ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Lloyd Speyer, Batteries Included Lloyd Speyer worked for Batteries Included from 1983 to 1987, where he worked with Commodore PETs, 64, Apple ][, Macintosh, as well as the Atari 800. He built hardware dongles, demonstrated products in the retail store, and worked in quality assurance, where he beta tested PaperClip and HomePak. This interview was conducted April 27, 2015. Teaser quote: “The Atari...

Thomas Renbarger, Dorsett Educational Systems Thomas Renbarger worked at Dorsett Educational Systems from 1978 through 1980, where he converted audio and filmstrip based educational programs to computer graphics and text for the TRS-80 and Atari 400 and 800 computers. This interview took place April 21, 2015. Teaser quote: “Smart, nerdy people might be interested in something just because it says...

Ted Richards, Atari Connection Magazine   Ted Richards was Editor In Chief of Atari Connection magazine, Atari’s in-house computer magazine; and was Marketing Communications Manager for Atari Home Computers, where he worked on print and package design, from 1981 to 1984.   This interview took place on April 19, 2015.   Links:   Atari Connection Magazine scans   40 Year Old Hippie Brings The Comput...

Peter Liepa, Boulder Dash   Peter Liepa was co-creator and programmer of Boulder Dash and Boulder Dash 2 for the Atari computers. Boulder Dash was published by First Star Software in 1984 and is regarded as a seminal game for the Atari 8-bit machines.   This interview took place on June 16, 2015   Teaser quotes: “I sat there playing these games and the idea of ‘I can do this’ or ‘I can build one o...

Steve Mayer, Atari 400/800 Designer   Hello and welcome to an interview-only episode of Antic, the Atari 8-bit computer podcast. Today I’m honored to be interviewing someone who was involved in the original design of the Atari 400 & 800 computers, Mr. Steve Mayer.  Steve worked with Joe Decuir (whom I interviewed in an earlier episode), Jay Miner, and others on the Candy & Colleen project and that...

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: We offer a library’s worth of geeky reading material, and - -  did we just start a book club? Randy delves into another programming language We talk about a couple of competitions that will give you something to do through these summer months Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevins Book “Terrible Nerd” New At...

Rebecca Heineman, Racing Destruction Set and Mindshadow   Rebecca Heineman was the keynote speaker at Kansasfest 2015, where she told all sorts of amazing stories about her Apple II development work. She developed Tass Times in Tonetown, Bard's Tale III, Borrowed Time, Battle Chess, Crystal Quest, and many other games for many platforms. She ported Racing Destruction Set and Mindshadow to the Atar...

Bill Bartlett, Product Support Manager   Bill Bartlett worked at Atari from 1981 through 1984, where he was a product support manager for the Atari home computer division, also did user group support. He also wrote the Diskette Mailing List program which was sold by Atari Program Exchange.   This interview took place on April 16 2015, in person at a supermarket deli in the Portland Oregon area. I...

Bill Crooks, Atari Video Production Lab   Bill Crooks worked in the coin-op division of Atari, where he facilitated the production of Atari games’ multi-million dollar television production facility, and worked on the FireFox laserdisc arcade game.   In this interview we talk briefly about Cassie Maas whom I have previously interviewed.   This interview took place on April 17 2015.   “We had Clint...

Ron and Lynn Marcuse, productivity applications   Ron and Lynn Marcuse, also known as RLM Microsystems, are the husband-and-wife team who created many applications for the Atari 8-bit computers, including Weekly Planner, Home Inventory, Data Management System, Diskette Librarian, and Utility Diskette II, which were all released by Atari Program Exchange. Weekly Planner was later reworked and becam...

Albert Yarusso, Owner AtariAge   This is Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast, and I’m Randy Kindig.  This interview-only episode features someone that many current Atari, vintage gaming, and vintage computer enthusiasts are probably familiar with by the service that he provides to the community, the AtariAge Website.  Albert (or Al) Yarusso is one of the founders and is the current owner of AtariAge.  ...

Jon Greer, Business Reporter   In this interview, we’ll hear the perspective of an Atari outsider — a newspaper reporter who covered Atari. Jon Greer was a business reporter for the San Jose Mercury News newspaper from 1981 to 1986, and business reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1986 to 1988. As part of his beat, he covered Atari; Chuck E. Cheese; and Catalyst Technologies, Nolan Bushn...

