ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Peter Hirshberg, Capital Children's Museum Peter Hirshberg was curator of the communications wing of the Capital Children's Museum in the early 1980s, where he helped build The Future Center, the computer lab outfitted with Atari 800 computers; and museum exhibits, some of which were computer controlled. This interview took place on April 12, 2021. In it, we discuss Ann Lewin-Benham, director of the museum; and Guy Nouri, from the Superboots lab, both of whom I previously interviewed. Compu-tots and Other Joys of Museum Life by Peter Hirshberg, Instructional Innovator, Sept 1981 ANTIC Interview 410 - Ann Lewin-Benham, Director of Capital Children's Museum ANTIC Interview 407 - Guy Nouri, Interactive Picture Systems Finding Home Computer Uses, NY Times article by Andrew Pollack Gray Area art and technology center This interview on YouTube

Bob Puff, Computer Software Services Bob Puff is owner of Computer Software Services, a company that began creating hardware and software for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1982. Bob became president of the company in 1991. He designed a bevy of hardware products for the Atari computers, including The Black Box, a hard drive host adapter; The Multiplexer, a networking system; the UltraSpeed Plus operating system upgrade; upgrades for the XF551 floppy drive; the Super-E Burner EPROM burner; and others. He also created a number of popular utility programs, including the BobTerm terminal program; Disk Communicator, to convert boot disks to a single compressed file for transfer over modem; and MYDOS version 4.53; among other software. This interview took place on April 27, 2021. Computer Software Services legacy site 1993 Computer Software Services catalog scan ANTIC Interview 393 - Charles Marslett, MYDOS and FastChip

Valerie (Atkinson) Manfull, Atari Game Research Group Valerie Atkinson was a member of Atari's Game Research Group. Now named Valerie Manfull, she was on the team that designed and programmed the game Excalibur, along with Chris Crawford and Larry Summers. Excalibur was published by Atari Program Exchange in fall 1983. She is also one of the programmes of Ballsong, along with Douglas Crockford. Ballsong is a music and graphics demo program released by Atari, in which a ball bounces on the screen in response to an improvised tune. She was one of the programmers, with Ann Marion, of TV Fishtank, a demonstration of an artificially intelligent fish. (It's unclear if the fishtank program was released anywhere, though it apparently was shown at the 1984 SIGgraph conference.) This interview took place on April 22, 2021. ANTIC Episode 4 - Chris Crawford ANTIC Interview 240 - Douglas Crockford TV Fishtank at SIGgraph Jim Leiterman describes TV Fishtank Chris Crawford describes the development of Excalibur in The Art of Computer Game Design Excalibur announced in Atari Program Exchange, fall 1983 Excalibur review in Atari Connection Excalibur at AtariMania Video of Ballsong Added 2024: A videotape of animation from Atari Research including TV FIshtank and other projects

