Hello, you are listening to Antic, the Atari 8-bit computer podcast. I am Randy Kindig, one of the co-hosts, and I’m bringing to you today an interview episode with the author of one of the best games ever released for the Atari 8-bit computer line. That would be David Fox, one of the authors of Rescue on Fractalus. David shares his memories of developing that iconic game, working for LucasFilm (later LucasArts), publishing a book about Atari graphics and much more. Please enjoy.

This interview was conducted March 18, 2015 via Skype.

Teaser Quotes:

“Every time someone does a LucasArts or LucasIflm retrospective, they find me and they ask me to do stuff. Happy to talk to them because it's fun!”

"The original 2 games that we did, which were Rescue and Ballblazer, were intended to be kind of throw-away games."

"Thank you George (Lucas). He knew about story telling in a way that I didn't and it was really great to have his feedback on that."

"And I think Star Raiders also kind of inspired me to do Rescue, to do Rescue on Fractalus"

Links

• interview with David Fox from Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers

• interview with David Fox on ElectroDance, Words on PC Gaming

• Computer Animation Primer By David Fox and Mitchell Waite, published 1984

• The Making of Rescue on Fractalus from Retro Gamer #44

• David Fox at Wikipedia

• David Fox on LinkedIN

• David’s website

• twitter: @DavidBFox

• info on David's recent game, Rube Works: The Official Rube Goldberg Invention Game

• David's Rescue on Fractalus! page

• David's Ballblazer page

• Thimbleweed Park game development blog

• Recent video interview on Sup Holmes

• David’s YouTube playist of Lucasfilm/LucasArts presentations, interviews, talks