ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 81 - Too Much Commodore

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we wax philosophical about Raspberry Pi upgrades for the Atari, discuss the drama that was the Atari fest of the past, and talk WAY too much Commodore!

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

Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge

Interview index: here

ANTIC Facebook Page

AHCS

Eaten By a Grue

Next Without For

What We've Been Up To

• Atari8BitBot - https://twitter.com/atari8bitbot
• The Magic Room - 18-minute version https://youtu.be/Cs7jnOlNl9Y
• • (K's tweets about it: https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1429130503622336514?s=20 )
• New old Bits & Bytes pictures - https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1422715900805869571?s=20
• VCFSE 8.0 was a success! - https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/
• 576NUC+ - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/myteks-576nuc-atari-computer
• VCFMW - http://vcfmw.org
• Indy Vintage Computer Club (VCC) - http://indyvcc.c

News

• Atari 64. the Commodore 64 KERNAL, modified to run on the Atari 8-bit line of computers - https://github.com/unbibium/atari64
• Indy Retro News - http://www.indieretronews.com/search/label/ATARI
• Star Raiders pre-production manual - http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/star-raiders/preprod-manual/?fbclid=IwAR00ZBTKG-g2d83KDvZTtlqDpNqJ-e9z22JuJdRxR4tHcqCumXtMwIN8k54
• Retrochallenge 2021/10 - http://www.retrochallenge.org/?fbclid=IwAR3Hi6PLMi3wpfQda2hHMZiQOAREGMnY_E1NF8AjXIDbfjXqvOBHK5md8sA
• Attack of the PETSCII robots - https://www.the8bitguy.com/product/petscii-robots-for-atari/
• BackBit Pro - https://store.backbit.io/product/backbit-pro/
• https://huddle.today/cfl-personalities-to-talk-football-on-halifax-made-social-media-platform/
• The Retroist: A 1982 video visit to the video game department of sears - https://retroist.com/a-1982-video-visit-to-the-video-game-department-of-sears/ (for video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPm7xbPzpUA&t=50s , starts at 4 minute mark and goes to 5 minute mark
• New ABBUC site available - https://abbuc.de/
• Cart extender from BitsOfThePast - https://www.bitsofthepast.com/?product=130xe-ra-extenders-switchers
• SIO Pass Through Breakout Board v2.2 (Mozzwald) - https://fujinet.online/shop/hardware/sio-pass-through-breakout-board-v2-2/
• https://8bitnews.io newsletter
• Atari Projects by Jason Moore - http://atariprojects.org/
• PICOmputer, pocket computer that emulates 8-bit computers - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/07/picomputer-computadora-de-bolsillo-que.html

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • VCF Midwest Sep 11-12 http://vcfmw.org/announce , Elmhurst, IL (Chicago)
  • Fujiama Sep. 12-19, Lengenfeld, Germany, http://fujiama.eu/
  • VCF East October 8, 9, 10, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East , Wall, NJ
• Event page created by Chicago Classic Computing - http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html?fbclid=IwAR3Fm5hf7PCQj0yXBxXvj9J8Mp8GDwD2w1bfD_qktpPOnNYNoQUmN_EpgB8
• Event page created by Floppy Days - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/
• Event page on Vintage Is The New Old - https://vintageisthenewold.com/vintage-is-the-new-old-releases-new-events-calendar/

YouTube videos this month

• "The Story of the Atari 1200XL - Is It GOOD?" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_WpWOrIE9g
• Making a 3D Graphics Card for the Atari 800 XL using the Raspberry Pi - element 14 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4ffGLkgoEg&t=64s
• Atari 800 with Sophia 2 DVI and Incognito plugins - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df3lfFLuUF

New at Archive.org

• Allan Bushman uploaded "Hardcopy" newsletter April 1987 Allentown Bethlehem Easton's Atari Computer Enthusiasts - https://archive.org/details/hardcopy-april-1987

Jeffrey Sarnoff, Atari Research Group Jeffrey Sarnoff started at Atari in the home computer division in 1981 as a software architect, where he worked on a 3-D graphics library. The next year he moved to Atari's Research Group, under Alan Kay, where he worked on a holographic animation system and a 4-dimensional strategy game. This interview took place on August 25, 2021.