ANTIC Episode 77 - Jason Moore, PhD In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Jason Moore joins us to discuss his atariprojects.org Web site and we discuss all the news rocking the Atari 8-bit world... READY! 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 Interview index: here ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue Next Without For What We've Been Up To Ed Fries source code, mac/65 tokenized: https://github.com/savetz/edfries-seachase https://github.com/savetz/edfries-anteater https://github.com/savetz/edfries-frog https://github.com/savetz/edfries-nitro https://github.com/savetz/edfries-chess (Xuel got it working at https://atariage.com/forums/topic/318961-assembly-source-code-for-5-programs-by-ed-fries/?do=findComment&comment=4799922 Prentice Associates Classroom Computer News and Apple II source code disks. Classroom computer news - https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Intentional+Educations%22&sort=-publicdate News FrogFind! http://frogfind.com/ - The Search Engine for Vintage Computers AtariAge thread on FrogFind! - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/319514-new-websites-for-your-old-computers/ Atari Projects - Jason Moore does it again! - http://atariprojects.org/ US based Amiga store, AmigaOnTheLake, has branched out into wider retro territory and now includes multiple Atari 8-bit items - http://amigaonthelake.com/atari-8-bit/ ABBUC (Atari Bit Byter User Club) Website is down until further notice due to a hackers attack - https://vintageisthenewold.com/abbuc-atari-bit-byter-user-club-website-is-down-until-further-notice-due-to-a-hackers-attack/ 10-line BASIC contest results https://gkanold.wixsite.com/homeputerium/results-2021 Table of entries https://twitter.com/romwer/status/1378364035607977984?s=20 ABBUC 2021 Software Contest - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/319869-abbuc-software-contest-2021/ 8-Bit Dungeon which is being created with the 8-Bit Unity platform has a tech demo out - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/04/descarga-demo-jugable-de-8bit-dungeon.html TCL language - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/269553-test-computer-language-version-22-from-d-firth/?tab=comments#comment-4807575 ABBUC magazine #144 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/319736-abbuc-magazine-144/ Bill Kendrick transcribed 1982 Byte magazine article Advanced Star Raiders Tactics and Strategies - http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/star-raiders/advanced-star-raiders-tactics-and-strategies.html Issue 32 of Atari User Magazine is available - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/04/atari-y-c64-se-enfrentan-en-nuevo.html Shows Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people): KansasFest July 23-24 https://www.kansasfest.org ; virtual event VCF West August 7 & 8, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival West VCFSE Aug 20-22 https://gameatl.com/vintage-computing-festival-southeast-8-0-at-sfge/ or http://southernfriedgameroomexpo.com/ , Atlanta, GA VCF Midwest Sep 11-12 http://vcfmw.org/announce , Chicago area VCF East October 8, 9, 10, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East , Wall, NJ Event page created by Chicago Classic Computing - http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html?fbclid=IwAR3Fm5hf7PCQj0yXBxXvj9J8Mp8GDwD2w1bfD_qktpPOnNYNoQUmN_EpgB8 Event page created by Floppy Days - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/ Event page on Vintage Is The New Old - https://vintageisthenewold.com/vintage-is-the-new-old-releases-new-events-calendar/ YouTube videos this month CROSS HORDE =+ ATARI 800 XL += NEW GAME 2021 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcc4TtB1e9U - Atari 8 Bits For Ever MOON CRESTA !!! ATARI 800 XL - VBXE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmH7_1hFGA&t=42s - Atari 8 Bits For Ever Atari 800XL Music - "Return of Atarians" - On Real Hardware (( IN STEREO )) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jHQaT1Ei28 - Paul Westphal Retropie 4.6 Atari 5200 Tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTZCK5EX5AA - Ace1000ks1975 Atari 800 - NOS Keyboard and Reassembly - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K-JRvFzci8 - ShadowTron Blog New at Archive.org https://archive.org/details/zongmagazine Atari Playing David To The Giants - https://archive.org/details/atari-playing-david-to-the-giants GRASSHOPPER — A Low-Level Language for Use on the MOS 6502 Microcomputer - https://archive.org/details/grasshopper-6502

Linda Brownstein, Atari VP Special Projects As I've researched Atari and it's 8-bit computer projects over the years, one name has come up over and over again, attached to the most interesting projects. Linda S. Gordon. Executive Director of Atari Computer Camps. Linda. Executive Producer of The Magic Room, Atari's movie about its camps. Atari's collaboration with Club Med to offer computer labs at vacation destinations — Linda again. Atari Club, the fan group that published Atari Age magazine - Linda launched that. More recently, in my interview with Ann Lewin-Benham of the Capital Children's Museum, Linda's name came up once again -- she was the liaison between Atari and the museum. Linda worked on the most interesting projects. Today, her name is Linda Brownstein. Linda joined Atari in December 1980 as Vice President of Special Projects, where she worked on most of the projects that I mentioned before. In October 1983 she became Senior Vice President in Atari's Education group. She left the company in July 1984 after Jack Tramiel took over the company. This interview took place on April 21, 2021. ANTIC Interview 78 - Manny Gerard, The Man Who Fired Nolan ANTIC Special Episode - Atari Summer Camp ANTIC Interview 410 - Ann Lewin-Benham, Capital Children's Museum ANTIC Interview 185 - Ted Kahn Atari Computer Camps — The Magic Room Video version of this interview

