Floppy Days 104 - Interview with Leonard Tramiel

Welcome to Floppy Days episode 104 for June, 2021.  Randy Kindig here again, as your usual host, to talk about vintage computer topics.

For this month, I have another interview for you in which Commodore and Atari fans will have special interest.  One of the most iconic figures in vintage computer history, and one who was a big part of the home computer wars back in the late 70’s and into the mid-to-late 80’s was Jack Tramiel.  Jack at one time owned Commodore and later Atari, and involved his sons intimately in the business.  Although Jack is no longer around there are plenty of interviews available on YouTube and other places where you can see and hear Jack.  For this episode, however, I was able to track down one of Jack’s sons, Leonard, and get his perspective on being involved in home computers with his father during that time.  Leonard was particularly involved in the development of the Atari ST and much of this interview will revolve around that, but there is a lot of other content here as well.

For this month, I’m going to forgo any other content and just focus on the interview itself.

This interview took place February 2, 2020.

Please enjoy!

Links:

• Leonard Tramiel, Computer History Museum profile - https://computerhistory.org/profile/leonard-tramiel/ 
• Interview at Arcade Attack - https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/leonard-tramiel/ 
• The story of Commodore and the 8-bit generation | Leonard Tramiel | TEDxMidAtlantic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRBU8pEDWwY 
• Leonard Tramiel Greets Those at CommVEx 2017 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNGEd7QbLjI