ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

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...

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast:  In this first episode of 2018, we talk about the fact that ANTIC has been downloaded over ½ million times,  we get a surprise visit from Thomas Cherryhomes, who talks about PLATO for the Atari, we offer Atari 8-bit gift options for Valentine's Day, Nir Dary tells us about some things he's been exploring, plus all the Atari 8-bit news that...

Rawson Stovall, The Vid Kid newspaper column   As you no doubt gleaned from the clips of his appearances on CBS Morning News and The Tonight Show, Rawson Stovall was only a child when he started writing a syndicated newspaper column in which he reviewed computer games and home video games. The column, called Vid Kid, appeared in 20 newspapers around the United States. He was in fact the first nati...

Chris James, Thorn EMI   Chris James worked at Thorn EMI, where he was a programmer and later a project manager. Later he founded James Software, which specialized in game conversions to various computer platforms. His long list of Atari game credits includes Darts, Tank Commander, and several jigsaw puzzle games such as European Scene Jigsaw Puzzles and Hickory Dickory Dock.   He is also the husb...

Hanan Samara: Jumbo Jet Pilot and Jinn Genie   Hanan Samara was a programmer at Thorn EMI, where her work included programming the game Jumbo Jet Pilot. Later she founded Dalali Software, a company that specialized in converting games to various computer platforms. There she created the Atari computer game Jinn Genie.   This interview took place on November 13, 2017.   Her husband, Chris James, ca...

Geoffrey Card, kid game reviewer   In my interview with Orson Scott Card, he mentioned that his son, Geoffrey, helped him review Atari games — thoroughly playing games, then providing a sort of executive summary for his dad, who then wrote about the games for Compute! magazine. I thought it would be fun to get Geoffrey's perspective about that time.   This interview took place on January 19, 2018....

Orson Scott Card, Compute! Books   Orson Scott Card is a Hugo Award winning, best-selling science fiction author, perhaps best known for his 1985 novel, Ender's Game.    But we're not here to talk about that — because for about nine months, Orson Scott Card was an editor at Compute! Books, where we worked on several books about the Atari 8-bit and other computer platforms. His work appears in Comp...

Maurice Molyneaux, Atari animation guru   Maurice Molyneaux was a game artist, Atari graphics animator, and writer. He wrote articles for Video Games & Computer Entertainment Magazine and A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing Magazine, and wrote "The Animation Stand" column for ST-Log magazine.   He created many animations primarily using MovieMaker, an animation program for the Atari published by Reston Publish...

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast:  In this 2017 year-end episode, we get a surprise visit from our international correspondent, Nir Dary, we hear about Kevin's dream find, and we unwrap our surprise Christmas gifts from Nir Dary.  Nir Dary tells us about his visit to SilliVenture. (It's a whole lot of Nir Dary!)  Plus all the Atari 8-bit news that we could find. Happy New...

Databar OSCAR   This is a story about the rise and fall of a compter peripheral and the company behind it. The company was Databar, and the product was called OSCAR, which was short for Optical SCAnning Reader.   In 1983, it wasn't easy to get inexpensive software for your home computer. Floppy disks were expensive. Modems were slow and expensive. You could get software in magazines — a variety of...

Robert Jaeger, Montezuma's Revenge   Robert Jaeger is best known in the Atari community as the programmer of the popular game Montezuma's Revenge, which was published by Parker Brothers in 1984. He also programmed Chomper, published by MMG Micro Software; and Pinhead, published by Robert's own company, Utopia Software.   This interview took place on December 2, 2017.   Digital Press interview with...