ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Alan Watson was one of the four founding owners of Ozark Softscape, the company that created M.U.L.E. and Seven Cities of Gold for the Atari, both published by Electronic Arts. Ozark also created Cytron Masters which was published by SSI. The company created more games for other platforms, including Heart of Africa, Modem Wars, and Robot Rascals. Alan specialized in interface and graphics code, and he contributed to both M.U.L.E. and Seven Cities.

LINKS

Alan's September 1981 article in Compute!

Planet M.U.L.E. - play M.U.L.E. Online

Kathleen O'Brien worked at Shepardson Microsystems, where she wrote the Atari Assembler Editor cartridge, and wrote the floating point routines in Atari BASIC. (Her husband Paul Laughton wrote the rest of Atari BASIC.) She, along with Bill Wilkinson and Paul Laughton, co-founded Optimized Systems Software, where she wrote much of the book “Atari BASIC Source Book”.

LINKS

Atari BASIC Source Book

Bill Wilkinson interview

Paul Laughton interview

Hi, everyone, and welcome to another interview-only edition of Antic, the Atari 8-bit computer podcast. I am Randy Kindig and I will be your host for this interview. This interview is one that I’ve hinted at on earlier Antic shows and one that I’m very excited to bring to you as it covers a modern upgrade to the Atari 8-bit line. Dan Winslow and Mark Dusko have been involved in the Atari 8-bit Ethernet Project to bring networking to the 8-bits. They even produced a cartridge some time back called the Dragon Cart and are considering producing another run of them. We discuss why they got involved with this project, where it’s going, and how the Atari community can help. I hope you enjoy it and please let Dan and Mark know if you have an interest in this project and the Dragon Cart.

Links/Info:

Atari 8-bit Ethernet Project

Dan is danwinslow on AtariAge

Mark is puppetmark on AtariAge

Larry Liberty - Atari 5200 Focus Tester

Larry Liberty had what many kids in the '80s would have considered a dream job: focus tester for Atari 5200 games. He tested Space Dungeon and Vanguard when he was around 12 years old. Larry tells Kevin all about it in this short interview.

LINKS

Play Space Dungeon in your browser

Play Vanguard in your browser

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast:

• Brad gets mad about Kevin’s swap meet finds

• We discuss the release of source code for Action!, BASIC XL, and Star Raiders

• ROB (Player/Missile Podcast) fills us in about Atari emulation on the Android

• Brad gives a technical overview of the Atari 400 and 800 machines

• Randy tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Atari BASIC but was afraid to ask

• and we discuss the release of thousands of Atari program screenshots

Links mentioned in this episode:

Recurring Links

Floppy Days Podcast

AtariArchives.org

AtariMagazines.com

Kevins Book “Terrible Nerd”

New Atari books scans at archive.org

ANTIC feedback at AtariAge

the Atlanta Historical Computing Society

What We’ve Been Up To

Assembly Lines the Complete Book by Roger Wagner

Antic Magazine FBI FOIA Response

ANALOG Computing FBI FOIA Response

STart Magazine FBI FOIA Response

Texas Instruments FBI FOIA Response

Stimulating Simulations (Atari Version) by C.W. Engel

Midi-Maze software at AtariMania

Midi-Maze cartridge from Lance Ringquist, Video 61 & Atari Sales

Midi-Mates from Bruce Carso, B&C ComputerVision

Atari networking cartridge from Dan Winslow and Mark Dusko

History of Personal Computing Podcast. Topic: The Atari 400/800

News

VCFSE 3.0

Atari Party

KansasFest

VCF East X

Midwest Gaming Classic

Atari User

Action! Code Released Discussion

Action! Code

OSS Basic XL 1.02 Source Code

Atari Personal Finance Management System (1981) - complete with software, manuals

2015 10-line BASIC contest

Follow-up to RetroChallenge 2015/01

Functional demo of GOS graphic multi-tasking OS

New “Atari Antics” newspaper - Michael Allard

Issue 4 of Pro(c) available in English

Chimera+

The source code behind microsoft basic for 6502 comes to light

new season of High Score Club on AtariAge

repository dedicated to reverse engineering the classic 1979 game Star Raiders

The Classic-Gaming Bookcast

New at Archive.org

https://archive.org/details/AtariStockCharting (Wade at Inverse ATASCII)

Old Best Electronics catalog

Lots of new additions of the Atari 8-bit Computer Manuals section - 384 items (from Alpha Shield to Zorro)

https://archive.org/details/DeReAtari_Alternate_Early_Version

4,500 Atari 8-bit screenshots

2,170 more screenshots - from Atari 800 Best Game Pack

Advanced Programming Techniques For Your Atari Including Graphics & Voice Programs By Linda M. Schreiber (programs)

https://archive.org/details/AtariPascalLangaugeSystemManual

https://archive.org/details/Atari_Pilot_External_Specification_Revision-E

https://archive.org/details/Atari_News_Bits_Number_1

https://archive.org/details/Atari_News_Bits_Number_2

https://archive.org/details/AtariAssemblerEditorCartridgeManualErrata

https://archive.org/details/AtariComputerCampsLogo

https://archive.org/details/AtariChristmas1981

Stone Oakvalley Music Collection (C64 and Amiga music)

