In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast...we have a surprise roundtable with guests Nir Dary, Jason Moore, Corey Koltz, and Bill Kendrick!

READY!

ANTIC Episode 84 - Atari Resolutions for the New Year

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast...we each talk about our top Atari resolution for 2022 (although maybe not the type of resolution you were thinking), and discuss all the Atari news we could find for December, 2021.

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

• Kay finished getting interviews into youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/KaySavetz) 
• Scanned material from Dan Kramer: 
• • Atari 2700 https://archive.org/details/atari-2700-rc-stella 
  • Atari Cosmos: https://archive.org/details/atari-cosmos 
  • Atari 810 side board https://archive.org/details/atari-810-side-board-schematic 
  • Atari 800XL SECAM (Rose) https://archive.org/details/atari-800xl-secam 
  • Atari 600XL/800XL PAL to SECAM Converter (Yvette): https://archive.org/details/Atari-600XL-800XL-PAL-to-SECAM-converter 
  • Atari 5200 and 7800 cartridge library list: https://archive.org/details/atari-5200-7800-cartridge-library-1984-08-28 
  • Final Legacy Manual Draft For Atari 8-Bit 
  • Omnimon User's Guide 
• Kay’s end of year summary letter https://www.patreon.com/posts/60367090 
• Indy VCC Midi Maze tournament in December - https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndyVCC 
• Atari Ugly Christmas sweater - https://animeape.com/products/atari-classic-ugly-christmas-sweater/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA5aWOBhDMARIsAIXLlkfyZk8YF3gJwpOgpLh39rOt0IXQWXFZXmAz4QE51pTW4iybPONNZkgaAk_rEALw_wcB 

Recent Interview Shows

• Tim Huntington: Krazy Kopter, Fire Chief, Adventures of Robin Hood - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-430-tim-huntington-krazy-kopter-fire-chief-adventures-of-robin-hood 
• Jack Verson, who programmed games for Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64. Action Quest, Ghost Encounters, Castle Hassle, Journey to the Planets, and Gyruss for Atari; Joust and Time Tunnel for C64 - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-429-jack-verson-action-quest-ghost-encounters-journey-to-the-planets-gyruss 

News 

• Atari 8-Bit/5200 Homebrew Games Completed/WIP in 2021 - by ZeroPage Homebrew - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/315811-atari-8-bit5200-homebrew-games-completedwip-in-2021/ 
• Phoenix 2021 - New AWA Game - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/328714-phoenix-2021-new-awa-game-and-christmas-reminiscing/ 
• The original BASIC version is available at Atarmania.com:  http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-phoenix_31474.html 
• Yahtzee 2021 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/327916-yahtzee-2021-new-atari-8bit-and-5200-game-release-by-anschuetzweisgerberanschuetz/ 
• This is a remake of a BASIC game written in 1987 which is available on Atarimania.com: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-yahtzee_31440.html 
• 8-bit Hub by 8Bit-Dude - http://8bit-unity.com/ 
• 8-bit Hub at YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK8DJswSw5c 
• Atari 800CX - Gunstar - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/328119-my-atari-800cx-an-homage-to-the-ibm-atari-pc/  
• Atari releases Sid Meier’s Command Series on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1703100/Crusade_in_Europe/ 
• PETSCII Robots now in color:
• • https://atariage.com/forums/topic/328259-petscii-robots-now-in-color/
  • https://www.the8bitguy.com/ 
  • https://youtu.be/uFtDSmFz_b0 
• Atari 130xe Keyboard Now Goes Clack - Hackaday - by Kristina Panos:
• • https://hackaday.com/2021/12/12/atari-130xe-keyboard-now-goes-clack/ 
  • https://youtu.be/r8T07Rskkgs 
• FLOP 66 magazine for Atari 8-bit computers - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/12/atari-bone-cruncher-y-otras-novedades.html 

YouTube videos this month

• A Very Retro Computer Yule Log with Atari 8-Bits - The VintNerd - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NTJ4Gu-ETKE 
• Dual Atari 8-Bit Power Supply Build - Jan Beta - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4_QXnqbjV0 
• The Atari 800XL - Seven billion screws and in need of a good scrub! - The Retro Shack - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSe81rNT69E 
• Atari 800 Commercials 1983 (4) - Soga Natari:
• • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqWvQpbKT5U
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxKYQHnOsgU
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrP9ftclqBY
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp9UKfuM-IY (Mr. T, 1984)

New at GitHub

• SFX-Engine https://github.com/GSoftwareDevelopment/SFX-Engine#sfx-engine 

Word from our Sponsor

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp9UKfuM-IY 

ANTIC Episode 83 - The Dog Ate It

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast...Kay forgets to wear his ANTIC t-shirt, we all have new members of the family (and Brad’s eats everything in sight), Kay goes crazy scanning Atari magazines, and we have lots of listener feedback.

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

• Atari Interface (was there a July 1991 issue?)
  • https://archive.org/details/Atari_Interface_1989-11 
  • https://archive.org/details/Atari_Interface_1989-08 
  • https://archive.org/details/Atari_Interface_1989-07 
  • Atari Interface Magazine - The Complete Collection" - 2,350-page PDF  - https://archive.org/details/atari-interface-complete-collection 
• The Advanced Home Computer course 
  • https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Course?sort=-publicdate 
  • Atari 600XL/800XL: https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Advanced_Course_10/page/189/mode/1up 
  • 810 disk drive: https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Advanced_Course_04/page/63/mode/1up 
  • 130XE: https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Advanced_Course_66/page/1309/mode/1up 
• Indy Vintage Computer Club (VCC) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndyVCC 

