive.org ANTIC feedback at AtariAge What we’ve been up to Retrobright "Microcomputer Primer" by Mitchell Waite KansasFest - Retro Computing Roundtable episode KansasFest - Wade talked about it in episode S1EB2 of Inverse ATASCII Podcast KansasFest - Rob talked about it in episode 15 of Player/Missile Podcast Atari Summer Camp Episode Interview Discussion Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge Atari 5200 Trak-ball Controller News Atari founder Nolan Bushnell on why life is 'a game' U- BASIC New Game "Jim Slide" ABBUC Software Contest Info about some of the ABBUC games More detailed info about some of the ABBUC games Retrochallenge 2015/07 TransKey II in development new podcast Atari XEGS Cart by Cart Podcast new Turbo BASIC XL handbook from ABBUC; shipped with ABBUC newsletter XE-Lent Arcade Games videos on YouTube by Kieren Hawken Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 VCF Midwest 10 - August 29-30, 2015, Elk Grove Village, IL Portland Retro Gaming Expo October 17-18 in Portland OR High-Score Club at AtariAge - Season 12, Round 12 New at Archive.org Monitor Atari Journal v1n1 https://archive.org/details/CandTComputerActiveAtariPublicDomainSoftwareCatalog Atari Logo In The Classroom By Donna Bearden Atari 6502 Programming Memo Programming Languages - Altirra BASIC Altirra BASIC Manual Altirra BASIC Download at AtariAge Altirra Download at VirtualDub Speed test at AtariAge Bill’s Modern Segment "yet another..." (Apple Invaders 2010 announcement) topic on AtariAge forums "Apple Invaders 2010" entry at AtariMania Krzysztof Dudek (XXL)'s website "Apple Invaders for the Atari 8-bit family" video on YouTube "Superappleinvader Game captured" at Yesterbits "Apple Invaders" entry at Apple2Games.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Invaders "Galaga for the Atari 800" (main homepage) "PET Galaga for the Atari 800XL" topic on AtariAge forums Interview with Henrik Wening (in German) "Galaga" wikipedia article Feedback Cartridge Condoms - Amazon.com: Re-Sealable Team Set Bags (100 Count): Toys & Games

Hello, and welcome to a very special interview-only episode of Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast. I am Randy Kindig, one of your hosts for this podcast. I say “special” because it’s not often that you get a chance to talk with an icon like the one we talk with today. Kevin Savetz and myself were given the chance to sit down, so to speak, with “Mr. Atari” Nolan Bushnell and spend a few minutes shooting the breeze. If you need any more introduction for this guest, then you’re probably listening to the wrong podcast. In fact, he’s one of those guys that can go by a single name “Nolan” and everyone in the Atari community knows who you’re talking about. Before we get to the interview, I want to thank the Atari community on the AtariAge forums for suggesting questions for Nolan. When we put out a request for questions, who knew we would get such a large and varied response. Regrettably, we only had time for some of them. Many of you will recognize the questions that you submitted and we are very grateful for your help. I also want to thank Marty Goldberg for his suggestions and guidance as someone who has talked with Nolan in the past. This interview was conducted on July 30, 2015. Teaser Quotes: “wouldn't it have been fun if Atari had owned the Internet?” “Did you regret selling it? Every day of my life!” “Ray Kassar? Oh, he was a disaster.” “Warner didn't want to have anything to do with me. They felt that if I was back in and made a success of it it would make them look stupid.”

