ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Steve Defrisco, H.E.R.O., Wing War Hello and welcome to Antic, The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig.  This is another in the continuing series of Atari 8-bit related interviews.  This time, we talk to a former game developer for the Atari 8-bits, Mr. Steve DeFrisco.  Steve worked for Imagic and Activision, working on porting such titles as H.E.R.O. (Helicopter Emergency Rescu...

Thomas Newton, Basic/XA and Keypad Controller Thomas Newton, published two programs with Atari Program Exchange: Keypad Controller, software for reading the keypad game controllers from BASIC; and BASIC/XA, a set of add-ons for Atari BASIC programmers. This interview took place December 11, 2015.

Arlan Levitan, writer Arlan Levitan wrote for many computer magazines including Creative Computing and Compute!, where he wrote the Telecomputing Today and Levitations columns. He helped design the menu system and feature set of the AMIS bulletin board system, and hosted the first AMIS BBS at his house. He was heavily involved with MACE, the Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiast user group, and wrote...

Sandy Dwiggins, AtariLab manuals Sandy Dwiggins wrote the manuals for AtariLab - both the light and temperature modules - while she was an adjunct professor at Dickinson College, teaching Film Studies. She worked closely with Priscilla Laws, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on October 14, 2015. Teaser quote: “She [Priscilla Laws] found these two programmers who only came ou...

Andrew Soderberg, Atari Product Manager Andrew Soderberg was a product manager at Atari from 1980 through August 1983. He oversaw projects including the XL line of computers, and De Re Atari. He was also production manager for several of Atari's TV commercials, one of which won a Clio award. He was a member of the team that build the first computer/laserdisc interactive kiosks for use in retail. I...

Mike West, Pirate Mike West was an east coast software pirate who went by the handle “Jolly Roger.” He was — and still is — friends with Gary Walton, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on October 9, 2015. Teaser quotes: “The whole thing was kind of bizarre. It’s like, on one side of their moth they would scream about piracy. On the other side of their mouth they would kind of...

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: We explore the possibilities of new Atari software and hardware mods (yea faster Star Raiders explosions); and Randy delves into the turtle-y goodness of Atari Logo. Trigger warning: there may be some Amiga lust and gentle Apple // bashing in this episode. Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevin’s Book “Terrib...

Landon Dyer, Donkey Kong and Super Pac Man Landon Dyer started as a software engineer in the Atari home computer division in 1982, where he specialized in converting arcade games to the Atari 8-bits. There, he programmed the Atari 400/800 versions of Donkey Kong, and Super Pac Man — which was never officially released by Atari (but has been widely available for many years.) After the Tramiels boug...

Tom Briscoe, APX Software Evaluator Tom Briscoe worked at Atari as an intern in the summer of 1981, where he evaluated the user-written software that had been submitted to Atari Program Exchange. This interview took place on September 26, 2015. Teaser quote: “Hangman was sort of the obvious game for people to submit, and if I recall the obvious business application was the personal finance and rec...

Bob Brass and Peter D'Amato, Cauzin Softstrip If you read certain computer magazines from the early days of microcomputers — magazines like Byte, Family Computing, II Computing and InCider — you might see long, black-and-white strips of bar codes. Those are computer programs encoded for use with the Cauzin Softstrip reader. Introduced in 1985, the Cauzin Softstrip was a hardware peripheral that at...

Jim Inscore, Documentation Manager Jim Inscore was hired at Atari in 1981 as a writer in the marketing department, then became documentation manager, where he managed writers and production staff to produce technical and consumer documentation for Atari computer hardware and software. This interview took place on December 9, 2015. Teaser quote: “A process where ... 12 different design firms came i...

Russ Wetmore: Preppie!, Sea Dragon, Homepak Russ Wetmore started at Adventure International, where he worked with Scott Adams on Savage Island Part II. He then went on to program Preppie!, Preppie! II, and Sea Dragon - all of which were published by Adventure International - and Homepak business software, which was published by Batteries Included. This interview took place on September 24, 2015, a...

Paul Lewandowski, APX Puzzler Paul Lewandowski was in high school when he wrote Puzzler, which was published by Atari Program Exchange and won the Atari Star Award in fall 1983: first prize in the learning category. Puzzler is a game that shows you a picture on the screen, chops it into equally sized squares, and scrambles them. Then, the player uses the joystick to try to put the picture back tog...

