ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast:  Victor Marland of the Ten Pence Arcade Podcast joins us over Kevin's pancake breakfast, Bill Kendrick reviews Tempest Elite, and we discuss Tinkle Pit and Uncle Poo.  Plus all the Atari news we could find. READY! Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevin's Book "Terrible Nerd" New Atari books scans at...

Dan Reinhart, Yahtman   Dan Reinhart published one program for the Atari 8-bit computers: Yahtman, a Yahtzee-style game that was published by Atari Program Exchange. Yahtman first appeared in the winter 1982-1983 APX catalog.   This interview took place on August 28, 2017. In it, we discuss Paul Cubbage, whom I previously interviewed.   "Paul [Cubbage] had said, 'You know, you have good potential...

David Seuss, co-founder of Spinnaker Software   This interview is with David Seuss, co-founder of Spinnaker Software. Spinnaker was one of the first companies to focus exclusively on educational software. Spinnaker's software line-up included Snooper Troops, Delta Drawing, FaceMaker, Adventure Creator, In Search of the Most Amazing Thing, KinderComp, and many other titles.   This interview took pl...

Hal Glicksman, Datamost   Hal Glicksman was head of the book division at Datamost.   In two years from 1982 to 1984, Datamost was one of largest publishers of computer books. In 1983 alone, Datamost published over 40 titles and shipped 100,000 books per month. Their Atari books included Atari Roots, Kids and the Atari, ABCs of Atari Computers, and The Elementary Atari. Hal himself wrote The Musica...

Lee Konowe, American Software Club   Lee Konowe was founder of American Software Club, a mail-order software company. American Software Club sold software for CP/M, Atari 8-bit, TRS-80, Apple II, IBM PC, Commodore 64, and other platforms. It started out with a sort of Columbia House "software of the month" model, where you automatically received a "choice of the month" software package each month...

Patricia Mitchell, Thorn EMI   Patricia Mitchell started at Thorn EMI in 1981.  She worked in the home computer software division, evaluating software that had been submitted by programmers.    Thorn EMI published many games for the Atari 8-bit computers, including River Rescue, Carnival Massacre, Orc Attack, Kickback, Submarine Commander, Computer War, and Jumbo Jet Pilot.   Later she worked at V...

James Burton, APX Drawit   James Burton published one program for the Atari 8-bit computers: Drawit, a graphics utility that was published by Atari Program Exchange. It first appeared in the summer 1983 APX catalog, where it was awarded first prize in the personal development category.     This interview took place on August 24, 2017.   "Many hours. Many, many hours. Late at night, don;t want to g...

Lance Leventhal, Author of Assembly Language Books   Lance Leventhal wrote 25 computer books, spanning 1978 through 1992. His books include  6502 Assembly Language Programming, 6502 Assembly Language Subroutines, Z80 Assembly Language Programming, Z80 Assembly Language Subroutines, 6800 Assembly Language Programming, 6809 Assembly Language Programming, and Why Do You Need a Personal Computer?   Th...

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: Mike Maginnis of the Open Apple and Drop III Inches podcasts joins the Antic crew and starts a computer war, Nir Dary tells us about disk drive upgrades, we catch up with Curt Vendel about his projects including the 2nd Atari history book, and more Atari news than you can possibly imagine! READY! Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariAr...

John Skruch, Atarisoft   John Skruch worked at Atari from 1982, under Warner Communications, all through the Tramiel era, until 1998 when the company was owned by JTS.   During that time, he was operations manager for Atarisoft, the arm of Atari that produced software for competing computer systems; software product manager for the 8-bit computer line; and director of licensing. He was involved wt...

Tom Hunt, Closer to Home BBS   Tom Hunt ran an Atari BBS called Closer to Home for 28 years. He also created a variety of utilities for the Atari 8-bit computers, including M.T.O.S. (Multi-Tasking Operating System), and The Armorizer (a file corruption detector). He created several languages including Atari implementations of the Brainfork and Mouse programming languages, and forks of Atari BASIC...

Robert Anschuetz, Eric Anschuetz, John Weisgberber, Antic magazine games   Robert Anschuetz, Eric Anschuetz, and John Weisgberber are childhood friends who published three games in Antic magazine: Kooky's Quest was published in the February 1985 issue; Overflow in July 1985; and Robot Dungeon was the "disk bonus" in the November 1985 issue. They also wrote several other games in Atari BASIC — some...