Jon Freeman Jon Freeman was co-founder of the computer game publisher Automated Simulations, which became EPYX. At Automated Simulations, he co-created Starfleet Orion and Gateway to Apshai. Then he and his wife Anne Westfall started the game development company FreeFall Associates, where they created Tax Dodge, Archon, Archon II, and Murder on the Zinderneuf. This interview took place April 21, 2015. Teaser quotes: “That six months, I read two books in six months, and we went to one movie. The rest of the time we we just working on the game. That’s all we did. It was very, you know, intense.” “You know, I could just basically flip that switch every VBI and have the computer play itself. That turned out to be one of the absolutely huge selling points of [Archon]. Stores could put it in the window, get it started, and let it run.” Links: Free Fall Games web site Free Fall Associates chapter in Halcyon Days Tax Dodge 1984 article about Free Fall

ANTIC Special Episode - Atari Summer Camp Let's go to Atari Summer Camp! A special episode. Links Today Show clip The Magic Room Movie The Magic Room Trailer ANTIC magazine article Atari Connection article Bob Kahn's Atari Special Projects page Atari Computer Camps curriculum, software, and ephemera

Lloyd Speyer, Batteries Included Lloyd Speyer worked for Batteries Included from 1983 to 1987, where he worked with Commodore PETs, 64, Apple ][, Macintosh, as well as the Atari 800. He built hardware dongles, demonstrated products in the retail store, and worked in quality assurance, where he beta tested PaperClip and HomePak. This interview was conducted April 27, 2015. Teaser quote: “The Atari version and the Commodore 64 version [of PaperClip] were completely different, even though we said ‘These are the commands we want. This is what we need.’ Steve [Ahlstrom] and Dan [Mppre] decided that they wanted to take the product in a different direction because the Atari could do a little bit more. . . It actually came out to be a really, really nice product.”

Thomas Renbarger, Dorsett Educational SystemsThomas Renbarger worked at Dorsett Educational Systems from 1978 through 1980, where he converted audio and filmstrip based educational programs to computer graphics and text for the TRS-80 and Atari 400 and 800 computers.This interview took place April 21, 2015.Teaser quote:“Smart, nerdy people might be interested in something just because it says it’s educational, but most of the programs and stuff that was written was pretty — not totally remedial — but it was pretty introductory educational stuff.”

Ted Richards, Atari Connection Magazine Ted Richards was Editor In Chief of Atari Connection magazine, Atari’s in-house computer magazine; and was Marketing Communications Manager for Atari Home Computers, where he worked on print and package design, from 1981 to 1984. This interview took place on April 19, 2015. Links: Atari Connection Magazine scans 40 Year Old Hippie Brings The Computer Age Home Ted Richards’ web site Teaser Quotes: “Antic was a competing magazine, so to speak, at the time. I forget the editor’s name, he was quite a guy. . . [Jim] Capparell. He was always meeting with Atari executives, trying to persuade them to shut down our magazine.” “So when the Tramiels came in, they confronted him and they asked him ‘Who are you?’ And Arnold says ‘Who are you?!’ And they said ‘Him we like. He stays.’”

Peter Liepa, Boulder Dash Peter Liepa was co-creator and programmer of Boulder Dash and Boulder Dash 2 for the Atari computers. Boulder Dash was published by First Star Software in 1984 and is regarded as a seminal game for the Atari 8-bit machines. This interview took place on June 16, 2015 Teaser quotes: “I sat there playing these games and the idea of ‘I can do this’ or ‘I can build one of these’ welled up in my head.” “All of the pleasure of this project was in developing the game. I got very little pleasure out of the business aspect of it.” LINKS Peter's web site 2005 interview with Peter 2011 interview with Peter 10-line BASIC Boulderdash clone

Steve Mayer, Atari 400/800 Designer Hello and welcome to an interview-only episode of Antic, the Atari 8-bit computer podcast. Today I’m honored to be interviewing someone who was involved in the original design of the Atari 400 & 800 computers, Mr. Steve Mayer. Steve worked with Joe Decuir (whom I interviewed in an earlier episode), Jay Miner, and others on the Candy & Colleen project and that’s our main focus for this interview. However, Steve also was involved in much more, including involvement in the creation of Cyan Engineering, later known as the Grass Valley Think Tank and was involved in the creation and design of the 2600. This was recorded on April 18, 2015.