ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Pab Sungenis, developer Hi, I’m Randy Kindig and this is an interview-only episode of Antic, The Atari 8-bit computer podcast. Our guest for this show is Pab Sungenis, a long-time (and current) developer for the Atari 8-bits. A long time ago, Pab wrote a popular piece of bulletin board software called AtariLink BBS. He also developed an off-line mail reader. He was also more recently involved briefly with enhancements to the SpartaDOS alternative DOS, arguably one of the best DOS’s ever developed for the Atari 8-bit. His current project is an exciting one where he is working to develop a new programming language to target the Atari 8-bits. I hope you enjoy this. Teaser Quotes: “I kinda got into the habit of: if you need it, write it.” “It surprised me when my hacks of Keith's (Ledbetter) programs started finding their way onto Compuserve.” “What if you took Action! and you added object-oriented programming?” Links: Pab Sungenis Website Blog grumpy cat for 2600 at YouTube grumpy cat blog thread for new Accomplish language on AtariAge

John-Michael Battaglia John-Michael Battaglia worked as a copywriter at Atari for about a year from 1981 through 1982, writing manuals and box copy for Atari 2600 and 5200 video games. He wrote the manuals for Atari 5200 Football, Space Dungeon, WaterWorld, Phoenix, and Adventure. He later worked at Catalyst, Nolan Bushnell’s incubator for technology startups. This interview took place March 2, 2015. LINKS John-Michael's web site Digital Press interview with John-Michael Teaser quotes: “Debacle, yes. Debacle is quite the right word. That was probably my proudest moment.” “I think of my first day I probably sent e-mails to my friends saying: you’ll never believe where I am now. I’m playing video games and getting paid for it.” “It was another one of those instances where a writer could actually have input into the game design, provided the game designer was open to that kind of feedback.”

Steve Molyneux, German Software Development Manager Steve Molyneux was Atari’s Software Development Manager in Hamburg, Germany from 1981 through 1984. He was responsible for the European side of Atari Program Exchange, and launching games at European trade shows. Parts of this interview discuss adult situations, and are not appropriate for children. This interview occurred on April 13, 2015 LINK 2008 photos of Atari Europe HQ Teaser quotes: “...In sort of private helicopters up to this chalet. I mean the amount of money that they spent when we had Warner money. . .” “Castle Wolfenstein? That was definitely a no-no in Germany. I mean, that was just something you couldn’t talk about, you just couldn’t sell.”

Fred D'Ignazio, prolific writer Fred D'Ignazio wrote more than 20 computer books, including Atari in Wonderland and The Atari Playground. He hosted four television shows about computers and robots, and was the "gadget guru" on Good Morning America. He was an associate editor and columnist for Compute! magazine, where he wrote the columns World Inside The Computer and On The Road With Fred D'Ignazio. This interview was conducted April 10, 2015. Teaser quotes: "Katie and the Computer, my advance was $300. And I had to split it with my illustrator." "You know Nolan Bushnell, right? ... He'd put his arm around me and say, 'Fred, How's it goin' in the world of the ankle biters and the little people?'" "You could hear a pin drop after my speech. There was just this embarrassed silence, like 'Who the freaking heck is this joker they hired to speak at our convention?'" LINKS Fred reads to us Fred Demonstrates the Amiga on Tom York’s Morning Show Fred’s videos and articles Fred’s articles in Compute! magazine Contact Fred: fred.dignazio@gmail.com

Cassie Maas, Atari Marketing and Tech Support Cassie Maas started at Atari as a sales order processing clerk; then as a member of the marketing team, she evaluated new product ideas; then she worked in technical support, where she was the high-end technical support for word processing, and managed a BBS for user groups. She contributed to the 1984 book "InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari" and wrote for Antic magazine and Infoworld. This interview occurred on April 6 and April 14 2015. Check the show notes atAtariPodcast.com to see the letter to Spencer Villwock that we discuss, plus links to her Atari writing. Links http://i.imgur.comCassie's letter to Spenserp5IW6MC.jpg InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari Cassie's articles in Antic magazine Teaser quotes: “I was really excited about the computer and I said, ‘Do you think I could get a job there?’ He laughed and snorted... Within a year I not only had a job at Atari, I had his job.” “I’m not accepting your resignation. You’re going to be laid off like everybody else, on Friday, with a severance package!” “That place was a fiasco. That place was just - woah! Money was being spent willy-nilly on all kinds of crazy things. People were sleeping with each other. People were cheating on their spouses. I mean, just crazy, crazy stuff went on.” “So inside I’m totally freaking out, I’m this young kid, I don’t know, am I in really serious trouble? Am I breaking the law?”

