12.20.2019 - By Randy Kindig, Kay Savetz, Brad Arnold
James Hugard, Neanderthal Computer Things James Hugard was co-founder of Neanderthal Computer Things, a company that created just one product. "810 Turbo" was a hardware conversion board for the Atari 810 disk drive that promised true double density storage, and faster data reading and writing. The device, released in 1983, could be installed inside your 810 disk drive with "no jumpers, no soldering, no extra box." It cost $295. James wrote the firmware for the device. Check the show notes for links to the 810 Turbo Manual and advertisement, photos of the board, and a lively discussion on AtariAge (in which James has answered some questions and added more commentary.) This interview took place on June 7, 2019. 810 Turbo ad 810 Turbo Manual 810 Photos and software NCT Letter to Atari users groups Discussion on AtariAge