ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast:  In this five-year anniversary episode of ANTIC, we reminisce back to show #1 all those years ago, our friend Nir Dary tells us all about Atari Invasion, Jeff Fulton of the Into the Vertical Blank Podcast gives us a game review of Star Island, plus all the Atari 8-bit news that we could find.  Happy 5-Year Anniversary to us! READY! Recurri...

Larry Breakwell, Toronto Atari Programmers Society Larry Breakwell was founder of the Toronto West Atari Computer Support Group, then president of the Toronto Atari Programmers Society, which was the largest Atari user group in Canada. He adapted the Atari version of the book " Academy on Computers Hands-On Atari 400/800 Beginner's Manual " from a version of the book focused on the Commodore PET....

Mike Sandau, Atari-CB Radio Hacking   In the mid-1980s, Mike Sandau and his friend connected their Atari 8-bit computers to their citizens band radios to create a small radio-telephone computer network. Their "DIALOG" project combined the radio hardware with custom software (first in Atari BASIC, then later in Action!) to allow chatting, broadcasting messages, and binary file transfers over the ai...

Charlie Kulas: Musical Pilot, UpN Down   Charlie Kulas published Musical Pilot, an educational game, through Atari Program Exchange. Musical Pilot first appeared in the fall 1983 APX catalog, where it was awarded third prize in the Learning category. He later worked at McT (AKA Microcomputer Technologies), a company that was contracted to program games by Sega. There he programmed the game UpN Dow...

Youth Advisory Board: Yoon Park   This is the sixth in a series of episodes featuring interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. This time, I got to talk with Yoon Park.   In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting teenagers from around the United States to share their opinions about computers and video games, test software, and promote Atari's computers at events. The...

Youth Advisory Board: Musa Mustafa   This is the fifth in a series of episodes featuring interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. If you're just joining us: In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting 20 kids, aged 14 though 18, from around the U.S. to share their opinions about computers, test software, and promote Atari's computers at events.    This is an interview...

Youth Advisory Board: Robert Allbritton   This is the fourth episode in a series of interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. Robert Allbritton was one of the 20 kids who, in 1983, were accepted into the Youth Advisory Board, a group of teenagers who were able to take a trip to Atari's headquarters in California, enjoy free 1200XL computers, and he even got to work at Atari's booth...

Youth Advisory Board: John Dickerson   This is the third episode in a series of interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. A quick recap: In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting 20 teenagers from around the United States to share their opinions about computers and video games, test software, and promote Atari's computers at events. The group consisted of kids aged 14...

Youth Advisory Board: Anneke Wyman   This is the second episode in a series of interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board.    In 1982-1983, Atari invited 20 kids, aged 14-18, to be on its new Youth Advisory Board. Atari was looking for well-rounded, computer-literate kids, with equal representation of sexes and a mix of ethnic groups. Anneke Wyman (now Anneke Wyman de Boer) was one o...

Youth Advisory Board: Kerrie Holton and Tina Bartschat   This is the first in a series of episodes featuring interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board.    In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting 20 teenagers from around the United States to share their opinions, test new software, and promote Atari's computers at trade shows.   The group consisted primarily of regula...

Hal Segal, Association of Time-Sharing Users   Hal Segal was founder and president of the Association of Time-Sharing Users, and the Association of Small Computer Users, and several other groups dedicated to early computer systems. The Association of Time-Sharing Users was formed in 1974: it published a newsletter, which Hal wrote, as well as directories of terminals, applications, database manage...

Steve Englehart, Atari Advanced Games Group   Steve Englehart worked in the Advanced Games Group of Atari, where he developed ideas for new computer games. He was the designer of E.T. Phone Home!, Final Legacy, and Garfield for the Atari 8-bit machines, and worked on several unfinished games. He wrote the manual for Eastern Front: 1941.   This interview took place on November 17, 2017. A video ver...

Jack Smyth, The Learning Company and Add-On Software   Jack Smyth was the first CEO of The Learning Company, the educational software publisher best known for Reader Rabbit and Rocky's Boots. He was also involved with Add-On Software, a company that sold CP/M software for several computer platforms, including the Atari 8-bit line. The company built a hardware card, for use with the Atari 1090XL pe...