News 

• Hyper Drive + RAM/ROM " Cartridge For The Atari 8 Bit Computer - https://www.ebay.com/itm/124998207996 
• ABBUC 2021 Software Contest winners announced 
• • https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/11/descarga-los-juegos-del-concurso-abbuc.html
  • https://abbuc.de/2021/11/ergebnisse-der-softwarewettbewerbs-2021/ 
  • http://www.atari.org.pl/informacje/wyniki-abbuc-software-contest-2021/2224 
  • CONTrollerTESTPRO - Jakub Husak - http://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?id=17979 
  • Meta Programming Tool - Kaj de Vos - https://language.metaproject.frl/ - A New, Human-Friendly Programming Language 
• John Malone’s keypad usb mod - https://twitter.com/48kram/status/1462136144477499395?s=21 
• XEP80-II by MyTek - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/atari-800-xl-xe-xel-xld/products/xep80-ii-by-mytek 
• Final Assault first person shooter
• • https://atari8.dev/final_assault/ 
  • Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=92K9wnk_4Cw 
• Atari Projects by Jason Moore - http://atariprojects.org 
• Laser Squad https://mechanism.fr/getRecord.php?id=1002 
• TRY2EMU Web Site - Atari news - https://www.t2e.pl/tag/atari 
• https://www.npr.org/2021/11/05/1053009480/atari-video-game-joystick-world-record-largest 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • VCF East April 22-24: Vintage Computer Festival East , Wall, NJ 
  • VCF West August 6-7: Vintage Computer Festival West , The Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA 
• 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

• Old Time Radio Broadcasts on the 1 MB Atari 800xl - Red Rock Video Productions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gOxE5m6a6U 

New at Archive.org

• Atari Personal Financial Management System manual 
• Practicing Programming on the Atari 
• Review Catalog of Atari Learning Systems Fall 1983 
• Atari Special Additions Volume 1 Winter 1982 
• Collegiate Microcomputer:
• • Stevens Institute of Technology requiring freshmen to buy an Atari 800 - https://archive.org/details/sim_collegiate-microcomputer_1985-02_3_1/page/n36/mode/1up?q=atari 
  • Harvard Symposium “Video Games and Human Development” - https://archive.org/details/sim_collegiate-microcomputer_1984-11_2_4/page/334/mode/2up?q=atari 
  • Computer Drawn Polar Coordinate Graphs - https://archive.org/details/sim_collegiate-microcomputer_1984-08_2_3/page/n81/mode/2up 
  • Ideal Systems undimmed - https://archive.org/details/sim_collegiate-microcomputer_spring-1986_4_1/page/n27/mode/2up?q=atari 

New at GitHub

• https://github.com/spicyjack/atari8-syntax.vim 

Listener Feedback

• "Imagic 1-2-3" compilation - http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-comp-imagic-1-2-3_1235.html
• XDOS (c) 2009 by Stefan Dorndorf - http://www.atarimania.com/faq-atari-400-800-xl-xe-what-are-realdos-spartados-x-and-xdos_83.html

Jack Verson was the founder of JV Software, where he programmed and published several games for the Atari 8-bit computers: Action Quest, Ghost Encounters, and Journey to the Planets. Roklan Software repackaged Action Quest and Ghost Encounters into a single game, titled Castle Hassle.

As part of On-Time Software, Jack programmed the Atari versions of Gyruss, James Bond 007, and perhaps other games, published by Parker Brothers. He ported the Atari 8-bit version of Joust to the Commodore 64. As Applied Systems Engineering, he programmed Time Tunnel for Commodore 64.

This interview took place on December 2, 2021.

AtariMania's list of Jack's software
James Bond 007
Gyruss
Journey to the Planets version differences and bugs
Larry Kalpan thanks Jack in the manual for 2600 Activision Bridge
Time Tunnel for Commodore 64
Jack's company, CDOAN 
Mark Benioff review of Action Quest
Popeye "V1" for Commodore discovered
Verson quoted in Compute! "How the Pros Write Computer Games"

ANTIC Episode 82 -  FujiNet to Take Over the World!

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast...we have special guest Thom Cherryhomes who tells us why FujiNet is aiming to take over the world, we discuss the recent VCF Midwest and VCF East, and of course tell you everything going on in the world of Atari.

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

• Thom’s talk about programming FujiNet at VCF East: https://youtu.be/A9jflXkSef4 
• Byte All Atari Articles - inspired by Allan Bushman's Computer Shopper All Atari - https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-atari-articles 
• Dan Kramer engineering notebook from his time at Atari - https://archive.org/details/dan-kramer-atari-engineering-notebook 
• VCF East video processing (Atari 2600 stuff, 8-bit specific stuff) - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_e5fSxflvrwAsI8UG2Ey9Nwx2zzP1XED 
• Google Spreadsheet of Atari newsletters at Internet Archive - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RkznDDlOL2O_K-RrbkajIuo6DvYof6Ajrn7j9NTcoDM/edit?usp=sharing 
• • JACG, newsletter of the Jersey Atari Computer Group https://archive.org/details/jerseyataricomputergroup 
  • I/O Connector, newsletter of the San Diego Atari Computer Enthusiasts. https://archive.org/details/ioconnector 
  • Current Notes, Newsletter of the Washington Area Computer Enthusiasts https://archive.org/details/currentnotesnewsletter 
• Kay on TikTok - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRETKduF/ 
• 576NUC+ -  https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/myteks-576nuc-atari-computer 
• VCFMW - http://vcfmw.org 
• Indy Vintage Computer Club (VCC) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndyVCC 

