Interview with Michael Tomczyk, Vic-20 Commando Team Leader at Commodore

Welcome to the Floppy Days Podcasts, where old computers are the best computers and new old computers are even better.  Last month, I covered the history of the Vic-20 computer with the help of Neil Harris, Brian Bagnall, and Michael Tomczyk.  Although I used some audio clips from each of those gentlemen to walk through the history timeline, I actually have a full-blown interview with each that I want to share with you over the span of three episodes.  For this episode, I will be publishing the interview with Michael Tomczyk.  Michael was with Commodore for some time, was an assistant to none other than Jack Tramiel, and was the leader of the team known as the Vic Commando Team.  He was happy to talk about his time at Commodore and turned out to be a very interesting interview and a great guy with which to talk.

Before we get to that, I do have a few housekeeping items to cover, such as a few new acquisitions, some brief news, and a bit of feedback.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

New Acquisitions

• Ultimate 1MB - http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=67
• “Atari DOS 2.5:1050 Disk Drive Owner’s Manual” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_DOS
• “Art of Atari” book by Tim Lapetino - http://www.amazon.com/dp/1524101036/?tag=flodaypod-20

News

• BASIC 10-liners contest - http://gkanold.wixsite.com/homeputerium/basic-10liners-2017
• RetroChallenge 2017/04 - http://retrochallenge.tuxdriver.com/
• Upcoming Shows
• • VCF East - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/, March 31-April 2, 2017, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ
  • CoCoFest - April 22 & 23, 2017 - Lombard, IL - http://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/index.shtml
  • VCF Southeast 5.0 - April 29 & 30, 2017, Roswell, GA - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/
  • TI Fest West - Saturday April 29th from 9 am to 5 pm,  Oak Tree Restaurant in Woodland, Washington - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/260465-fest-west-2017/
  • Pacific Commodore Expo at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle on June 10-11 2017 - https://www.facebook.com/events/1171192169619276/
  • KFest - https://www.kansasfest.org/, Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO, July 18th-23rd
  • Commodore Vegas Expo v13 - July 29-30, 2017, California Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex
  • Vintage Computer Festival West - August 5-6, 2017, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/
  • VCFMW - September 9-10, Elk Grove Village, IL - http://vcfmw.org/ , https://www.facebook.com/events/805945506224113/
  • Tandy Assembly - October 6-8, 2017 - Chillocothe, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/https://www.facebook.com/events/671911082972172/
  • Chicago TI International World’s Faire - October 15, Evanston, IL - http://www.chicagotiug.com/tiki-index.php?page=Faire
  • World of Commodore - first weekend in December - Toronto - http://www.tpug.ca/

References

• “The home computer wars: An Insider's Account of Commodore and Jack Tramiel” by Michael Tomczyk - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0942386752/?tag=flodaypod-20
• “The First Home Computer: 30 Years Later” by Michael Tomczyk - http://www.academia.edu/2242039/The_First_Home_Computer_30_Years_Later