Mark Simonson, Atari Artist and Font Designer Mark Simonson used his Atari computers who create art that was published in magazines in the 1980s, including a portrait of Nolan Bushnell that was commissioned by TWA Ambassador, an inflight magazine; a colorful street scene for the cover of Minnesota Monthly, the magazine of Minnesota Public Radio; and a juggler for the cover of Credit Union Advantage magazine, among others. Professionally, Mark is a font designer. He created Atari Classic, a free TrueType font family for modern computers that looks like the Atari 8-bit screen font. Today, you'll see Atari Classic used in many Atari emulators, web sites, the WUDSN IDE, and elsewhere. This interview took place on April 15, 2021. Mark's Atari reminisce blog post Mark's Mac/Atari Fusion site Mark's Nolan Bushnell portrait in Hi-Res Magazine Issue 1 A wild Mark appears on AtariAge FujiNet This interview on YouTube

Ann Lewin-Benham, Director of Capital Children's Museum Ann Lewin-Benham was executive director of the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, D.C. The museum was home to the first public-access computer center in the nation's capital, and indeed, one of the first in the United States. In 1981, Atari and Apple each donated dozens of computers to the museum. The exact number is unclear, but 30 is the number I've seen most often for Atari's contribution. The computer lab was called The Future Center. There, the museum offered computer literacy classes for people of all ages, from Compu-Tots for preschoolers, to programming classes for adults, there was even a computer literacy session for members of Congress. It also used the lab for birthday parties. (Last year, I interviewed a woman who had her 8th birthday party at the museum.) The museum used more of its computers in its exhibit on communication. It established a software development laboratory, called Superboots, in which developers created custom softare for the museum, and one product that was released commercially: the graphics program PAINT! In a 1982 article titled A Day At The Capital Children's Museum, Melanie Graves described the scene: "My twelve-year-old friend Sarah and I went to the museum to explore the computers. There are several dozen computers scattered throughout the building which are used for exhibits, classroom teaching and the development of educational software... A machine that calls itself "Wisecracker" is the noisest of the computers that beckon visitors to the Communication exhibit. "My-name- is-Wise-crack-er," it says in a monotone, "Come-type-to-me." This message repeats endlessly until someone types at the keyboard or turns off the computer. "Hello, how are you?" Sarah typed, and pressed the return key. "Hel-lo-how-are-you," the machine's voice responded. Sarah typed for awhile longer and then proclaimed, "It sure is dumb, but its voice is kind of cute." The computer next to Wisecracker has a data base program that asked Sarah her name, where she came from, and other questions. It informed her that she was the thirty-seventh person from Virginia to type in data that day... "Fifty-five percent of the people who came here were girls," she told me. Next to the data base, a computer is set up with a music program. Sarah pressed some random keys, causing notes to sound. At the same time, the letter names of the notes appeared on the keys of a piano that was displayed on the screen. There is also a Teletext terminal that tells inquirers about weather predictions, and news releases, the latest acquisitions at the public library, local cultural events and whatever else has been entered into the data base for that day... After playing with Teletext, Sarah and I went to the Future Center, a room equipped with twenty Atari 800s. On weekdays, the classroom is available to school groups ranging from prekindergarten to high school. On weekends, families arrive for courses in programming. Classes have also been created for working people, senior citizens, community groups, congressional spouses and other special interest groups. This summer more than sixty students from the Washington, D.C. public schools attended one of two free month-long computer camps at the museum." This interview took place on April 2, 2021. Ann's web site Museum in Atari ConnectionVolume 1 Number 4 A Day At The Capital Children's Museum Computers And Kids, article by Edith Holmes in ASIS Bulletin, June 1981 Compu-tots and other joys of museum life by Peter Hirshberg, Instructional Innovator, Sept 1981 Description of donation in "Atari in Action Atari Institute Newsletter" Fall 1982 ANTIC Interview 391 - Tracy Frey, Atari Birthday Girl ANTIC Interview 407 - Guy Nouri, Interactive Picture Systems National Children's Museum