News 

• New Labels – 800 Personality/Memory Modules – Mr. Robot (Steve Boswell) - https://atari8bit.net/new-labels-800-personality-memory-modules/ 
• Prince of Persia for Atari 8-bits - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/298914-unicorns-season-prince-of-persia-for-the-a8/#comments 
• ABBUC Magazine #145 is out! - http://abbuc.de/ 
• Atari User Issue 33 Is Out Now! - https://www.atariuser.com/atari-user-issue-33-is-out-now/ 
• Atari 815 sold on ebay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/124936737856?hash=item1d16cf5440%3Ag%3A3KgAAOSwRchhXcj3&nma=true&si=hxj5YADhiQ0fdSj5M3wmAhFvrcg%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 
• Anschuetz/Weisgerber/Anschuetz remakes - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-297-robert-anschuetz-eric-anschuetz-john-weisgberber-antic-magazine-games 
  • Overflow 2021 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/321417-overflow-2021-a-new-8-bit-and-5200-game-released-by-awa/ 
  • Kooky Diver - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/322470-kooky-diver-new-8bit-and-5200-game-by-awa/ 
  • Sokoban 2021 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/322674-sokoban-2021-5200-release-and-8-bit-update/ 
  • Night Rescue 1941 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/320224-night-rescue-1941-new-awa-game-release/ 
  • Piracy 1621 & Piracy 1981 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/324486-piracy-1621-and-piracy-1821-new-atari-5200-releases-by-anschuetzweisgerberanschuetz/ 
  • Alien Assault 2021 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/323778-new-8-bit-and-5200-game-release-alien-assault-2121-by-awa/?tab=comments#comment-4884530 
  • Kooky Klimber (Crazy Climber inspired) - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/319869-abbuc-software-contest-2021/?do=findComment&comment=4891011 
  • Robot Dungeon (Shamus/Berzerk inspired) - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/319869-abbuc-software-contest-2021/?do=findComment&comment=4891009 
  • Space Assailants 2021 - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/09/space-assailants-2121-nuevo-shooter.html 
• Brian Hall - Argon, a multi-system emulator -  http://playargon.com 
• XXX2CF3: CompactFlash HDD without using the cartridge port! – The Brewing Academy - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/atari-800-xl-xe-xel-xld/products/xxx2cf3-compactflash-hdd-without-using-the-cartridge-port 
• Shahid Kamal Ahmad’s epic thread about his development career, starting with the Atari 8-bit -  https://twitter.com/shahidkamal/status/1436771192892018693?s=20 
• FujiNet wiki enhancements - SpicyJack - AtariAge - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/298720-fujinet-a-wip-sio-network-adapter-for-the-atari-8-bit/page/87/?tab=comments#comment-4922271 
• Player MIssile Podcast released ep #30, 8-bit vs 5200 - https://playermissile.com/ 
• Loading Atari software from a record player
  • https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/10/cargan-juegos-de-atari-8-bits-desde.html?fbclid=IwAR3UGXLCzJqpB8U0MtGrv1Kd5fQqgdEQ-jHZPGEXxA_a8lYx0YGAaf9x7Bw
  • https://atariage.com/forums/topic/325860-im-loading-silent-service-from-a-vinyl-record/ 
• The 100 MHz 6502
  • http://www.e-basteln.de/computing/65f02/65f02/
  • https://atariage.com/forums/topic/326058-accelerated-6502/ 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • VCF East April 22-24: Vintage Computer Festival East , Wall, NJ 
  • VCF West August 6-7: Vintage Computer Festival West , The Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA 
• 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

• “64K ought to be enough for anybody” - Tmp
• • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXE6Ua4Qquw 
  • https://atariage.com/forums/topic/278212-avgcart/page/67/#comments 
• “ATARI 800 XL repair + creating a USB power supply, a video cable & doing the CHROMA Mod” - RETRO is the new black (Wolfgang Kierdorf) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoFpFSrLoxA 
• “Atari 400 48k Ram - Sdrive2 & Uno Cart Tech Demo” - Paul Westphal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLuHPxBIgFk 
• “Stop using the Atari 'Ingot' power supply, Seriously!” - The VintNerd - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMlW0Bk_ueI 

New at Archive.org

• Pokey - French Atari newsletter: 
• • https://archive.org/details/pokey-3 
  • https://archive.org/details/pokey-34 
  • https://archive.org/details/pokey-5 
• Alan Bushman - https://archive.org/details/royal-software-catalog-winter-1982/ 

New at GitHub

• https://github.com/savetz/RAMbrandt 
• Eventure - Let's Write a Roguelike Game in 6502 Assembly on the Atari 8-Bit
• • https://github.com/EdSalisbury/edventure
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whhTuBpkcrY 
• companion code for element14 Presents episode 514: "Making a 3D Graphics Card for the Atari 800 XL" - https://github.com/andy-west/atari800xl-3d 
• Updates to annotated Star Raiders source code - https://github.com/achurch/StarRaiders 
• Tools and utils for the Atari xe 8-bit - https://github.com/pjones1063/atarixe 
• Python command line utility to manage file systems on Atari 8-bit and Apple ][ disk images - https://github.com/robmcmullen/atrcopy 

Listener Feedback

• RealSports Curling - https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=7657

Dave Johnson: Demon Attack, Atlantis; APX Lookahead; Personal Financial Management

Dave Johnson programmed software for the little-known Interact Model One computer, and later worked as  a programmer for Atari, where he created the game Lookahead, which was published by Atari Program Exchange. Lookahead is a fun little strategy board game that you can play against the computer or another human.

We think Dave Johnson programmed the Atari Personal Financial Management System, a slick-looking but buggy home finance package that Atari kept delaying, finally released a year late, then quickly discontinued. Read Bill Lange's blog post for the full story about that program.

After Atari, Dave worked at Imagic, where he programmed the Atari 8-bit versions of the games Demon Attack and Atlantis. There, he also created the game Quick Step! for the Atari 2600.

This interview took place on October 12, 2021. A video version is also available.

AtariMania's list of Dave's Atari 8-bit games

Play or download Lookahead

Lookahead in the fall 1981 APX catalog

Bill Lange research on Atari Personal Financial Management System

Personal Financial Management System at AtariWiki

Interact Model One computer

Dave on Twitter

This interview on YouTube

Margaret (Akin) Guilbault, Atari Camper

Margaret Akin was one of the children who attended Atari's computer camps, and one of the kids who was featured in The Magic Room, Atari's movie about the camps. Her name is now Margaret Guilbault.

Atari ran its summer camps from 1982 through 1984 at several locations around the United States. That first year, Atari commissioned a film about its summer camps, which was filmed at the San Diego location. Margaret attended Atari camp that first year in San Diego, then again in 1983 the Minnesota location.

It turns out Margaret's first year at a computer camp was in 1981, the summer before Atari's first camps. Her first computer camp experience was at Zaca Lake -- near Santa Barbara, California -- hosted by a company called Computer Camp Inc., which used Atari computers.

I talked with Margaret about her experiences at those camps, and taking part in the filming of The Magic Room, on September 12, 2021.

You can watch The Magic room at YouTube and Internet Archive. In previous interviews I've talked with filmmaker Bob Elfstrom; Linda (Gordon) Brownstein, the Atari vice president who oversaw the camp project; and other Atari computer campers.

The Magic Room (18-minute version)

Newspaper article about Computer Camp Inc.'s Zaca Lake camp

ANTIC Interview 419 - Bob Elfstrom, The Magic Room

ANTIC Special Episode - Atari Summer Camp

Eric Podietz, Interactive Picture Systems

Eric Podietz was co-founder of Interactive Picture Systems, a company that created software for 8-bit computers from 1982 through 1984. The company's first program was PAINT! for the Atari 8-bits, which was developed at the Superboots software development lab located at the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, D.C.. PAINT! was first published by Reston then by Atari.