Feature Topic - Atari Hardware “In-Depth” (Brad)

highly detailed document on the internal workings of the Atari 8-bit being created by Avery Lee (Phaeron)

Your Atari Computer (YAC)

http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/CTIA_and_GTIA

http://www.ataripreservation.org/websites/freddy.offenga/megazine/ISSUE5-PALNTSC.html

http://www.retromicro.com/files/atari/8bit/antic.pdf

http://www.retromicro.com/files/atari/8bit/gtia.pdf

http://www.atariarchives.org/dere/chapt02.php

The Atari 8-Bit FAQ by Michael Current

http://atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_id=379120

Atari Emulation on Android (Rob at Player/Missile)

episode 16 of Antic, Atari emulation on iOS by Chris Olsen

Rob’s website

Colleen emulator in the Play store

Atari OS ROMS

Planetary Defense

Programming Language Segment - Atari BASIC (Randy)

Atari BASIC Source Book

Atari BASIC Reference Manual

Atari BASIC A Self Teaching Guide

Inside Atari BASIC (PDF)

De Re Atari

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_BASIC

Interview with Paul Laughton for ANTIC Interview #1

Interview with Bill Wilkinson for ANTIC Interview #7

Feedback

article about WAACE and Current Notes from Antic Magazine

Lee Pappas was co-founder of A.N.A.L.O.G Magazine, which was the first magazine about Atari computers, and (along with Antic) one of the big two Atari magazines in the United States.

LINKS

Picture of Lee with Crash Dive original art

Lee Pappas on Twitter

Lee Pappas' A.N.A.L.O.G. photo archive

Newspaper scans of early interviews with the founders

Mike DesChenes interview at Player Missile Podcast

A.N.A.L.O.G. page scans at archive.org

A.N.A.L.O.G. full text at AtariMagazines.com

Play Buried Bucks

ANALOG Computing FBI FOIA Response

Gardner Pomper was president and co-founder of Games Computers Play. Games Computers Play was almost certainly the first graphical online service (except for maybe PLATO, depending on how you're counting). It was devoted exclusively to interactive, multi-player games, and it was only for Atari computers. You probably didn't get a chance to use Games Computers Play -- it only managed to get about 1,000 subscribers at its peak. But you may have seen the colorful, enticing advertisement that they ran in the Atari magazines, or read the article about the service in Antic magazine.A word about the source code mentioned in the interview: they haven’t found it yet, but they believe they have it and are still looking. we’ll let you know here if and when they uncover it.This interview took place January 28, 2015 over Skype.LINKSAntic Magazine article about GCPGames Computers Play Magazine adAtariAge discussion about GCP

Hello, welcome to this interview-only episode of Antic, the Atari 8-bit podcast. I am Randy Kindig, one of the hosts of the podcast, and this interview is with Sal Esquivel, also known as KJMANN on AtariAge. Sal has been very involved in the Atari community and owns a company by the name of Atlantis Games Group out of Portland, Oregon that produces software for the 8-bits. That software includes games like Outrun, Venture, Tempest Xtreem and others, which are sold through Video 61 & Atari Sales by Lance Ringquist. Sal also sells some 8-bit hardware upgrades and used to run a store called KJMANN’s Atari Sales & Service.

I hope you enjoy it and please write in to [email protected] and let us know what you think.

Atlantis Games Group

Video 61 and Atari Sales

This is a different sort of interview. Kevin talked to three old friends reminiscing about their Atari days. Those friends are Dean Wittmann, Max Derhak and Dean Derhak (Max and Dean are brothers.)

These guys were best friends, Atari pals living in Salt Lake City, Utah area going to Atari computer club meetings, cracking programs, and running a BBS.

This interview was conducted on September 27, 2014 over Skype.

Links:

Encore video system for hotels - AtariAge discussion

Picture of the "Atari Computer Enthusiast" t-shirt

Back of the shirt, all three interviewees

Adam-Trace, Max Derhak's genealogy program

Sometimes fun to talk to CEOs, and sometimes fun to talk to the people in the trenches. This is an interview from the trenches. Kent Smith was an Atari customer service/technical support rep for the Atari 400/800 from 1982-1984. I interviewed him on September 19, 2014 via Skype.

The videotape that he mentions at the end of the interview -- you'll want to watch that too, for a look at life in some of the Atari offices around Christmas 1981, which has never been on the Internet until now. Kent sent it to me, and I posted it to Archive.org.

Link:

Atari Christmas 1981 Video