Ed Fries: Romox Ant Eater, Princess and Frog, Sea Chase Ed Fries programmed three games for the Atari 8-bit computers, which were published on cartridge by Romox: Sea Chase, Ant Eater, and Princess and Frog. His forth game for Romox, Nitro, was unfinished because the company went out of business before Ed was done coding it. Years later, Ed became vice president of game publishing at Microsoft where he oversaw the creation of the Xbox. In 2010, Ed released Halo 2600, a demake of the Halo video for the Atari 2600. In 2013, he coded an Atari 2600 version of Rally X. This interview took place on March 11, 2021. After the interview, Ed sent me the assembly language source code to five games, which he graciously released as open source. You'll find the code for Sea Chase, Ant Eater, Princess and Frog, the unreleased/finished game Nitro, and a chess game, at GitHub. AtariMania's list of Ed Fries' games 2015 Atari Compendium Interview Ed's Blog Ed on Twitter This interview at Youtube ANTIC Interview 76 - Tim McGuinness, founder of Romox The Paper Computer Unfolded Sea Chase source code Ant Eater source code Princess and Frog source code Nitro source code Chess source code

ANTIC Episode 76 - The Bill Kendrick Show In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Bill Kendrick gets more mentions than when he's on the show, Kay discovers he owns more Atari disk drives than the rest of the Atari community combined, and we discuss all the news rocking the Atari 8-bit world. READY! 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 Interview index: here ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue Next Without For What We've Been Up To Worms? Source code archiving - https://github.com/savetz/worms Atari Speed Reading Receipts - https://archive.org/details/atari-speed-reading-receipts News 800XL PCB remake: https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-pcb-soldering-and-troubleshooting https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-bill-materials-bom https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-pcb-remake ATasm, a command-line based 6502 cross-assembler that's compatible with OSS's 1982 "Mac/65" macroassembler: SourceForge page - https://sourceforge.net/projects/atasm/ The documentation - https://sourceforge.net/p/atasm/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/atasm.txt#l54 Atari Projects - Jason Moore does it again! - http://atariprojects.org/ Learn about Vertical Blank Interrupts in BASIC for Atari 8-Bit Computers (30-60 mins) Read "How Atari took on Apple in the 1980s home PC wars" by Benj Edwards (5-10 mins) Atari Flashback X with Atari Computer Games - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/03/pack-con-mas-de-130-juegos-para-consola.html Paul Nicholls' Coded Snippets Cookbook - 6502 edition - https://syntaxerrorsoftware.itch.io/code-snippets-cookbook-6502-edition Atari Giant - http://atarigiant.com/ - Web site store that caters to Atari 8-bit Pro(c) issue 15 - https://proc-atari.de/en/proc-atari-magazine/proc-atari-issue-15-softcover-book-edition USB Keyboard Interface available from Lotharek - https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=311 Belts for 1050 - https://console5.com/store/fabric-reinforced-belt-for-atari-1050-tandon-tm100-4p-floppy-drive.html Atari Compendium Website - Mostly 2600, with a smattering of computer - http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/controllers/controllers.html Gem Drop Deluxe - Bill Kendrick - http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/gemdrop_deluxe/ Shows Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people): VCFSE August 20-22 http://southernfriedgameroomexpo.com/ KansasFest July 23-24 https://www.kansasfest.org ; virtual event PRGE - cancelled August 7 & 8, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival West 2021 (VCF West) October 8, 9, 10, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East 2021 (VCF East) Event page created by Chicago Classic Computing - http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html?fbclid=IwAR3Fm5hf7PCQj0yXBxXvj9J8Mp8GDwD2w1bfD_qktpPOnNYNoQUmN_EpgB8 Event page created by Floppy Days - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/ Event page on Vintage Is The New Old - https://vintageisthenewold.com/vintage-is-the-new-old-releases-new-events-calendar/ YouTube videos this month The real fight Atari versus Commodore - IT Guy in Action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFhAX9gijXY Atari 800 - Part 2 - Replacing Electrolytic Capacitors - ShadowTron Blog - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-dgDZ4MJYM NEW IMPROVED VERSION EN Atari 8-bit emulator (Atari800 emulator) - IT Guy in Action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoONYg8Yehs Gem Drop Deluxe! (Atari 800) - ArcadeUSA (William Culver) - Programmed by Bill Kendrick - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SNvh88SiW4 Also Gem Drop Deluxe! video by Atari 8 Bits For Ever - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HBQOjnBKu8 Gem Drop Deluxe! blog by Bill Kendrick - http://newbreedsoftware.com/gemdrop_deluxe/?fbclid=IwAR3VrwTV4-XAVd-S1exD5EiDdMhy0CQtRZIWBH8oqkfGqTVUJzWva3aE94M Quarter Express - 256 bytes intro for Atari XL/XE by Ilmenit / Agenda - For Lovebyte party 2021, "Low-End 256 byte intro compo" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UKnPHhKaFg Atari 800 XL Lite Rally Motorcycle racing game - The Modern Atari 8bit Computer (Nir Dary) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnG43ooEHtE New at Archive.org Pigeons at Internet Archive Scholar. Several researchers tested pigeons' perception and visual ability using Atari 800 computers. A dozen papers dated 1983-1993 - https://scholar.archive.org/search?q=%22atari+800%22+pigeons&sort_order=time_desc Atari HQ Archive #1 - https://archive.org/details/atari-hq-archive-1 Allan Bushman: Your First Atari Program by Rodnay Zaks https://archive.org/details/your-first-atari-program-rodnay-zaks Software Merchandising magazine, January, 1983 https://archive.org/details/software-merchandising-january-1983/ Current Notes magazines 1994-1995 https://archive.org/details/current-notes-volume-15-number-1-january-february-1995 Portland Atari Club newsletters 1994-1995 https://archive.org/details/portland-atari-club-january-1985 Adventure International's Airline manual https://archive.org/details/airline-adventure-international/page/n19/mode/2up Commercial Touch Me By Atari (Commercial, 1979) - https://archive.org/details/touch-me-by-atari-commercial-1979 New at Github Atari 800 Soundbox https://github.com/zbyti/atari800-soundbox ATARI XE Replacement Keyboard https://github.com/gianlucarenzi/A130KB_MX XEGS-DS https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/XEGS-DS Also A5200DS https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS Atari800-Display-Lists https://github.com/pedromagician/Atari800-Display-Lists Atari 1090XL expansion box remake https://github.com/kenames99/1090 Atari800-benchmarks https://github.com/pedromagician/Atari800-benchmarks Micview https://github.com/tschak909/micview Turbo Decoder https://github.com/baktragh/turbodecoder MidiJoy https://github.com/fredlcore/MidiJoy USB_to_RS232 Connector https://github.com/pjones1063/USB_to_RS232#usb_to_rs232-connector-usbmodem Listener Feedback Vegas 1988 World of Atari show - https://archive.org/details/WorldOfAtariConventionLasVegas1998/ Closing END OF SHOW MUSIC: Donnie Iris and the Cruisers - Do You Compute? (1983) - music video featuring an Atari 1200XL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Rjyu_4HzI