Their next program was Movie Maker, an animation program. Next came three educational titles published by Spinnaker Software: Trains, a business simulation; Grandma's House, a digital dollhouse; and Aerobics, a fitness program. The company also created Operation Frog, simulated frog dissection software for the Apple II and Commodore 64.

This interview took place on September 9, 2021. In it, we discuss Guy Nouri, Ann Lewin-Benham, and Bill Bowman, whom I have previously interviewed.

After the interview, Eric sent me the source code for his early Apple II program Painter Power, which I scanned and uploaded to Internet Archive.

This interview on YouTube

ANTIC Interview 410 - Ann Lewin-Benham, Director of Capital Children's Museum

ANTIC Interview 407 - Guy Nouri, Interactive Picture Systems

ANTIC Interview 278 - Bill Bowman, CEO of Spinnaker Software

Reston Software's Paint manual

The Designers Behind MovieMaker in Compute! Gazette Issue 15

IPS feature in Starlog Magazine Issue 084

Movie Maker feature in Creative Computing April 1984

Painter Power source code

Emma One Sock fabric

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 

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

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

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

This is the second interview episode about Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow.

ANTIC Episode 78 -  The Extremely Elderly Computer Geeks Club

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… We discuss lots of new things you can do with your FujiNet, the differences in FujiNet versions, the Old Computer Geeks Club, and other recent 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 

What We’ve Been Up To

News 

• FujiNet - Astronomy Pic of the Day (APOD) - http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/fujinet-apod/?fbclid=IwAR3gDo6hV8Sgx4fPgcfE-5s0n26Rpe7jD_3O8V-vbAVPbFx5yq2gEzBoLYc by Bill Kendrick 
• Latest Atari Projects - http://atariprojects.org/ 
• • Purchase and Assemble a SpartaDOS X Cartridge (15-30 mins)
  • Explore Demoscene Demos (15-30 mins) 
  • Explore ANALOG Computing Magazine (30-60 mins)
  • Purchase a 3D Printed Case for your SIO2PC (10-15 mins)
• Michael Darland died - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-394-michael-darland-microperipheral-corporation-and-sofcast 
• and John Skruch, Atarisoft:
• • https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-299-john-skruch-atarisoft 
  • https://www.facebook.com/john.skruch 
• Personalized dust covers for the Atari XL series. - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/320047-personalized-dust-covers-for-the-atari-xl-series/ - nowy80 
• Dust covers for 1200XL users - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/318555-good-news-for-1200xl-lovers-new-dust-covers - "papa*nannysfunstuff" 
• Kilobyte Magazine - Jason Worley - https://archive.org/details/@kilobyte_magazine 
• Atari XE PCB Remake Pre-Order Thread - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/319881-atari-xe-remake-pre-order-thread/ 
• Sokoban 2021 http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=8029 
• Old Computer Geeks Club (OCGC) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/atari8bitcomputers/permalink/3918610088176468/ - Monthly meeting 

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

• Spectrum, Commodore, and Atari emulators for Android - IT Guy in Action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX9sj8OoK2Y&t=0s 
• 3D rendering of 800, 810 drive, and Amdek monitor by EmuRetro - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCA5UshDfpY 
• How I built my modern Atari XL computer by GeSpy Build Stuff - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fbeg5dx5CE 
• Atari 800XL: Sophia 2 DVI video upgrade - by Mr. Lurch’s Things - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQyNmJtPrBQ&t=1s 
• Dead Atari 800XL: Fix and Extreme Restoration by FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-IEetUJB1w 
• Atari Fujinet inside a 1030 Modem by Doug Venner - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcmxCWUO2GE 

New at Archive.org

• The "Archives of CSS(tm)" can be found at https://archive.org/details/@cs_stuttgart by DjayBee (Joachim)

ANTIC Interview 417 - Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow

Bob Puff, Computer Software Services

Bob Puff is owner of Computer Software Services, a company that began creating hardware and software for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1982. Bob became president of the company in 1991. He designed a bevy of hardware products for the Atari computers, including The Black Box, a hard drive host adapter; The Multiplexer, a networking system; the UltraSpeed Plus operating system upgrade; upgrades for the XF551 floppy drive; the Super-E Burner EPROM burner; and others. He also created a number of popular utility programs, including the BobTerm terminal program; Disk Communicator, to convert boot disks to a single compressed file for transfer over modem; and MYDOS version 4.53; among other software.

This interview took place on April 27, 2021.

Computer Software Services legacy site

1993 Computer Software Services catalog scan

ANTIC Interview 393 - Charles Marslett, MYDOS and FastChip

Valerie (Atkinson) Manfull, Atari Game Research Group

Valerie Atkinson was a member of Atari's Game Research Group. Now named Valerie Manfull, she was on the team that designed and programmed the game Excalibur, along with Chris Crawford and Larry Summers. Excalibur was published by Atari Program Exchange in fall 1983. She is also one of the programmes of Ballsong, along with Douglas Crockford. Ballsong is a music and graphics demo program released by Atari, in which a ball bounces on the screen in response to an improvised tune. She was one of the programmers, with Ann Marion, of TV Fishtank, a demonstration of an artificially intelligent fish. (It's unclear if the fishtank program was released anywhere, though it apparently was shown at the 1984 SIGgraph conference.)

This interview took place on April 22, 2021.

ANTIC Episode 4 - Chris Crawford

ANTIC Interview 240 - Douglas Crockford

TV Fishtank at SIGgraph

Jim Leiterman describes TV Fishtank

Chris Crawford describes the development of Excalibur in The Art of Computer Game Design

Excalibur announced in Atari Program Exchange, fall 1983

Excalibur review in Atari Connection

Excalibur at AtariMania

Video of Ballsong

ANTIC Episode 77 - Jason Moore, PhD 

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Jason Moore joins us to discuss his atariprojects.org Web site and we discuss all the news rocking the Atari 8-bit world...