Atari at the Science Fair: Mark Knutsen, Star Cluster This is the third in a series of interviews called "Atari at the Science Fair" where I talk with people who used Atari 8-bit computers to create projects and enter them in science fairs. Today's interview is with Mark Knutsen, who wrote a star cluster simulation in the Forth programming language for his high school science fair. I found this blurb in the July 1986 edition of the Jersey Atari Computer Group newsletter: "June meeting highlights ... Mark Knutsen showed us his Star Cluster program in Forth that won a science fair prize for him. Mark's program demonstrates the interaction of four stars in two planes. Mark also discussed Forth in general." This interview took place on August 21, 2021. If you'd like to see our talking heads — and the visuals of his program running — a video version of this interview is available at YouTube and Internet Archive. Mark has shared his program and the source code: those links are in the show notes. This interview at YouTube Download Mark's Star Cluster program Star Cluster blurb in JACE newsletter July 1986 ValFORTH Documentation Computer Recreations - Star Clusters column in Scientific American: At JSTOR and At Internet Archive

Tom Halfhill discusses Charles Brannon and SpeedScript Charles Brannon was program editor at Compute! Publications from 1980 until 1986. He wrote and edited articles for Compute! Magazine and Compute!'s Gazette. His Linkedin profile says that his "primary responsibility was crafting BASIC and assembly language software creations. Secondary was managing other young programmers." Charles' wrote and ported many type-in programs for the Atari 8-bit and other computers. His Atari programs included FontMaker, a character set editor and The Atari Wedge, for adding commands To Atari BASIC. His most popular and well-known program was SpeedScript, an assembly language word processor that was available first for the Commodore 64 in the March 1985 issue. In subsequent issues -- one month after another -- versions were published for VIC-20, then the Atari 8-bits, then the Apple II. Each version was a type-in listing that -- after excruciating hours of careful entry -- would build a powerful, functional word processor. Charles wrote a couple of books about SpeedScript (one specific to Atari and one specific to the Commodore versions) which contained the manual, type-in program code, and commented assembly language source code. I've been trying to get an interview with Charles Brannon since 2015, to talk about his time at Compute! in general and SpeedScript specifically. This year, I heard back from his wife Margaret, who told me that Charles suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2016 and no longer feels confident in his memory. I won't be able to interview Charles. But, Tom Halfhill, Charles' old friend and colleague at Compute!, volunteered to talk to me about Charles. Tom was a supervisor at Compute! when Charles wrote SpeedScript, and often discussed which features to include and the problems he encountered. Tom worked at Compute! Publications from 1982 to 1988, starting as the first Features Editor for Compute! Magazine later becoming Editor. He was the launch editor of Compute!'s Gazette for Commodore, Compute!'s Atari ST Disk and Magazine, Compute!'s PCjr Magazine, and Compute!'s PC Magazine. This is not the first time I've talked with Tom: I interviewed him about his time at Compute back in 2016. This time I talk with him with an emphasis on Charles Brannon and SpeedScript. (To be perfectly honest, we stuck to those topics for about 35 minutes. After that, we found other interesting things to talk about, most of which I left in this episode.) This interview took place on July 22, 2021. This interview at Youtube

Compute! articles by Charles Brannon at AtariMagazines.com SpeedScript book, Atari version, at Internet Archive SpeedScript book, Atari version, at AtariArchives.org Download SpeedScript for Atari or try it in your browser My 2016 interview with Tom Tom's web site ANTIC Interview 206 - Richard Mansfield ANTIC Interview 7 - The Atari 8-bit Podcast - Bill Wilkinson

Donald Dixon, Robotics R&D at Atari Research Donald Dixon worked at Atari Research from 1983 through 1984, under Dr, Alan Kay. There, he worked in robotics research and development, working on a robotic wheelchair. After Atari, Donald worked at Axlon, Nolan Bushnell's toys and consumer robotics company; and Worlds of Wonder, the company most famous for the animatronic bear toy, Teddy Ruxpin. This interview took place on July 27, 2021. Don's web site ANTIC Interview 11 - David Small ANTIC 2013 Chris Crawford interview ANTIC Interview 420 - Brenda Laurel, Atari Research ANTIC Interview 421 - Jim Leiterman, Atari Research Group

Video version of this interview

ANTIC Episode 80 - Atari Dunking Booth

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we discuss the exciting progress being made around the 576NUC+ project, all of the great new Atari projects from the mind of Jason Moore, Kay's awesome series of recent interviews, and we dunk your minds in the deep booth that is Atari news!