ANTIC Interview 408 - David Maynard, Electronic Arts Worms? David Maynard created the game/simulation "Worms?" Published by Electronic Arts in 1983, it was a launch title -- one of the five initial releases from the company. David, one of EA's first employees, wrote Worms? for the Atari 8-bit in FORTH. It was later ported to the Commodore 64. Worms is an interactive version of Paterson's Worms, a family of cellular automata devised in 1971 by Mike Paterson and John Conway. It is an unusual program, in which the player teaches wormlike creatures how to move on a hexagonal grid -- what direction to move in various situations. The worm's goal is to to grow and survive, and to capture more space on the grid than its competitors. Up to four worms could play simultaneously, with any combination of human- and computer-controlled worms. But the program's manual didn't tell you all that straight off. In fact, here's the first thing you saw after opening the package: "You will find detailed instructions enclosed. Do not read them. Instead, sit down and get started. Don't ask how. Just start. You know how these things work... Resist them. Do not read them for a very long time. In fact, do not read them until you know how the game works... Then never read the instructions. Innocence is bliss." David also collaborated on Cut & Paste, a word processor published by Electronic Arts in 1984. After our interview, David sent me a binder of Worms? development documentation and source code for Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64, all of which I have scanned and are available at Internet Archive and GitHub. The originals are going to the Strong Museum of Play, at David's request. This interview took place on March 4, 2021. Worms? source code for Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 Scans of printed Worms? source code Worms? Development Notes David's blog Worms? at AtariMania Michael Beeler's original Paterson's Worms paper Martin Gardner's article in Scientific American Darworms, Javascript version of Worms? Darworms instructions and explanation More Paterson's worm math EA We See Farther poster This interview at YouTube