Last week we caught up with David Crane, Garry Kitchen and Dan Kitchen from Audacity Games to chat about the old Atari days, Activision, Absolute, Skyworks, the tragedy of digital obsolescence, their new venture Audacity games and their spectacular new Atari VCS game, Circus Convoy.

See full video version of the interview here:
(1) Audacity Games Interview: David Crane, Dan Kitchen and Garry Kitchen - YouTube

Produced by Jeff and Steve Fulton

Branding By Daryl Litts

Music " Dance With Me" by Tony Longworth

An episode  jampacked with Atari VCS goodness! First a story about the allure (and danger) of Atari VCS programming in modern times. Then a playthrough and history of the original 9 VCS  1977 launch titles. Also memories of Combat! from Tony Longworth. and a discussion and reaction of the brand new VCS game Circus Convoy from Audacity games.

Features "The Atari VCS Almost Killed Me" by Steve Fulton

Written edited, produced by Steve And Jeff Fulton

Branding by Daryl Litts

Music : Ether and Eyes Turned Skyward by Tony Longworth

To start off the 4th season, we chose four games to play and discuss : Early Atari Coin-ops, Avalanche, Fire Truck, Super Bug, and Dominos. We also discuss a very early Electronic games magazine article on “Games we hope we’ll never see”. They were mostly wrong.

Starting with this episode we will also have a companion video with us live discussing the games and items that need more visual evidence. 

Live Game Play and discussion video The video for this episode is:

https://youtu.be/1Apns1Bq5IU

Written, Edited, Produced by Steve Fulton and Jeff Fulton

Branding by Daryl Litts

Additional music -Tony Longworth’s Fold Your Head" https://tonylongworth.com/

Don’t forget:

http://www.intotheverticalblank.com

S3:E25;  1981 - Atari VCS Christmas

For the 2020 Christmas episode we go back 39 years to 1981 and talk about how it felt to want, and ultimately, get, an Atari VCS that year.   We have a story from Steve about our twin scheming and planning to get a VCS, and then we have a discussion about our top-10 VCS games available at the end of 1981.   We hope these memories and stories help you have a good holiday in  2020 no matter what you celebrate or what your situation might be.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Into The Vertical Blank.

Show Notes:

Written, Edited, Produced by Jeff Fulton and Steve Fulton

Branding by Daryl Litts

Music in “Atari VCS Christmas” story is Crystalline by Tony Longworth from his album “Tinsel And Fire”. Tony’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tonylongworth

XMAS 7800 playable Demo: JS7800: Atari 7800 Emulator (raz0red.github.io)

Top-10 VCS Games available for Xmas 1981

Steve’s List 

Jeff’s List

Some Cool Atari Videos from 1981

Stay In Touch

As we we prepare for the 2020 Chirstmas episode of Into The Vertical Blank, here is a supercut of three Christmas stories from past seasons told for the first tiem, in Chronological order: 

-The Best  @*#! Christmas Ever (1983)

-Atari 7800 Christmas (1986)

-The Christmas Train (1982-2011)
 

S3: E23. Why we are Thankful for STOS: The Game Creator

In this episode the brothers talk about the creation of their one and only completed Atari ST game (“Zamboozal Poker Dice”) and the tools that helped them complete it:  the Mandarin / JawX Software products under the STOS banner.  Come along for the ride as they discuss the old days of making games on their favorite 16 bit computer. 

Written, Edited, Produced by Steve Fulton and Jeff Fulton

Branding by Daryl Litts

Additional music - “Outside The Universe” By Tony Longworth

Mentioned:

Read the full story of Zamboozal Poker Dice here:

https://intotheverticalblank.com/2020/11/20/zamboozal-poker-dice-atari-st-1991/

Atarimania.com Page for the Original Zamboozal Poker Dice: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-zamboozal-poker-dice_37004.html

Atarimania.com Page for the Updated 2020 1.2 version of Zamboozal Poker dice:
http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-zamboozal-poker-dice_37016.html

STOS Tutorials on Intotheverticalblank.com

https://intotheverticalblank.com/2020/11/13/stos-tutorial-1-setup-stos-on-hatari-and-the-first-blitter-operations/

https://intotheverticalblank.com/2020/11/16/stos-tutorial-2-brute-force-blitter-sprites-joysticks-and-more/

Orphaned Games Marauder Review

https://orphanedgames.com/articles/Marauder_Review/Marauder_Review%20(Atari%202600).html

In this episode Steve and Jeff cover the Wii Haunted House port from 2010, and also make their list of the top 27 things that scare Atari Fans (or at least scare Steve and Jeff).  They also feature an Easter egg from their past and a fantastic Tony Longworth tune. 