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

Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge

Interview index: here

ANTIC Facebook Page

AHCS

Eaten By a Grue

Next Without For

Intro

• Atari Ad Slicks, Line Art, Radio Scripts 1983-07-13 - https://archive.org/details/Atari_Ad_Slicks_Line_Art_Radio_Scripts_1983-07-13

What We've Been Up To

• "How I accidentally archived hundreds of Apple II source code floppies" by Kay at KFest 2021 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFa75CqJw_4
• https://archive.org/details/TheMagicRoomDocuments - (https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1416420208172957699?s=20)
• MyTek's 576NUC+ - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/myteks-576nuc-atari-computer/products/myteks-576nuc-and-internal-fujinet

News

• Atari 2" circle stickers available at the museum and VCF East and VCF West - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-Cl8ZPsxcT3d05krNtuam684_o6QdYAk?usp=sharing, http://www.vcfed.org
• @atariorbit: wrote up a little bit about the history (so far) of the 576 NUC - https://www.atariorbit.org/2021/07/02/576-nuc-history/
• Atari Projects by Jason Moore - http://atariprojects.org/
• Allegro is a Polish online e-commerce platform - has lots of Atari upgrades available for purchase - https://allegro.pl/
• While ABBUC site being slowly put back together, alternate forum sites are being used:
• • temporary alternative forum at https://www.atari-portal.de/
  • https://www.forum64.de/index.php?board/161-atari-8bit/
• U1MB, Incognito, SIDE2, SIDE3, 1088XEL/XLD Firmware 4.0 Released by FlashJazzCat - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/321394-u1mb-incognito-side2-side3-1088xelxld-firmware-40-released/
• SNACK - SNES Atari Controler Kit - Irgwender - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/323171-snack-snes-atari-controler-kit/
• https://hackaday.com/2021/07/09/zooming-through-the-mandelbrot-set-on-an-atari/
• Tricky Tutorials archive - itaych - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/22905-tricky-tutorials/?do=findComment&comment=4866295

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • VCF West August 7 & 8, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival West , The Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
  • VCFSE Aug 20-22 https://gameatl.com/vintage-computing-festival-southeast-8-0-at-sfge/ or http://southernfriedgameroomexpo.com/ , Atlanta, GA
  • VCF Midwest Sep 11-12 http://vcfmw.org/announce , Elmhurst, IL (Chicago)
  • Fujiama Sep. 12-19, Lengenfeld, Germany, http://fujiama.eu/
  • VCF East October 8, 9, 10, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East , Wall, NJ
• Event page created by Chicago Classic Computing - http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html?fbclid=IwAR3Fm5hf7PCQj0yXBxXvj9J8Mp8GDwD2w1bfD_qktpPOnNYNoQUmN_EpgB8
• Event page created by Floppy Days - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/
• Event page on Vintage Is The New Old - https://vintageisthenewold.com/vintage-is-the-new-old-releases-new-events-calendar/

YouTube videos this month

• VT100 on the Atari 800/XEP80 - Cathryn Mataga - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8laMyHJbJzw
• Atari XL -=512KB Rambo - Saberman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbEGeOR1TGM External 512KB memory expansion (Rambo) for Atari 800XL
• ISS Tracker on the Atari 800 XL - Retro Computer Paraguay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-hvt0gLkDY Let's follow the trajectory of the International Space Station from our 8-bit Atari computer equipped with FujiNet. Bill Kendricks's ISS Tracker: http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/fujin...
• Atari 800XL: Weird Video Issue and Botched Soldering - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8WGrTZXh20