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

• Ed Fries source code, mac/65 tokenized: 
• • https://github.com/savetz/edfries-seachase
  • https://github.com/savetz/edfries-anteater
  • https://github.com/savetz/edfries-frog
  • https://github.com/savetz/edfries-nitro 
  • https://github.com/savetz/edfries-chess (Xuel got it working at https://atariage.com/forums/topic/318961-assembly-source-code-for-5-programs-by-ed-fries/?do=findComment&comment=4799922 
• Prentice Associates Classroom Computer News and Apple II source code disks. Classroom computer news - https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Intentional+Educations%22&sort=-publicdate 

News 

• FrogFind! http://frogfind.com/ - The Search Engine for Vintage Computers 
• AtariAge thread on FrogFind! - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/319514-new-websites-for-your-old-computers/ 
• Atari Projects - Jason Moore does it again! - http://atariprojects.org/ 
• US based Amiga store, AmigaOnTheLake, has branched out into wider retro territory and now includes multiple Atari 8-bit items - http://amigaonthelake.com/atari-8-bit/ 
• ABBUC (Atari Bit Byter User Club) Website is down until further notice due to a hackers attack - https://vintageisthenewold.com/abbuc-atari-bit-byter-user-club-website-is-down-until-further-notice-due-to-a-hackers-attack/ 
• 10-line BASIC contest results
• • https://gkanold.wixsite.com/homeputerium/results-2021 
  • Table of entries https://twitter.com/romwer/status/1378364035607977984?s=20 
• ABBUC 2021 Software Contest - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/319869-abbuc-software-contest-2021/ 
• 8-Bit Dungeon which is being created with the 8-Bit Unity platform has a tech demo out - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/04/descarga-demo-jugable-de-8bit-dungeon.html 
• TCL language - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/269553-test-computer-language-version-22-from-d-firth/?tab=comments#comment-4807575 
• ABBUC magazine #144 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/319736-abbuc-magazine-144/ 
• Bill Kendrick transcribed 1982 Byte magazine article Advanced Star Raiders Tactics and Strategies - http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/star-raiders/advanced-star-raiders-tactics-and-strategies.html 
• Issue 32 of Atari User Magazine is available - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/04/atari-y-c64-se-enfrentan-en-nuevo.html 

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 
  • 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 , Chicago area
  • 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

• CROSS HORDE =+ ATARI 800 XL += NEW GAME 2021 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcc4TtB1e9U - Atari 8 Bits For Ever 
• MOON CRESTA !!! ATARI 800 XL - VBXE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmH7_1hFGA&t=42s - Atari 8 Bits For Ever
• Atari 800XL Music - "Return of Atarians" - On Real Hardware (( IN STEREO )) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jHQaT1Ei28 - Paul Westphal
• Retropie 4.6 Atari 5200 Tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTZCK5EX5AA - Ace1000ks1975
• Atari 800 - NOS Keyboard and Reassembly - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K-JRvFzci8 - ShadowTron Blog

New at Archive.org

• https://archive.org/details/zongmagazine
• Atari Playing David To The Giants - https://archive.org/details/atari-playing-david-to-the-giants
• GRASSHOPPER — A Low-Level Language for Use on the MOS 6502 Microcomputer - https://archive.org/details/grasshopper-6502

Linda Brownstein, Atari VP Special Projects

As I've researched Atari and it's 8-bit computer projects over the years, one name has come up over and over again, attached to the most interesting projects. Linda S. Gordon. Executive Director of Atari Computer Camps. Linda. Executive Producer of The Magic Room, Atari's movie about its camps. Atari's collaboration with Club Med to offer computer labs at vacation destinations — Linda again. Atari Club, the fan group that published Atari Age magazine - Linda launched that. More recently, in my interview with Ann Lewin-Benham of the Capital Children's Museum, Linda's name came up once again -- she was the liaison between Atari and the museum. Linda worked on the most interesting projects.

Today, her name is Linda Brownstein. Linda joined Atari in December 1980 as Vice President of Special Projects, where she worked on most of  the projects that I mentioned before. In October 1983 she became Senior Vice President in Atari's  Education group. She left the company in July 1984 after Jack Tramiel took over the company.

This interview took place on April 21, 2021.

ANTIC Interview 78 - Manny Gerard, The Man Who Fired Nolan

ANTIC Special Episode - Atari Summer Camp

ANTIC Interview 410 - Ann Lewin-Benham, Capital Children's Museum

ANTIC Interview 185 - Ted Kahn

Atari Computer Camps — The Magic Room

Video version of this interview

Mark Simonson, Atari Artist and Font Designer

Mark Simonson used his Atari computers who create art that was published in magazines in the 1980s, including a portrait of Nolan Bushnell that was commissioned by TWA Ambassador, an inflight magazine; a colorful street scene for the cover of Minnesota Monthly, the magazine of Minnesota Public Radio; and a juggler for the cover of Credit Union Advantage magazine, among others.

Professionally, Mark is a font designer. He created Atari Classic, a free TrueType font family for modern computers that looks like the Atari 8-bit screen font. Today, you'll see Atari Classic used in many Atari emulators, web sites, the WUDSN IDE, and elsewhere.

This interview took place on April 15, 2021.

Mark's Atari reminisce blog post

Mark's Mac/Atari Fusion site

Mark's Nolan Bushnell portrait in Hi-Res Magazine Issue 1

A wild Mark appears on AtariAge

FujiNet

This interview on YouTube

Ann Lewin-Benham, Director of Capital Children's Museum

Ann Lewin-Benham was executive director of the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, D.C. The museum was home to the first public-access computer center in the nation’s capital, and indeed, one of the first in the United States. In 1981, Atari and Apple each donated dozens of computers to the museum. The exact number is unclear, but 30 is the number I've seen most often for Atari's contribution.

The computer lab was called The Future Center. There, the museum offered computer literacy classes for people of all ages, from Compu-Tots for preschoolers, to programming classes for adults, there was even a computer literacy session for members of Congress. It also used the lab for birthday parties. (Last year, I interviewed a woman who had her 8th birthday party at the museum.) The museum used more of its computers in its exhibit on communication. It established a software development laboratory, called Superboots, in which developers created custom softare for the museum, and one product that was released commercially: the graphics program PAINT!

In a 1982 article titled A Day At The Capital Children's Museum, Melanie Graves described the scene:

"My twelve-year-old friend Sarah and I went to the museum to explore the computers. There are several dozen computers scattered throughout the building which are used for exhibits, classroom teaching and the development of educational software...

A machine that calls itself "Wisecracker" is the noisest of the computers that beckon visitors to the Communication exhibit. "My-name- is-Wise-crack-er," it says in a monotone, "Come-type-to-me." This message repeats endlessly until someone types at the keyboard or turns off the computer. "Hello, how are you?" Sarah typed, and pressed the return key. "Hel-lo-how-are-you," the machine’s voice responded. Sarah typed for awhile longer and then proclaimed, "It sure is dumb, but its voice is kind of cute."