Listen here or on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify. 

Steam Store Haunted House: https://store.steampowered.com/app/9960/Haunted_House/

Credits

Written, Edited, Produced by Steve Fulton and Jeff Fulton

Branding by Daryl Litts

Tony Longworth:  Primal Serenity E.P.  : Ostero and Light Of Day.   

Stay In Touch

Right before the Atari VCS, Star Wars toys, and Lego hit big in the 70's there was the 1977 Sears Wish Book. It's like an archive of everything "cool" before things got real.
Every year in September or October, the Sears Wish Book would arrive in the mail, and our job was to circle the things we wanted for Christmas.  In this episode we dive into the top-50 weird and wonderful products from the 1977 Sears Wishbook (plus some extras) 

You can follow along in the links below:

Wishbook Pages To Follow-along:

60-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-212.html#

59-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-181.html

58-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-198.html#

57- Oops. 

56-https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n_PeDI7eu0mTv1T6BVFwyowA-ZFspwJP9Yio-HV-uLk/edit

55-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-562.html#

54-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-604.html#

53-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-599.html#

52-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-479.html

51.http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-530.html#

50-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-575.html#

49-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-352.html#

48-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-478.html#

47-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-477.html#

46-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-418.html#

45-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-443.html#

44-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-444.html#

43-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-468.html#

42-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-503.html#

41-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-410.html#

40-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-521.html

39-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-511.html

38-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-504.html

37-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-435.html

36-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-408.html

35-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-501.html#

34-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-506.html#

33-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-584.html#

32-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-580.html#

31-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-404.html

30-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-617.html

29-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-542.html

28-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-528.html

27-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-542.html#

26-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-608.html#

25-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-605.html#

24-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-593.html

23-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-573.html#

22-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-566.html#

21-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-546.html#

20-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-568.html#

19-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-544.html#

18-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-543.html#

17-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-402.html

16-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-537.html#

15-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-532.html

14-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-505.html#

13-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-445.html#

12-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-474.html#

11-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-593.html

10-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-587.html

9-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-586.html#

8-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-423.html#

7-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-424.html#

6-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-401.html#

5-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-578.html#

4-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-492.html#

3-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-532.html#

2-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-401.html#

1-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-529.html#

0-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-4.html

Written Edited, Produced by Steve and Jeff Fulton

Branding by Daryl Litts

Additional Music:  The Red Forest By Tony LongWorth

More Notes:

Tony Longworth 

Jamie Lendino

Ken Williams Autobiography

Homebrew

In this episodes we take you back to an era when arcades in the shape of rockets and castles ruled the land, and TV shows like CHiPs ruled the airwaves.
Most every kid who grew-up in the Golden Age of video games had a favorite place to play games.  For us, it was Castle Park in Redondo Beach, CA.   In this episode we have a story about Castle Park named "Ode To Castle Park", and we do something brand new: We recap an entire episode of the TV show CHiPs.  Season 6, episode 13 of the show CHiPs was filmed at Castle Park (and the surrounding area) and it lives as pop culture document to an era that now lives only in The Vertical Blank.

Written, Edited, Produced by Steve Fulton and Jeff Fulton

Branding by Daryl Litts

Tony Longworth:  Primal Serenity E.P.  : Ostero and Light Of Day.   
https://tonylongworth.bandcamp.com/album/primal-serenity
Tony Longworth: Repercussion : https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-music-39166514

Chips Episode 13, Season 6: 

 Don’t forget:

Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari

S3:E19 Interview with Thomas Cherryhomes. How Fujinet and Irata-Online Give Plato New Life

Fujinet is an exciting new creation for Atari 8bit computers that, among other things, allows them to connect up to the internet and load disk images straight off of FTP sites. It is the brainchild of the genius Thomas Cherryhomes who would like to have this type of device built for all home computers. 

Thomas started out by building IrataOnline, a version of the Plato Learning system and drivers for every popular computer system.  He then built the ultimate SIO device for Atari 8bit home computer to allow them to go on the internet, explore IrataOnline and much much more.

Note: Be sure to check out the companion video(s) here so you can see Fuji.Net in Action:  https://intotheverticalblank.com/2020/09/24/s3e19-interview-with-thomas-cherryhomes-how-fujinet-and-irataonline-give-plato-new-life/

Fijunet: https://fujinet.online/

Irata Online: https://irata.online/

Written, Edited, Produced by Steve Fulton and Jeff Fulton

Branding by Daryl Litts

Additional music -Tony Longworth’s “Dance Me This" https://tonylongworth.com/

Don’t forget:

http://www.intotheverticalblank.com