New at Archive.org

• Kay:
• • Cable Graphic Sciences Info-gen manual - https://archive.org/details/Cable_Graphic_Sciences_Info-gen_manual
  • Ensign Communication Inc Information Display System - Ensign 5000 - https://archive.org/details/Ensign_Communication_Inc_Information_Display_System_-_Ensign_5000
  • INFOsoft 7000 Quick Start Guide - https://archive.org/details/INFOsoft_7000_Quick_Start_Guide
  • Atari Research Memos on the Subject of Interactive Fantasy - https://archive.org/details/brenda_laurel_atari_memos
  • Unofficial Atari Computer Users Groups 1982-12-01 - https://archive.org/details/Unofficial_Atari_Computer_Users_Groups_1982-12-01
  • Official Atari Computer Users Groups 1982-12-01 - https://archive.org/details/Official_Atari_Computer_Users_Groups_1982-12-01
  • texts
  • How To Start an Atari Computer Users Group draft 1: https://archive.org/details/How_To_Start_an_Atari_Computer_Users_Group_draft_1
  • Atari Computer Users' Group Registration Form and Cover Letter - https://archive.org/details/Atari_Computer_Users_Group_Registration_Form_and_Cover_Letter
  • Atari Ad Slicks, Line Art, Radio Scripts 1983-07-13 - https://archive.org/details/Atari_Ad_Slicks_Line_Art_Radio_Scripts_1983-07-13
  • Bay Area Atari Users Group newsletters - https://archive.org/search.php?query=Bay+Area+Atari+Users+Group
• Ornjuce:
• • Atari Computer Association Of Orange County Newsletter Vol 9 No 1 Qtr 11988 - https://archive.org/details/ornjuce-atari-computer-assocation-of-orange-county-newsletter-vol-9-no-1-qtr-11988
• Allan:
• • Dal-Ace - Dallas Atari Computer Enthusiasts newsletters - https://archive.org/details/@allan52?query=dal-ace
  • Computer Shopper Atari articles - https://archive.org/details/@allan52?query=computer+shopper

New at Github

• Invenies Verba ("Find the Words") by Bill Kendrick - https://github.com/billkendrick/iverba-2
• Sebastian Igielski - ANTY *AJEK COPY - https://github.com/seban-slt/antyajek
• An Atari BASIC program to render the Sierpinski Triangle on Atari 8-bit computers - https://github.com/as6o/atari8bit_sierpinski
• KRET - The Mole - https://github.com/GSoftwareDevelopment/Mole

Jim Leiterman, Atari Research Group

Jim Leiterman worked at Atari from April 1982 through March 1984 in the research group, under Alan Kay. His various projects included software for Project Puffer, an exercise bike peripheral for the Atari 800; an 8-player Hammurabi game; and an unreleased port of the game Warlords. He created a symbolic disassembler, which he used to port the game Kangaroo from Atari 5200 to the Atari 800. That version of Kangaroo was released by Atari Program Exchange, in the fall 1983 catalog. Prior to Atari, Jim was a programmer at Horizon Simulations, where he worked on Shadow Hawk One, "a futuristic game of spacefaring piracy." This interview took place on July 12, 2021. Be sure to check out Jim's web site where he has posted some photos of the hardware and software that we discussed. This interview at YouTube Jim's Atari page Jim's games at AtariMania "Atari nearly introduced the world to fitness gaming 30 years ago" in Washington Post AtariProtos on Tumbleweeds Horizons Simulations article in Softline Magazine Issue 1.4 Atari concept art sketchbook

Brenda Laurel, Atari Research Dr. Brenda Laurel worked at Atari from 1980 through 1984. She began as software specialist for educational applications then soon became manager of software strategy for the home computer division. In mid-1982, she joined Atari Corporate Research at the Sunnyvale research laboratory, where she worked with Alan Kay. After Atari, she worked at Activision as director of software development. Later she founded Purple Moon, a software company focused on creating games for young girls; and co-founded Telepresence Research, a company focused on first-person media and virtual reality. This interview took place on July 15, 2021. Check the show notes for links to articles she wrote for Atari Connection magazine; her doctoral dissertation, "Toward the Design of a Computer-Based Interactive Fantasy System"; scans of memos on the subject of interactive fantasy that she wrote while at Atari Research; and more. Brenda's web site

Brenda's dissertation — Toward the Design of a Computer-Based Interactive Fantasy System Brenda's Atari memos The Renaissance Kid article by Brenda Laurel in Atari Connection Volume 1 Number 1 Atari PILOT with Turtle Graphics article by Brenda Laurel in Atari Connection Volume 1 Number 4 Valley of Genius podcast episode 11: Brenda Laurel at Atari 50 Years of Text Games — 1994: The Playground Brenda Laurel on games for girls Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet This interview at YouTube

ANTIC Episode 79 - Basically MyTek and Nir

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we discuss all the great work that MyTek is doing with Atari hardware (including the 576NUC), Nir Dary surprises all of the hosts with (late/early) Christmas (or birthday) Atari gifts, and Randy gets unmercifully teased about his overuse of the word "basically".