Jess Jessop   Jess Jessop was a software engineer at Commodore, writing diagnostics for the Commodore 64. Then at Atari, he started in the test and repair group for the Atari 400 and 800 SALT diagnostic cartridge, then moved to corporate research, Atari's R&D department under Alan Kay, where he was hardware team leader for the Sierra Project, Atari's unfinished laptop product.   This interview occ...

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: We discuss new atari archive sites. Randy tells us all about BASIC XL Kevin delves into the sordid history of DorsETT Educational Systems Bill Kendrick fills us in on  a panoply of stuff, including a brain transplant for your 8-bit.   Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevins Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari book...

Thomas Cherryhomes   Thomas Cherryhomes recently deciphered the Educational System Master Cartridge and decoded the “talk and teach” system used by Dorsett Educational Systems. He has created a C library called eduendcode which allows people to create new lessons using that format. Thomas and I are currently working to digitize and archive 46 sets of Dorsett courses.   To hear some background abou...

Pab Sungenis, developer   Hi, I’m Randy Kindig and this is an interview-only episode of Antic, The Atari 8-bit computer podcast.  Our guest for this show is Pab Sungenis, a long-time (and current) developer for the Atari 8-bits.  A long time ago, Pab wrote a popular piece of bulletin board software called AtariLink BBS.  He also developed an off-line mail reader.  He was also more recently involve...

John-Michael Battaglia   John-Michael Battaglia worked as a copywriter at Atari for about a year from 1981 through 1982, writing manuals and box copy for Atari 2600 and 5200 video games. He wrote the manuals for Atari 5200 Football, Space Dungeon, WaterWorld, Phoenix, and Adventure. He later worked at Catalyst, Nolan Bushnell’s incubator for technology startups.   This interview took place March 2...

Steve Molyneux, German Software Development Manager   Steve Molyneux was Atari’s Software Development Manager in Hamburg, Germany from 1981 through 1984. He was responsible for the European side of Atari Program Exchange, and launching games at European trade shows.   Parts of this interview discuss adult situations, and are not appropriate for children.   This interview occurred on April 13, 2015...

Fred D'Ignazio, prolific writer   Fred D'Ignazio wrote more than 20 computer books, including Atari in Wonderland and The Atari Playground. He hosted four television shows about computers and robots, and was the "gadget guru" on Good Morning America. He was an associate editor and columnist for Compute! magazine, where he wrote the columns World Inside The Computer and On The Road With Fred D'Igna...

Cassie Maas, Atari Marketing and Tech Support   Cassie Maas started at Atari as a sales order processing clerk; then as a member of the marketing team, she evaluated new product ideas; then she worked in technical support, where she was the high-end technical support for word processing, and managed a BBS for user groups. She contributed to the 1984 book "InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari" and...

Ken Balthaser, Atari Manager of Software Development   Ken Balthaser stated at Atari as part of a skunkworks group where he wrote software for speech hardware, then became manager of application software development. He oversaw the creation of the SWEAT system software, which were development tools for non-programmers to make graphics and sound assets; and the creation of arcade conversions such a...

Eunice Wlcek, Atari Quality Assurance   Eunice Wlcek started at Atari as a secretary in the sales and marketing department, then moved to quality assurance where she did software testing. Later, she worked as a QA tester at Mindset, the graphics workstation company which was founded by several former Atari employees.   This interview was conducted March 19, 2015.   Teaser quotes:   “‘You’d be a gr...

Curt Vendel & Marty Goldberg, Atari Historians   Welcome to Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, one of the hosts of the podcast, and your host for this episode.  To give you a little background on this interview and where it came from, I also host another podcast on retrocomputing called Floppy Days, where I cover various vintage computers in the order that they were introduced.  I...

Tom Hudson is a name familiar to readers of A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing magazine. He worked at A.N.A.L.O.G., where we wrote articles, games, maintained the A.N.A.L.O.G. TCS bulletin board system. His game credits include LiveWire, fire Bug, and Planetary Defense. He also wrote the popular DEGAS paint program for the Atari ST; and CAD-3D, a 3D graphics package, in conjunction with Gary Yost.   This inte...

David Kano, Hex-A-Bug   David Kano wrote the Hex-A-Bug debugger which was published by Atari Program Exchange. He also wrote two educational software titles for the Atari: Monkey See Monkey Spell, and Don’t Shoot That Word, which were both published by Hayden Software.   This interview was conducted March 24 2015.   Teaser quotes:   “I remember when I showed them the finished product they said ‘Th...