Clinton Parker, Action! Welcome to this special interview edition of Antic, the Atari 8-bit computer podcast.  All of our interviews are special in some way and we appreciate the time that the interviewees donate to the Atari 8-bit community at large.  This interview is a much-anticipated one due to the beloved nature of the software provided by the interviewee and due to the fact that the he has...

Peter J. Meyer - Tempest Xtreem, Venture, Delta Space Arena The intro music to this episode is the tune “Mind’s Eye” from the Atari XL/XE version of Tempest Xtreem; composed by Sal KJMANN Esquivel.  Our guest for this interview is the author of Tempest Xtreem, as well as Delta Space Arena and Venture for the Atari 8-bits, Mr. Peter J. Meyer.  Peter has done a great job of developing game software...

Larry Reed, Childware Larry Reed was a programmer for Childware, where he worked on two educational games for the Atari 8-bit computers: Word Flyer and D-Bug, both of which were published by Electronic Arts. This interview took place December 6, 2015. Teaser quotes: "I'll tell you, working with FORTH on the Atari was great until we exceeded the memory capability of the Atari, and then it was a roy...

Tony Nicholson and John Babinchak II, Hi-Res Magazine In this episode, two interviews for the price of one: two people who helped create Hi-Res Magazine — the computer magazine that only published four issues. First, we’ll hear from Tony Nicholson, the publisher of Hi-Res magazine; then John Babinchak, the editor of the  magazine. Hi-Res was a short-lived magazine dedicated to Atari 8-bit and Comm...

Kevin Hayes, Atari Games Ireland On this interview episode, we take a trip to Ireland, and to the coin-op side of Atari. Kevin Hayes was Controller for Atari Irerland Ltd. in 1978, then became manufacturing director. Later he moved to California where he was VP of Manufacturing for Atari Games, then vice president of Operations. This interview was recorded December 7, 2015. Teaser quote: "They had...

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: our annual holiday buying guide for Atari 8-bit lovers, we announce the winner of the interview transcription contest, I test all of the BBUC game contest entries, and we outright start bribing people to donate to archive.org. Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevin’s Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari books scans...

Alan Ackerman, MPP Alan Ackerman co-founded Microbits Peripheral Products (MPP) with John Wiley. MPP made modems and printer interfaces for the Atari 8-bit computers. MPP also published software: Microfiler and Assault Force 3-D. The company would re-structure to become Supra, a giant in modems which became the largest hardware manufacturer for Commodore Amiga computers. This interview took place...

Alan Stratton, plant controller Alan Stratton was Atari’s plant controller, managing the financial functions in the El Paso, Texas manufacturing facility. He was also involved with the infamous dumping of game cartridges in the Alamogordo, New Mexico dump. This interview took place on October 2, 2015. Teaser quotes: “A rumor got out that we were going to search people as thy left the floor, as the...

Aric Wilmunder: Star Raiders II, Temple of Apshai Here’s how Aric Wilmunder introduced himself to me: “When The Last Starfighter didn’t do well in the theaters and marketing re-branded the Atari 800 Last Starfighter game as Star Raiders II, they didn’t take into account that there was already an actual sequel to Star Raiders that was just a few months away from completion.  I was the designer and...

Courtney Goodin, Compu=Prompt teleprompter Compu=Prompt was the first electronic, personal computer based teleprompter, which ran off of an Atari 800XL computer. It was created by Courtney Goodin, who won an Emmy award for it, for “Pioneering Development in Electronic Prompting.” He also created the Atari graphics programs Color Print and Graphic Master, both of which were distributed by Datasoft....

Anthony Jones, Atari UK Anthony Jones was general manager of Atari’s headquarters in the United Kingdom. Later he moved to the United States, where he was group product manager in the marketing arm. There he worked on the Mindlink controller, a controller for the Atari that strapped to your forehead with a headband. Later, he worked at Nolan Bushnell’s Catalyst Technologies incubator. This intervi...

Forrest Mozer, Pioneer in Digitized Speech Forrest Mozer invented and patented the first integrated circuit speech synthesizer in 1974. He licensed this technology to TeleSensory Systems, which used it in the Speech+ talking calculator. Later, National Semiconductor also licensed the technology, used for its "DigiTalker" speech synthesizer. In 1984, Mozer founded Electronic Speech Systems to devel...