Stan Osborne, Atari Design Research   Stan Osborne was a freelance software engineer in Atari's Design Research department from 1981 through 1984. He also worked on projects for coin-op and home computing departments. He created micro-kernels, proof of concepts, proto-applications and device drivers.   There are two versions of this interview: the podcast version is about an hour shorter. The exte...

Harry Stewart, Pilot and WSFN   Harry Stewart was a contractor for Atari from August 1978 through October 1983. He contributed to the operating system design and the manuals for the Atari 400 and 800; created the Atari implementation of the WSFN language (which was released in the first Atari Program Exchange catalog, summer 1981). He worked on Atari's PILOT programming language and the unreleased...

Carol Shaw, Atari and Activision   Carol Shaw was a software engineer at Atari from August 1978 though 1980. She programmed for the Atari 2600 and Atari 8-bit computers. She programmed on 3-D Tic Tac Toe for the Atari 800 and 2600; and the math application Calculator. She worked on Video Checkers, Othello, and Super Breakout for the 2600. She also co-wrote the Atari BASIC Reference Manual. Carol j...

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast: Kevin hacks the heck out of the Atari 8-bits, we're back on the interview bandwagon, Josh Renaud tells us about ATASCII animations, and Nir Dary gives us the scoop on the Outline Demo Party. READY! Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevin's Book "Terrible Nerd" New Atari books scans at archive.org ANTI...

Merl Miller, dilithium Press   Merl Miller was co-founder of dilithium Press, a publisher of computer books that was in business from 1977 through 1986. Merl was co-author of Computers for People (with Jerry Willis), a book that heavily features Atari 8-bit computers; and Things to Do With Your Atari Computer (with Jerry Willis and Nancy Morrice) as well as several other books about other types of...

Claus Buchholz and Lance Ward, ACE-80 Hello.  Welcome to an interview-only episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast.  I am Randy Kindig.  In 1985, Claus Buchholz and Lance Ward released the ACE-80 and ACE-80XL cartridges, which gave 80-column text capability to the Atari 800 and XL computers, respectively.  These were released through their newly-formed company, Amiable Computer Products....

Robert Veline, Astro Pyrotechnics   The July/August 1987 issue of ST-Log magazine has an article by Matthew Stern called " Atari Sets Off Fireworks! " It features an interview with Robert Veline of Astro Pryrotechnics, a California-based fireworks company. I'll read some snippets from the article. ...   I found Robert — who is still in the pyrotechnics industry today — to get more of the story. Th...

Gary Koffler, VP at Datasoft and Datamost   Gary Koffler was VP at two publishers: Datasoft and Datamost. He was VP Software at Datasoft in 1980–1981. Datasoft published many Atari computer games, including Canyon Climber, Clowns and Balloons, Pacific Coast Highway, Sands of Egypt, and Zaxxon. At Datasoft, Gary managed creation of the AtariWriter word processor under contract for Atari.   Next, Ga...

Dan Hale, EasyGrader   Dan Hale published one program for the Atari 8-bit computers: EasyGrader, which first appeared in the fall 1982 APX catalog.    This interview took place on May 30, 2017.   EasyGrader in the fall 1982 APX catalog   EasyGrader at AtariArchives.org

David Thornburg, Koalapad inventor   David Thornburg invented the KoalaPad, a touch tablet that was available for the Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore 64, Apple II, and the IBM PC. A version for the TRS-80 Color Computer was also available, sold as the TRS-80 Touch Pad. He is also the author of The KoalaPad Book , which was published in 1984.   This interview took place on May 22, 2017. In it, we...

George White, Founder of Koala Technologies   George White was the founder of Koala Technologies, the company that made the KoalaPad. KoalaPad was a touch tablet, versions were available for the Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore 64, Apple II, and the IBM PC. A version for the TRS-80 Color Computer was also available, sold as the TRS-80 Touch Pad.   This interview took place on May 20, 2017. If you...

William Leslie - OmniTrend Universe William Bill Leslie was one of the authors of Omnitrend's Universe; a science fiction space trading and combat game.  The first version was programmed in valFORTH on an Atari 800, based on a board game created by Bill. It was Omnitrend's first game and was released in 1983. There were versions of Universe for the Atari 8-bit, Apple II and IBM computers. Bill was...

Jay Balakrishnan, HESWare Welcome to an interview-only episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig.  Jay Balakrishnan bought his first Commodore PET in 1978, which spurred him to found Human Engineered Software (HES or HESWare) in 1980.  HESWare got its start on the Commodore PET but later moved into many other platforms.  They developed or sold software for C64, Vi...