ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Michael Katz is a video games industry pioneer. Katz was Marketing Director for New Product Categories at Mattel Toys, where he helped create the portable, hand-held games category with the Auto Race and Mattel Football handheld toys. And he was Vice President of Marketing at Coleco, where he worked on ColecoVision and the Coleco tabletop arcade game line. Then he was president at Epyx, where he o...

Alan Watson was one of the four founding owners of Ozark Softscape, the company that created M.U.L.E. and Seven Cities of Gold for the Atari, both published by Electronic Arts. Ozark also created Cytron Masters which was published by SSI. The company created more games for other platforms, including Heart of Africa, Modem Wars, and Robot Rascals. Alan specialized in interface and graphics code, an...

Kathleen O'Brien worked at Shepardson Microsystems, where she wrote the Atari Assembler Editor cartridge, and wrote the floating point routines in Atari BASIC. (Her husband Paul Laughton wrote the rest of Atari BASIC.) She, along with Bill Wilkinson and Paul Laughton, co-founded Optimized Systems Software, where she wrote much of the book “Atari BASIC Source Book”.   LINKS   Atari BASIC Source Boo...

Hi, everyone, and welcome to another interview-only edition of Antic, the Atari 8-bit computer podcast.  I am Randy Kindig and I will be your host for this interview.  This interview is one that I’ve hinted at on earlier Antic shows and one that I’m very excited to bring to you as it covers a modern upgrade to the Atari 8-bit line.  Dan Winslow and Mark Dusko have been involved in the Atari 8-bit...

Larry Liberty - Atari 5200 Focus Tester   Larry Liberty had what many kids in the '80s would have considered a dream job: focus tester for Atari 5200 games. He tested Space Dungeon and Vanguard when he was around 12 years old. Larry tells Kevin all about it in this short interview.   LINKS Play Space Dungeon in your browser   Play Vanguard in your browser

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: Brad gets mad about Kevin’s swap meet finds We discuss the release of source code for Action!, BASIC XL, and Star Raiders ROB (Player/Missile Podcast) fills us in about Atari emulation on the Android Brad gives a technical overview of the Atari 400 and 800 machines Randy tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Atari BASIC but was afraid...

Lee Pappas was co-founder of A.N.A.L.O.G Magazine, which was the first magazine about Atari computers, and (along with Antic) one of the big two Atari magazines in the United States. LINKS Picture of Lee with Crash Dive original art Lee Pappas on Twitter Lee Pappas' A.N.A.L.O.G. photo archive Newspaper scans of early interviews with the founders Mike DesChenes interview at Player Missile Podcast A...

Gardner Pomper was president and co-founder of Games Computers Play. Games Computers Play was almost certainly the first graphical online service (except for maybe PLATO, depending on how you're counting). It was devoted exclusively to interactive, multi-player games, and it was only for Atari computers. You probably didn't get a chance to use Games Computers Play -- it only managed to get about 1...

Hello, welcome to this interview-only episode of Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast.  I am Randy Kindig, one of the hosts of the podcast, and this interview is with Sal Esquivel, also known as KJMANN on AtariAge.  Sal has been very involved in the Atari community and owns a company by the name of Atlantis Games Group out of Portland, Oregon that produces software for the 8-bits.  That software include...

This is a different sort of interview. Kevin talked to three old friends reminiscing about their Atari days. Those friends are Dean Wittmann, Max Derhak and Dean Derhak (Max and Dean are brothers.)   These guys were best friends, Atari pals living in Salt Lake City, Utah area going to Atari computer club meetings, cracking programs, and running a BBS.   This interview was conducted on September 27...

Sometimes fun to talk to CEOs, and sometimes fun to talk to the people in the trenches. This is an interview from the trenches. Kent Smith was an Atari customer  service/technical support rep for the Atari 400/800 from 1982-1984. I interviewed him on September 19, 2014 via Skype.   The videotape that he mentions at the end of the interview -- you'll want to watch that too, for a look at life in so...

Hello and welcome to Antic the Atari 8-bit podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig and this is a special interview-only episode of Antic.  This interview is with Chuck Peavey, who worked on games for the Atari 8-bit computer like Blue Max, Lode Runner, Fight Night, One on One Basketball, Panther, Ace of Aces, and Dark Chamber.  We had a great conversation about his days programming the Atari and I hope...