Bryan Talbot, APX Cartoonist   Bryan Talbot published one program for the Atari computer: Cartoonist, which was published by Atari Program Exchange. It first appeared in the fall 1983 APX catalog, where it was awarded first prize in the systems/telecommunications category.   This interview took place on December 8, 2017.   "I was just trying to contemplate what to do, and finally — I'd been going...

Dwight Johnson, Lake County Atari Computer Enthusiasts   Dwight Johnson was founder of Lake County Atari Computer Enthusiasts, a users group based in Waukegan, IL. He started the group in April 1983. The group still exists today as a general PC computer users group, and is now called Lake County Area Computer Enthusiasts.   This interview took place on April 12, 2018.   Lake County Area Computer E...

Colin Hume, Computer War   Colin Hume worked at Thorn EMI for about a year, where he programmed one game for the Atari 8-bit computers: Computer War. Computer War was based on the 1983 movie War Games.   Thomas Cherryhomes joined us to ask Colin some questions of his own.   This interview took place on April 12, 2018.   "Of course it was so totally different. There was no specification, no one eve...

Matthew McGinley, Elite Personal Accountant   Matthew McGinley was the creator and publisher of Elite Personal Accountant, financial management software for the Atari computer. He released it in mid-1985 after working on it for several years.   The review of Elite Personal Accountant by Stephen Roquemore in Antic magazine said, "This new program from a small company has just about every capability...

Cynde Moya, Collections Manager at Living Computers: Museum + Labs   Cynde Moya is Collections Manager at Living Computers: Museum + Labs. Located in Seattle, Washington, Living Computers is a computer museum that provides hands-on experiences using computers ranging from micros to mainframes. (Last time I was there, there was a Xerox Alto, an Apple I, and yes, an Atari 400 with a number of game c...

Mike Matthews, Alien Group Voice Box   That voice you just heard in an Alien Group Voice Box II connected to an Atari 800.   Voice Box was a external speech synthesizer box for the Atari 400 and 800. Voice Box, and its successor Voice Box II, was marketed by "The Alien Group" starting in July 1982. The device used the Votrax SC-01A speech synthesizer chip to add speech and singing to the Atari. Ve...

Winchell Chung, Avalon Hill games   Winchell Chung worked at Avalon Hill computer games, where he was the Atari 8-bit computer programmer. He worked on Nuke War, B-1 Nuclear Bomber, Free Trader, Paris in Danger, and Vorrak. His best known game is probably Gulf Strike.   This interview took place on April 10, 2018.   "A good game with lousy graphics doesn't sell, but a lousy game with great graphic...

This is ANTIC, the Atari 8-bit podcast. I'm Kevin Savetz.   I love old computers. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you knew that already. I also love musical theater. So when I found out about Bits & Bytes, a 1983 musical about computers — well, that's right in my wheelhouse.    Bits & Bytes was an educational touring production, created by South Coast Repertory Theater, a pro...

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast:  In our 50th episode, Kevin tells us about all his secret tours, we tell you about upcoming contests, review new books, and read lots of feedback from our listeners. 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 At...

William "Ted" Farmer, Eastern Front (1941) Scenarios   Ted Farmer created one product for the Atari 8-bit computers, with an unwieldy name: "Eastern Front (1941) Scenarios For 1942, 1943, 1944". The disk of add-on scenarios for Eastern Front 1941 first appeared in the fall 1983 APX catalog, alongside Chris Crawford's Eastern Front (1941) scenario editor, the program that Ted used to create the sce...

Douglas Wilder, Ultimate Renumber Utility   Douglas Wilder published one program though Atari Program Exchange, Ultimate Renumber Utility, which he co-wrote with his father, Justin Wilder. It first appeared in the winter 1981 APX catalog, but was featured in the catalog for less than a year: in the winter 1982 catalog, it was replaced by BASIC/XA, which did renumbering as well as other functions f...

Jerry Horanoff, Carina BBS Software   Jerry Horanoff was the creator of the Carina bulletin board system software for the Atari 8-bit computers, and later, Carina II.    The October 1986 issue of ANTIC Magazine wrote: "This expandable, module-based bulletin board software package is written in understandable BASIC and includes XMODEM upload/download transfer protocol, message editor with word proc...