The computer next to Wisecracker has a data base program that asked Sarah her name, where she came from, and other questions. It informed her that she was the thirty-seventh person from Virginia to type in data that day... "Fifty-five percent of the people who came here were girls," she told me. Next to the data base, a computer is set up with a music program. Sarah pressed some random keys, causing notes to sound. At the same time, the letter names of the notes appeared on the keys of a piano that was displayed on the screen.

There is also a Teletext terminal that tells inquirers about weather predictions, and news releases, the latest acquisitions at the public library, local cultural events and whatever else has been entered into the data base for that day...

After playing with Teletext, Sarah and I went to the Future Center, a room equipped with twenty Atari 800s. On weekdays, the classroom is available to school groups ranging from prekindergarten to high school. On weekends, families arrive for courses in programming. Classes have also been created for working people, senior citizens, community groups, congressional spouses and other special interest groups. This summer more than sixty students from the Washington, D.C. public schools attended one of two free month-long computer camps at the museum."

This interview took place on April 2, 2021.

Ann's web site

Museum in Atari ConnectionVolume 1 Number 4

A Day At The Capital Children's Museum

ANTIC Episode 76 - The Bill Kendrick Show

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Bill Kendrick gets more mentions than when he’s on the show, Kay discovers he owns more Atari disk drives than the rest of the Atari community combined, and we discuss all the news rocking the Atari 8-bit world.

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

• Worms? Source code archiving - https://github.com/savetz/worms 
• Atari Speed Reading Receipts - https://archive.org/details/atari-speed-reading-receipts 

News 

• 800XL PCB remake:
• • https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-pcb-soldering-and-troubleshooting
  • https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-bill-materials-bom
  • https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-pcb-remake
• ATasm, a command-line based 6502 cross-assembler that's compatible with OSS's 1982 "Mac/65" macroassembler:
• • SourceForge page - https://sourceforge.net/projects/atasm/ 
  • The documentation - https://sourceforge.net/p/atasm/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/atasm.txt#l54 
• Atari Projects - Jason Moore does it again! - http://atariprojects.org/ 
• • Learn about Vertical Blank Interrupts in BASIC for Atari 8-Bit Computers (30-60 mins)
  • Read “How Atari took on Apple in the 1980s home PC wars” by Benj Edwards (5-10 mins) 
• Atari Flashback X with Atari Computer Games - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2021/03/pack-con-mas-de-130-juegos-para-consola.html
• Paul Nicholls’ Coded Snippets Cookbook - 6502 edition - https://syntaxerrorsoftware.itch.io/code-snippets-cookbook-6502-edition 
• Atari Giant - http://atarigiant.com/ - Web site store that caters to Atari 8-bit 
• Pro(c) issue 15 - https://proc-atari.de/en/proc-atari-magazine/proc-atari-issue-15-softcover-book-edition 
• USB Keyboard Interface available from Lotharek - https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=311 
• Belts for 1050 - https://console5.com/store/fabric-reinforced-belt-for-atari-1050-tandon-tm100-4p-floppy-drive.html 
• Atari Compendium Website - Mostly 2600, with a smattering of computer - http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/controllers/controllers.html 
• Gem Drop Deluxe - Bill Kendrick - http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/gemdrop_deluxe/ 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • VCFSE August 20-22 http://southernfriedgameroomexpo.com/ 
  • KansasFest July 23-24 https://www.kansasfest.org ; virtual event 
  • PRGE - cancelled 
  • August 7 & 8, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival West 2021 (VCF West) 
  • October 8, 9, 10, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East 2021 (VCF East) 
• 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 real fight Atari versus Commodore - IT Guy in Action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFhAX9gijXY 
• Atari 800 - Part 2 - Replacing Electrolytic Capacitors - ShadowTron Blog - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-dgDZ4MJYM 
• NEW IMPROVED VERSION EN Atari 8-bit emulator (Atari800 emulator) - IT Guy in Action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoONYg8Yehs 
• Gem Drop Deluxe! (Atari 800) - ArcadeUSA (William Culver) - Programmed by Bill Kendrick - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SNvh88SiW4 
• Also Gem Drop Deluxe! video by Atari 8 Bits For Ever - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HBQOjnBKu8 
• Gem Drop Deluxe! blog by Bill Kendrick - http://newbreedsoftware.com/gemdrop_deluxe/?fbclid=IwAR3VrwTV4-XAVd-S1exD5EiDdMhy0CQtRZIWBH8oqkfGqTVUJzWva3aE94M 
• Quarter Express - 256 bytes intro for Atari XL/XE by Ilmenit / Agenda - For Lovebyte party 2021, "Low-End 256 byte intro compo" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UKnPHhKaFg 
• Atari 800 XL Lite Rally Motorcycle racing game - The Modern Atari 8bit Computer (Nir Dary) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnG43ooEHtE 

New at Archive.org

• Pigeons at Internet Archive Scholar. Several researchers tested pigeons' perception and visual ability using Atari 800 computers. A dozen papers dated 1983-1993 - https://scholar.archive.org/search?q=%22atari+800%22+pigeons&sort_order=time_desc 
• Atari HQ Archive #1 -  https://archive.org/details/atari-hq-archive-1 
• Allan Bushman:
• • Your First Atari Program by Rodnay Zaks https://archive.org/details/your-first-atari-program-rodnay-zaks
  • Software Merchandising magazine, January, 1983 https://archive.org/details/software-merchandising-january-1983/
  • Current Notes magazines 1994-1995 https://archive.org/details/current-notes-volume-15-number-1-january-february-1995
  • Portland Atari Club newsletters 1994-1995 https://archive.org/details/portland-atari-club-january-1985 
  • Adventure International's Airline manual https://archive.org/details/airline-adventure-international/page/n19/mode/2up 

Commercial

• Touch Me By Atari (Commercial, 1979) - https://archive.org/details/touch-me-by-atari-commercial-1979 

New at Github 

• Atari 800 Soundbox https://github.com/zbyti/atari800-soundbox 
• ATARI XE Replacement Keyboard https://github.com/gianlucarenzi/A130KB_MX 
• XEGS-DS https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/XEGS-DS 
• • Also A5200DS https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS
• Atari800-Display-Lists https://github.com/pedromagician/Atari800-Display-Lists 
• Atari 1090XL expansion box remake https://github.com/kenames99/1090
• Atari800-benchmarks https://github.com/pedromagician/Atari800-benchmarks
• Micview https://github.com/tschak909/micview
• Turbo Decoder https://github.com/baktragh/turbodecoder
• MidiJoy https://github.com/fredlcore/MidiJoy 
• USB_to_RS232 Connector https://github.com/pjones1063/USB_to_RS232#usb_to_rs232-connector-usbmodem 

Listener Feedback 

• Vegas 1988 World of Atari show - https://archive.org/details/WorldOfAtariConventionLasVegas1998/ 

Closing

• END OF SHOW MUSIC: Donnie Iris and the Cruisers - Do You Compute? (1983) - music video featuring an Atari 1200XL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Rjyu_4HzI 

ANTIC Interview 408 - David Maynard, Electronic Arts Worms?