Ken Balthaser, Atari Manager of Software Development Ken Balthaser stated at Atari as part of a skunkworks group where he wrote software for speech hardware, then became manager of application software development. He oversaw the creation of the SWEAT system software, which were development tools for non-programmers to make graphics and sound assets; and the creation of arcade conversions such as Centipede and Defender to the 8-bit platform. Prior to Atari, he was part of the team that created all of the software for the CyberVision 2000, an early personal computer that was sold by Montgomery Ward. Ken is the father of Eunice Wlcek, an Atari employee whom I previously interviewed. This interview was conducted April 9, 2015. Teaser quotes: "Those were really hectic, crazy days. I mean, at that point, Atari was the fastest growing company in the world. No company had ever grown that fast that quickly. ... And just as quickly, it flamed out." "There were a lot of people involved in the creation of the personal computer and video game industry. We tend to think that it was all Steve Jobs and Apple, and Bill Gates and Microsoft, but it wasn't. It was hundreds and thousands of other people who were participating and who were scrambling, and who were creating, and inventing along the way as well." "It was wild there in the engineering building. If you walked past a restroom you might get high just from smoke coming out of it, you know?" (No links)

Eunice Wlcek, Atari Quality Assurance Eunice Wlcek started at Atari as a secretary in the sales and marketing department, then moved to quality assurance where she did software testing. Later, she worked as a QA tester at Mindset, the graphics workstation company which was founded by several former Atari employees. This interview was conducted March 19, 2015. Teaser quotes: “‘You’d be a great Ms. Pac Man.’ They made me Ms. Pac Man and I always had to dress up for these events with this big Pac Man costume on.” “Mike’s company car was a Porsche. Whenever he wanted something done I got to take it and drive that around. And go do errands with the Porsche.”

Curt Vendel & Marty Goldberg, Atari Historians Welcome to Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast. I’m Randy Kindig, one of the hosts of the podcast, and your host for this episode. To give you a little background on this interview and where it came from, I also host another podcast on retrocomputing called Floppy Days, where I cover various vintage computers in the order that they were introduced. I recently covered the Atari 400 & 800 computers and had asked Curt Vendel and Marty Goldberg, Atari historians, to help cover the history portion of the podcast. I used excerpts from that interview on the podcast, but only used a small portion of the interview for that. So, I thought I would air the entire interview, since it covers Atari computers, on Antic. In this interview we discuss the history of the 400 & 800 in-depth, as well as discussing the passing of Steve Bristow, an Atari icon, the status of the Atari history books by Curt & Marty, and much more. This interview was conducted February 25, 2015 via Skype. Teaser Quotes: “the whole idea was to make a more advanced Atari VCS, Atari 2600” “when you bring a microprocessor in there, a 6507, and then you're trying to make them as intelligent a peripheral as possible, it can add to the expense” “When Atari designed the 400/800, it really was designed as a consumer computer” “there's an ad going around now, it's popular on Twitter, to make fun of how Atari says the computer will never become obsolete” “they only viewed Atari as an entertainment asset” Links: Retro Gamer Magazine RETRO Magazine “Atari Inc: Business is Fun" at Amazon Atari Book site Atari Museum Steve Bristow

Tom Hudson is a name familiar to readers of A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing magazine. He worked at A.N.A.L.O.G., where we wrote articles, games, maintained the A.N.A.L.O.G. TCS bulletin board system. His game credits include LiveWire, fire Bug, and Planetary Defense. He also wrote the popular DEGAS paint program for the Atari ST; and CAD-3D, a 3D graphics package, in conjunction with Gary Yost. This interview was conducted April 17 2015. LINKS Tom’s web site Tom on Twitter List of Tom’s software on AtariMania Teaser quotes: “Oh boy, probably one of the worst cases of vaporware I’ve ever seen.” “We were dealing with stuff like cassette duplication. . . and none of us were crazy about that. I said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do a bulletin board? Have it’s so it’s subscription. Anybody who’s on the bulletin board won’t need to get cassettes anymore, because they can just download the stuff.”

David Kano, Hex-A-Bug David Kano wrote the Hex-A-Bug debugger which was published by Atari Program Exchange. He also wrote two educational software titles for the Atari: Monkey See Monkey Spell, and Don’t Shoot That Word, which were both published by Hayden Software. This interview was conducted March 24 2015. Teaser quotes: “I remember when I showed them the finished product they said ‘That’s great, except the monkey is too realistic. It’s too scary. Kids will be scared of that monkey.’” “It was back in the day, when they were so desperate for programmers, they were taking anybody that seemed like they might be smart enough to learn how to do it. And then you learned on the job.” LINKS Hex-A-Bug in APX catalog David’s Blog