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

Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge

Interview index: here

ANTIC Facebook Page

AHCS

Eaten By a Grue

Next Without For

What We've Been Up To

• Magic Dump! - http://atariprojects.org/2019/02/12/dump-your-atari-computer-screen-to-printer-or-disk-10-15-mins/
• CircuitScribe - https://circuitscribe.com/
• Monkey Wrench II - http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-monkey-wrench-ii_17608.html

News

• MyTek's 576NUC+ and internal FujiNet!! - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/myteks-576nuc-atari-computer/products/myteks-576nuc-and-internal-fujinet
• Latest Atari Projects by Jason Moore - http://atariprojects.org/
• • Upgrade an Atari 400 to Composite Video with the Super Color CPU Card (1-2 hours)
  • Read Creative Computing Magazine (30-60 mins)
  • Read the Book "The Creative Atari" (30-60 mins)
  • Upgrade an Atari 400 to 48K of RAM (1-2 hours)
  • Update the Firmware of Your Ultimate 1MB Upgrade for Atari 8-Bit Computers (5-10 mins)
  • Watch Curt Vendel's Exhibit Presentation at VCF-East (30 mins)
  • Purchase or Download the Atari 8-Bit Programming Reference Book "Mapping the Atari" (5-10 mins)
  • Purchase the Book "Art of Atari" (5-10 mins) - Tim Lapetino
  • Purchase and Install a 64K RAM Upgrade for an Indus GT Floppy Drive (30-60 mins)
  • Run the CP/M Operating System on Your Atari 8-Bit Computer using an Upgraded Indus GT Floppy Drive (30-60 mins)
• Vice article about Best Electronics - https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kvkx9/dont-piss-off-bradley-the-parts-seller-keeping-atari-machines-alive
• Randy's interview with Brad (interview #5 from 2014!) - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-5-the-atari-8-bit-podcast-brad-koda-of-best-electronics
• Brewing Academy stocks Lotharek items - https://twitter.com/BrewingAcademy/status/1383459449692516352?s=20
• ABBUC site status - http://abbuc.de
• Online version of Atari emulator for web browsers: "Good Enough Atari Emulator" is the project of Mariusz "emrk" Kryński (Poland)
• • Article - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/06/version-en-linea-de-emulador-atari-para.html
  • Try it at - https://mrk.sed.pl/bevy-atari/dev/#osrom%3D%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fatarionline.pl%2Futils%2F9.%2520ROM-y%2FSystemy%2520operacyjne%2FAtari%2520OS%2520v2%252083.10.05.rom
• XEP80-II a new beginning - MyTek - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/322186-xep80-ii-a-new-beginning/
• SUPDUP terminal emulator
• • Code and discussion - https://github.com/PDP-10/its/pull/2034
  • More discussion - https://twitter.com/larsbrinkhoff/status/1404700557286203393?s=21

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • KansasFest July 23-24 https://www.kansasfest.org ; virtual event
  • VCF West August 7 & 8, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival West , The Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
  • VCFSE Aug 20-22 https://gameatl.com/vintage-computing-festival-southeast-8-0-at-sfge/ or http://southernfriedgameroomexpo.com/ , Atlanta, GA
  • VCF Midwest Sep 11-12 http://vcfmw.org/announce , Elmhurst, IL (Chicago)
  • Fujiama Sep. 12-19, Lengenfeld, Germany, http://fujiama.eu/
  • VCF East October 8, 9, 10, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East , Wall, NJ
• Event page created by Chicago Classic Computing - http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html?fbclid=IwAR3Fm5hf7PCQj0yXBxXvj9J8Mp8GDwD2w1bfD_qktpPOnNYNoQUmN_EpgB8
• Event page created by Floppy Days - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/
• Event page on Vintage Is The New Old - https://vintageisthenewold.com/vintage-is-the-new-old-releases-new-events-calendar/