David Maynard created the game/simulation "Worms?" Published by Electronic Arts in 1983, it was a launch title -- one of the five initial releases from the company. David, one of EA's first employees, wrote Worms? for the Atari 8-bit in FORTH. It was later ported to the Commodore 64.

Worms is an interactive version of Paterson's Worms, a family of cellular automata devised in 1971 by Mike Paterson and John Conway. It is an unusual program, in which the player teaches wormlike creatures how to move on a hexagonal grid -- what direction to move in various situations. The worm's goal is to to grow and survive, and to capture more space on the grid than its competitors. Up to four worms could play simultaneously, with any combination of human- and computer-controlled worms.

But the program's manual didn't tell you all that straight off. In fact, here's the first thing you saw after opening the package: "You will find detailed instructions enclosed. Do not read them. Instead, sit down and get started. Don't ask how. Just start. You know how these things work... Resist them. Do not read them for a very long time. In fact, do not read them until you know how the game works... Then never read the instructions. Innocence is bliss."

David also collaborated on Cut & Paste, a word processor published by Electronic Arts in 1984.

After our interview, David sent me a binder of Worms? development documentation and source code for Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64, all of which I have scanned and are available at Internet Archive and GitHub. The originals are going to the Strong Museum of Play, at David's request.

This interview took place on March 4, 2021.

Worms? source code for Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64

Scans of printed Worms? source code

Worms? Development Notes

David's blog

Worms? at AtariMania

Michael Beeler's original Paterson's Worms paper

Martin Gardner's article in Scientific American

Darworms, Javascript version of Worms?

Darworms instructions and explanation

More Paterson's worm math

EA We See Farther poster 

This interview at YouTube 

Atari at the Science Fair: Michael Fripp: Silent E

An article was published in the Daily Press newspaper of Newport News, Virginia on February 13 1985, titled "Best in Show at Science Fair: Computer program helps young readers conquer the 'silent e' challenge'.

Two years ago Michael Fripp wanted to make sure his younger brother didn't face a hard time learning how to deal with the "silent e" principle in reading lessons. Putting his own Atari computer to work, Michael developed a fun, educational computer program designed to teach then 6-year-old Daniel how to successfully pronounce words like "cap," "tub" and "man" when an "e" is added to each.

"I remember the trouble I had with 'silent e' and didn't want him to have that trouble," says 13-year-old Michael, an eighth grader at Queens Lake Intermediate School. "There are lots of math but few English programs for computers. I hope to bridge that gap."

Michael went on to expand the "silent e" program, complete with more detailed instruction and graphics, through his computer science class at school and entered it as an exhibit in the York County Science Fair. Michael's educational reading program — "Silent E: A Program for K-3" — was judged best in show.

"We were pleased and surprised a computer program was picked because usually the judges pick pure science," says Carolyn Gaertner, who teaches math and computer science at the intermediate school.

Michael's computer program involves a simple story outline about an earthling named Tim and his spaceship landing on the planet EOP which is ruled by the Silent E's. There, Tim learns how the Silent E's simply and quickly turn words such as "pan" into "pane" with the addition of their favorite letter...

He has copyrighted the program and hopes to market it commercially. More than 100 hours of work have gone into the project...

"Computers are like a fever; they grow on you," says the young man. "I try to do a lot of programming at home but homework really limits me."

The large photograph accompanying the article shows young Michael, replete with calculator watch, in front of an Apple II computer, not an Atari.

I talked with Dr. Fripp to hear all about his program.

This interview took place on February 28, 2021.

Intro song: Silent E by Tom Lehrer

Heidi Brumbaugh, Antic and START Magazines

Heidi Brumbaugh worked at Antic Publishing, where she started off as editorial clerk, then was promoted to editorial assistant, for both Antic magazine and START magazine, then was programs editor for START Magazine. She wrote many articles for Antic and START, including three programs for the 8-bits published in Antic: Red, White and Blue, a board game; Hot and Cold, a Master Mind-type game; and Antic Prompter, a teleprompter application.

She met her husband through Antic publishing, START author and programmer Jim Kent, who also created the Cyber Paint program for Atari ST.

This interview took place on February 28, 2021.

List of Antic articles by Heidi Brumbaugh

List of START articles by Heidi Brumbaugh

Heidi's programs at Atarimania

Heidi's review of Linkword Languages

Cyber Paint by Jim Kent

2013 Interview with Jim Capparell, Founder of Antic Magazine

Atari at the Science Fair: Scott Ryder: Atari-Controlled Robot

Here's an article from The Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) dated April 15, 1982: "Science proves Fair game to young minds".

"Joseph Paul Ogas, 17, has designed a cheaper way to manipulate material beneath a microscope. Garey Nishimura, 13, has evaluated the relative flammability of several household fabrics. Theirs were the big winners among the 693 projects that filled the Fresno Convention Center Exhibit Hall for this year’s California Central Valley Science and Engineering Fair.

"There were other interesting projects that didn’t win big [such as]
'The Effects of Birth Control Pills on Plants,' and 'Determining the Correlation Between Canine Howling, Cockroach Activity and Earthquake Prediction'."

And later -- in the article's final paragraph, the reason for this interview: "Runners up [included] Scott Ryder, a sixth-grader at Ayer Elementary School: "Can an Atari 800 Control a Robot With Software?"

Can an Atari 800 control a robot with software? And if so, why did an awesome Atari-controlled robot only earn a runner-up award at the Science and Engineering Fair? I talked with Scott to find out.

