ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

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...

Art Walsh, Dynacomp and Artworx   Art Walsh was co-founder of Dynacomp, an early software publisher that created software for many platforms, including many educational and game titles for the Atari 8-bit computer. He later founder Artworx, a software publisher that produced titles including Bridge, Cranston Manor Adventure, Gwendolyn, Hazard Run, Hotel Alien, and Strip Poker.   This interview too...

Kathleen Pitta, De Re Atari   Kathleen Marinell worked at Atari in 1981 or so -- she was Kathleen Pitta at that time. She is one of the contributors to De Re Atari, A Guide to Effective Programming, which was serialized by Byte Magazine in 1981 through 1982, and published by Atari Program Exchange in 1982. Kathleen is credited with Appendix E, which is about the GTIA chip.   This interview took pl...

Matthew Householder, Atari and EPYX   Matthew Householder worked at Atari from 1983 through 1985. There he ported Moon Patrol to the ColecoVision for AtariSoft. Later he worked on the Atari 520ST, where he wrote the line-draw/polygon graphics primitives for the ST port of the GEM operating system. Next he worked at EPYX, from 1985 through 1988, where he produced/created/designed many games includi...

Amy Chen: Touch Typing, Amoeba Debugger, De Re Atari   Amy Liu was an progammer at Atari. Her name was Amy Chen at the time. She wrote Touch Typing, which was released by Atari on cassette in 1980; an unreleased game called Aligator; and Amoeba, a debugger utility that was used internally at Atari to create assembly language games.   This interview took place on May 2, 2017. It in, we talk about P...

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast, Randy and Kevin spar over where the ANTIC corporate headquarters should be, Kevin steps out on the Atari 8 bit and makes us proud in the 10-liner BASIC contest, and Nir Dary brings us the scoop on Wopniak 2017.  Plus all the Atari news we could find this month. READY! Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com...

David Ahl and Betsy Ahl, Creative Computing Magazine   Dave Ahl was the founder and editor-in-chief of Creating Computing Magazine, which was the first personal computer magazine.  Four editors served in the first six years: Dave Ahl, Steve Gray, John Craig, and Ted Nelson. Betsy Staples (now Betsy Ahl) then took over for the rest of its run. Creative Computing was published starting in November 1...

Tom Eckmann, President of Kyan Software   Tom Eckmann was president and co-founder of Kyan Software. Kyan's flagship product was Kyan Pascal, an implementation of the Pascal programming language which was available for the Apple II, Atari 8-bits, and Commodore 64/128 computers.   This interview took place on May 19, 2017.   Teaser quote: "We sneered at Turbo Pascal because it was non-compliant, th...

Bill Bowman, CEO of Spinnaker Software   Bill Bowman was co-founder and CEO of Spinnaker Software, one of the first software companies that focused exclusively on educational software. He was at the company from its founding in 1982 through 1987. Spinnaker's software line-up included Snooper Troops, Delta Drawing, FaceMaker, Adventure Creator, In Search of the Most Amazing Thing, KinderComp, and m...

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast, Kevin wows us with his winners in the NOMAM BASIC 10-liners contest, we discuss the preparations for VCFSE, Nir Dary tells us all about disk drives, and we discuss all the Atari news that's fit to print. READY! Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevin's Book "Terrible Nerd" New Atari books scans at arc...

Rob Zdybel, Atari (Part 2) Hello, Atari fans, and welcome to another interview episode of Antic, The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig.  This interview is a bit different in that it's the second interview with someone that we've interviewed before - Mr. Rob Zdybel.  The reason for this is that Rob worked for Atari so long, and was involved in so many projects, that I felt like...