YouTube videos this month

• Atari Dealer Demo by MS-DOS Friends - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psxSm9PeVgA
• New Games for Your Atari 8-bit (Part 20) - The New Retro Show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWyiI5LNHSA
• Massive Atari Software Archive - TOSEC and the Internet Archive by The Atari Geek - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl7FfLuYGTg
• Original Atari 800 POKEY Chiptune by Cobra Commander for ANTIC Podcast! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2klUVHRWtyk

New at Archive.org

• 57 Atari Computer Enthusiasts newsletters 1982-1987 via Dale Lutz - https://archive.org/details/@savetz?query=atari+computer+enthusiasts+newsletter
• Allan Bushman - https://archive.org/details/@allan52?query=dal-ace
• Richwood Software's The Gladiator manual - https://archive.org/details/gladiator-the-richwood-software/mode/2up
• Bill Lange - Creative Computing Software Thorn EMI - https://archive.org/details/creative-computing-software-disk-jacket

New at Github

• https://github.com/kenjennings/Atari-1nvader
• https://github.com/bhall408/atari800-touchpad-keyboard-controller
• https://github.com/GSoftwareDevelopment/SFX-Tracker
• https://github.com/pkali/feudal-economy
• https://github.com/dgreefhorst/fujinews

Listener Feedback

• Bits & Bytes and the Academy on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/bitsandbytestvo

End of Show Music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2klUVHRWtyk Original Atari 800 POKEY Chiptune by Cobra Commander

Bob Elfstrom, The Magic Room Interview and research by Kay Savetz. From 1982 through 1984, Atari ran summer computer camps at several locations around the United States. I covered the Atari camps extensively in a special episode in 2015. Now it's summer 2021, and we're going back to camp! That first year of the computer camps, in 1982, Atari commissioned a film about its summer camps, about the kids and teachers who were there, about the process of learning about computers, about kids challenging themselves, and about making friends at summer camp. Atari commissioned filmmaker Bob Elfstrom and his partner Lucy Hilmer to make the film. They shot the 26-minute film at the University of California, San Diego campus in 1982. It would be titled The Magic Room and was released the next year. There are many scenes in the computer lab: we see close-ups of kids concentrating, thinking about the logic of their programming projects. Their faces light up as they solve their problem. There's an adorable scene with a robotic, computer controlled turtle running across the floor, racing an actual turtle. There's kids riding horses at magic hour, and singing by the campfire, and finally an epic pillow fight, with feathers flying everywhere in the dorm hallways. The end credits were made with an Atari 800, naturally. This interview is with the filmmaker, Bob Elfstrom. (Lucy Hilmer was unavailable for an interview.) Bob has a long list of film credits to his name. He is known for his work on Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music (1969), and Mysteries of the Sea (1980) -- his IMDB page lists scores of credits. It's easy to watch The Magic Room (and you should!). It's available at YouTube and Internet Archive. My interview with Bob took place on June 17 and June 25, 2021. Watch The Magic Room The Magic Room Trailer

The Magic Room Production Documents ANTIC Special Episode - Atari Summer Camp ANTIC Interview 412 - Linda (Gordon) Brownstein, Atari VP Special Projects Bob's site Bob in IMDB Lucy Hilmer's site Lucy in IMDB Magic Room credits:Robert Elfstrom Productions Executive Producer: Linda S. Gordon Executive Consultant: Lauren Dunbar Produced and Directed by: Robert Elfstrom and Lucy Hilmer Edited by: Michael Chandler Associate Producer: Gloria S. Borders Music by: Sasha Matson Written by: Lucy Hilmer and Michael Chandler Production Advisor: Richard Pugh Sound: Agamemnon Andrianos Additional Sound: Nelson Stoll Production Manager: Kathleen Andrianos Special Assistant Caroline Pugh Special Thanks: Raymond E. Kassar, Robert A. Kahn, Wayne Harvey, Ted M. Kahn Head computer instructor: Richard Pugh Instructor: Karen Okagaki Computer Campers: Maria Smith, Candace Shockley, Margaret Aiken, Enrique Rios, J. J. Kreideweiss, Vincent Cook, Jim Dillon, Leendert Mulder, Rick Crosby, Brent McDonald, Barry Champagne