Ihor Wolosenko was co-founder of Synapse software, the company that brought us SynFile and SynCalc, and an amazing list of games including Blue Max, Zeppelin, Fort Apocalypse, Alley Cat and Shamus. And Nautilus, and Rainbow Walker, and Protector II, and others. Kevin interviewed Ihor on December 23, 2014.   LINKS Scans of Synapse art Can a Computer Make You Cry (EA ad)

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: We debrief on the current state of atari retail Kevin delves into the best and worst Atari 8-bit magazines We learn how to stuff a raspberry pi into a miniature, 3-D printed 800XL We try -- and fail to -- avoid becoming bird food   Links mentioned in this episode:   Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevins Boo...

Hello, and welcome to this interview-only episode of Antic, the Atari 8-bit computer podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig and I’ll be conducting the interview for this show.  The interview is with Paul Westphal, a much more recent Atari vendor than Brad Koda, Bruce Carso, or Lance Rinquist that I’ve recently interviewed. Paul not only offers some hardware and software but also offers service, which i...

Kevin’s interview with Dave Small. Dave was half of the prolific writing and software team Dave and Sandy Small. He wrote the Outpost: Atari column in Creative Computing magazine, and the book Creative Atari. He also wrote for ANALOG, Antic, and Current Notes magazines. He was co-founder of LE Systems, a company that made disk duplicating hardware and the Integrator hard drive interface; and Gadge...

Kevin interviews Mark Rustad, Mark worked at Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) where he developed "Classroom Star", classroom networking hardware for the Atari 8-bits -- a product that was not released by Atari. Then he worked at Atari 1983-1984 as Systems Project Leader, where he troubleshooted the DTMF dialing on the Atari 1030 modem. We also talk about Mark’s work with the PLATO...

Hello, welcome to Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig and this is a special interview-only episode.  This is the third in an ongoing series of interviews with the people behind the companies that still provide hardware, software, or service today for our Atari 8-bit computers.  The interview is with Lance Ringquist, owner of the Video 61 and Atari Sales Website.  Lance has bee...

Hello, welcome to a special interview-only episode of Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast.  This interview is part of the ongoing set of interviews for the holiday season where I talk to many of the people still out there providing hardware, software, and/or support for our favorite computer.  This interview is with Bruce Carso, of B&C ComputerVisions.  As you will hear during the interview, Bruce has...

Kevin interviews Bill Wilkinson, of Optimized Systems Software fame!   Links:   Bill’s INSIGHT: Atari column in Compute! Magazine   INSIDE ATARI DOS book by Bill   The development of Atari Basic and Atari DOS, article by Bill

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: -Our Atari Holiday Gift Picks - which is apparently now a tradition on our show -Randy’s definitive roundup of virtual drive options -Bill plays three new, award-winning games -and lots of listener feedback about the Atari 850 interface Links mentioned in this episode: Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevins...

Diane Gaw, Managing editor of A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing Links: A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing magazine at AtariMagazines.com A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing magazine at archive.org   Juiced. GS magazine Solatrium House

Welcome to this special, interview-only episode of Antic the Atari 8-bit podcast.  This is the first of a few interviews we’re planning to air in the month of December, 2014, leading up to the traditional US holidays of Christmas and New Years.  As December tends to be a month where lots of purchases are made, I thought it might be a good idea to talk to each of the remaining Atari dealers in the...

Randy interviews a long-time friend of the show, Chris Olson.  Chris is an Atari enthusiast from a very early age, as he discusses in this interview.  His father taught in the computer camps that Atari used to run in the 80’s.  Chris is known as CGOApps in the forums.   I hope you enjoy this interview with a general Atari 8-bit fan.   Links:   Aviation Careers Podcast episode with Chris as a guest...

On this episode of Antic, the Atari 8-bit PODCAST: We look at the Atari 850 interface, the SIO2SD device, and the right cartridge slot --- we strike out with Alan Alda --- and our friend Gray Chang sends us a care package of amazing previously-unreleased books and software. Also with a great segment by our good friend Bill Kendrick about games converted from the Atari 2600 to the computers.  And,...