ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Stephen Jones, Interim Computer Museum   Stephen Jones describes himself as the "caretaker" of Interim Computer Museum, a computer museum in Tukwila, Washington, a few miles south of Seattle. Stephen has decades of involvement with sdf.org , the public-access UNIX system that's been around since 1987; he was senior engineering manager at the Living Computer Museum, Paul Allen's Seattle computer mu...

ANTIC Episode 131 - Brad's 30K Brain In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we discuss the newly announced THE ATARI800XL and give our opinions, we talk about Hamster power, and Brad now has only 30K for his brain, plus a whole lot more! READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books scans at archi...

John Victor, Program Design Inc.   John Victor was founder and president of Program Design Inc., one of the earliest publishers of educational software. Based in Greenwich CT, PDI created dozens of educational software titles and a few not-so-educational games for Atari 8-bit, Commodore PET and 64, TRS-80, Apple II, and Texas Instruments computers. Software marketed by PDI included Moonbase IO, Sa...

Vince Wu, The Learning Phone (Atari PLATO Terminal)   Vince Wu worked at Atari for about two and a half years. He was the programmer of The Learning Phone, the PLATO terminal for Atari 8-bit computers. Before that, he worked with PLATO at the University of Illinois, then in California for Control Data Corporation. PLATO was the first generalized computer-assisted instruction system, a groundbreaki...

Walt Klappert, Atari Advanced Development Group/WCI Labs Walt Klappert worked at Atari's Advanced Development Group/WCI Labs in New York, and later at Take One Enterprises in California. He worked with Nancy and Steve Mayer on a variety of projects with a concentration on creating software for girls. He is credited as Director of "Fisher Price Dance Fantasy", a dance choreography game for small ch...

ANTIC Episode 130 - The Tongue-Twister Episode In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… We trip all over our own tongues trying to bring you all the news fit to print in the Atari 8-bit computer world… READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books scans at archive.org  ANTIC feedback at AtariAge  At...

Steve Bryson, game programmer Steve Bryson was a programmer for EPYX and The Connelley Group, where he ported many games to various 8-bit systems. He ported Dragonriders of Pern, an action/strategy game based on the Anne McCaffrey novels, to Atari and Commodore 64. He ported Jumpman to the Apple II, and Lower Reaches of Apshai, Upper Reaches of Apshai, and Temple of Ra to the C64. This interview t...

Bob Fraser, APX Insomnia, Supersort, De Re Atari   Bob Fraser worked at Atari for four years: he worked on the early CX70 light pen, helped write the specs for an unreleased database manager for the Atari 8-bits. and later moved into Atari's Games Design Research Group under Alan Kay, where he experimented with 3-D graphics. He wrote a chapter of De Re Atari — chapter 7, all about sound — and two...

James W. Burley, APX Data Base/Report System James W. Burley is the programmer of Data Base/Report System, which was sold by Atari Program Exchange beginning with the Summer 1982 APX catalog. It was catalog number 20134 with a price of $22.95. APX sold it for about a year, through the Summer 1983 catalog. APX awarded Data Base/Report System first prize for new software in the "Business & Professio...

Tim Jenkins, Cheating at Roulette with an Atari Computer Tim Jenkins is the author of several humorous memoirs: "Missions Accomplished: And some funny business along the way", "More Missions Accomplished: And a lot more funny business", and "Business Missions Accomplished: Silly travel tales on the corporate dime". I wanted to talk to Tim about one chapter in his 2018 book More Missions Accomplish...

Mike Lorenzen: Atari Program-Text Editor, Pitfall II Mike Lorenzen worked at Atari, Activision, and Accolade, creating games for the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, and Commodore 64 computers. At Atari, Mike coded Golf and Circus Atari for the Atari 2600. For the 8-bit computers, he wrote MEDIT (which he told me stands for Mike's EDITor.) Atari got a lot of mileage from MEDIT, using versions of that text...

ANTIC Episode 129 - SDX and FNSlots In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast…Brad plays around with SDX, Kay and Randy bring you news from some vintage computer shows, we drool over all the new hardware news, and we bring you FujiNet news, including FNSlots… READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari bo...

Allan Bushman, Atari Archivist If you've ever looked up an Atari computer manual at Internet Archive, chances are you've come across some of Allan Bushman's scans. For well over 13 years, Allan has been uploading scans of Atari-related catalogs, manuals, and books to the archive. Before that, since 1995 or before, Allan contributed to AtariMagazines.com and AtariMania. With a particular emphasis o...

Atari at the Science Fair: Lisa Link Melville, Weather Prediction The Herald Times newspaper, April 17 1984: "March 24 proved to be an exciting day for several area students participating in the South Central Indiana Regional Science Fair which was held in Bloomington. Lisa Link, an Edgewood High School junior, and Maxwell Brothers, a Bloomington North senior, took top honors in the advanced divis...

ANTIC Episode 128 - Stepping in a Pile of 800XLs In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… special guest Rob McMullen (Player/Missile Podcast) joins us to talk about all the Atari 8-bit news; such as new and updated emulators, Jumpman level editor, Club Med and the Atari, and a whole lot more! READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay'...

ANTIC Episode 127 - Brad's 76K Brain In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we turn the podcast into more of a multi-media experience, we cover a LOT of new and updated utility software for the Atari 8-bit, and Kay accuses Brad of having a 76K brain! READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books s...

ANTIC Episode 126 - All Atari All The Time In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… We bring in special guest Paulo Garcia, author of the incredible FujiSan emulator, and bring you all the Atari news we can find. READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books scans at archive.org  ANTIC feedback at A...

ANTIC Episode 125 - "Combining SQL with Fun (and Poo)" In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Wade Ripkowski comes onto the show and gives us an update on his work to bring SQL to the Atari (and an extremely useful poo management tool!), we cover good news concerning the Curt Vendel Atari collection, we report on an exciting updated browser-based emulator, a huge update to Aspe...

ANTIC Episode 124 In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… We have lots of game news and  emulator updates, Brad imitates a pirate, and Kay tells us that the Atari 8-bit is the "Computer of Love"! READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books scans at archive.org  ANTIC feedback at AtariAge  Atari i...

ANTIC Episode 123 - Steampunk Atari In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Lots of Holiday Buyer's Guide action, news of recovered software, FujiNet news galore, and Brad does steampunk Atari… READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books scans at archive.org  ANTIC feedback at AtariAge  Atari int...

ANTIC Episode 122 - Atypical Kay In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we introduce a new format for the news, there's lots of archiving going on, new software and hardware for our favorite 8-bits, and we find out Kay is atypical… READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books scans at archive.org...

ANTIC Episode 121 - Dongle Disaster In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Special guest Brent Carroll joins as we bring you the Atari news and narrowly avoid disaster with our dongle talk … READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books scans at archive.org  ANTIC feedback at AtariAge  Atari inter...

ANTIC Episode 120 - AI Non Grata In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Kay discusses a big Atari haul, we get an Atari report from VCF West, we discuss a new Atari 8-bit emulator, and Kay bans AI-generated content from the podcast … READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books scans at archive.o...

ANTIC Episode 119 - Special Guest Joe Decuir In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Joe Decuir, one of the fathers of the Atari 400/800, joins us for a super-interesting discussion of what he's working on and the current Atari news… READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari books scans at archive.or...

ANTIC Episode 118 - Trigger Warning In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast…we have lots of user feedback and user projects to report on, we talk about a postage stamp-sized Atari computer, and (trigger warning!) there are a couple of Commodore references…  READY! Recurring Links  Floppy Days Podcast  AtariArchives.org  AtariMagazines.com  Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"  New Atari bo...