This interview took place on February 21, 2021.

ANTIC Episode 75 - Video Wars

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… we discuss the merits of Sophia vs. VBXE for video upgrades, kick off the BASIC 10-liners contest, discuss some new games, and talk about numerous hardware upgrades that are coming.

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

• Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games - https://amzn.to/3k8avzS 
• Code for Atari8BitBot (https://twitter.com/atari8bitbot) now on GitHub - (https://github.com/savetz/Atari8BitBot) 
• PC BASIC Bot - https://pcbasicbot.com 
• ACE80XL cart - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/ 
• Interview with Claus Buckholz and Lance Ward - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-292-claus-buchhoz-lance-ward-ace-80 in 2017 

Recent Interviews 

• https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-403-dan-kramer-atari-trak-ball-controllers 
• https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-special-episode-my-atari-by-suzanne-ciani 

News 

• External version of Ultimate1MB for Atari XL/XE under development by Sebastian 'Candle`o`Sin' Bartkowicz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Rx20IQ94UuU&fbclid=IwAR0gZj99WWBTq1EDMLK5yUkmpTqa51-f7dLwighOuZUqjIRr-HU0Pjwn8Q8 
• Atari800MacX emulator update - https://github.com/atarimacosx/Atari800MacX/releases/tag/Release_6.0.0 
• Atari Projects: http://atariprojects.org/ - Jason Moore - latest project is on using Atari FastBASIC.  Also recent projects on using CP/M through FujiNet, and the ACE80 carts. 
• Version 6.0.0 of the RECOIL graphics browser from Atari computers and others has been released - http://recoil.sourceforge.net 
• BASIC 10-Liner Contest 2021:
• • https://gkanold.server.deerpower.de/
  • https://twitter.com/Basic10L 
• MouSTer for Atari 8-bit:
• • https://hackaday.com/2020/07/14/modern-mice-on-old-computers/
  • https://retrohax.net/shop/amiga/mouster/ 
  • https://retrohax.net/shop/ 
• Thingiverse Atari 800 Pi case - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3110334 
• Atari Homebrew Awards - BINARIES, INSTRUCTIONS & PACKAGING 
• New game Albert by kski:
• • http://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=nowinki&ucat=1&subaction=showfull&id=1613313216
  • https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=atari+800&sp=CAISBAgEEAE%253D 
• Atari 800 / Sophia-2 Install by Faicuai:
• • https://atariage.com/forums/topic/317398-atari-800-sophia-2-install-letting-antic-and-gtia-be-the-best-they-can-be/ 
  • https://thebrewingacademy.com/products/sophia-2-dvi-output-gtia-replacement?variant=32256340164710 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • VCFSE June 11-13 http://southernfriedgameroomexpo.com/ 
  • KansasFest July 23-24 https://www.kansasfest.org ; virtual event 
  • August 7 & 8, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival West 2021 (VCF West) 
  • October 8, 9, 10, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East 2021 (VCF East) 
• 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 800 VBXE installation - gyorka (Candle o Sin) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=CvoUvU4AFEc&fbclid=IwAR0GQZIvUSN3-cwGnMR0tZSIZ9xTpoGAvkkvN-t7M1zMVJsLSVVydqk-6qk 
• zxEmu and 8bit Atari (Rapidus, Ultimate 1MB, VBXE) - nowy80Retro - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzrXcf-WBXA 
• Dingux-atari, new Atari 800 and Atari 5200 emulator for Miyoo consoles - silvacam - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXJ2Ekv7KiY 
• Back to the Future Java (b2fJ) - Eduardo Ahumada Gallardo:
• • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQllSZyGrjI 
  • Download - https://github.com/mzattera/b2fJ/releases/latest 
• Polish games for Atari 8-bit developed after 2000 - https://youtu.be/GQQR7Xy-nTk 

New at Archive.org

• Hobbit, Dutch computer magazine, March 1983 - https://archive.org/details/HOBBIT_1983_0003/mode/2up 
• Paul Daniels:
• • Video - https://archive.org/details/twitter-710542070373429248 
  • Paul Daniels' Magic Adventure - http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-paul-daniels--magic-adventure_3906.html 
• Allan Bushman: Strategic Simulations, Inc's Fall 1987/Winter 1988 Catalog - https://archive.org/details/strategic-simulations-inc-catalog-fall-87-winter-88-catalog/mode/2up 

Dan Kramer, Atari Trak-Ball Controllers

Dan Kramer worked at Atari from 1980 to 1984 in the consumer engineering group where he created products for the home computers and home video games. He championed the creation of the Trak-Ball accessories for the Atari game consoles and computers, and received a patent for his digital-to-analog interface for the Atari 5200 trak-ball. He also worked on the French (SECAM) version of the Atari XL computers, the Atari 2700, and various other projects.

This interview took place on December 18, 2020.

Playing Catch-Up: Dan Kramer (2005 interview): https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/97175/Playing_CatchUp_Dan_Kramer.php

Patent: Digital-analog conversion for shaft encoders: https://patents.justia.com/patent/4496936

Video version of this interview at YouTube: https://youtu.be/l0E6BCrhka0

ANTIC Episode 74 - Name Wars

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… Kevin (er... Kay) and Randy have a name fight and, as usual, we bring you all the Atari 8-bit news that’s fit to print.

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

• Atari Party Dec 19 - https://www.facebook.com/groups/281252672436874 
• Kay’s 2020 Post-Mortem - https://www.patreon.com/posts/2020-post-mortem-45658000 
• Retrotink zero-latency HDMI converter - https://www.retrotink.com/product-page/2x-mini 
• Sid Meier’s Memoir - https://amzn.to/3oyobG4 
• BASIC games Kay recovered - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/315354-a-few-basic-games-i-recovered/ 
• SIO2PC-USB case - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/product/sio2pc-universal-interface-case , https://atariage.com/forums/topic/313161-atarimax-sio2pc-and-sio2pc-usb-cases/#comments 

Recent Interviews 

• ANTIC Interview 401 - John F. White: Writing Strategy Games On Your Atari Computer & Superquerg 
• ANTIC Interview 402 - The Famous Computer Cafe 

News 

• Fractalus 1.0 Released - https://www.lsdwa.com/blog/2020/12/18/fractalus-1-0-released/ 
• ACE80 cart run at Vintage Computer Center - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/312362-ace80-ace80xl-dt80-pre-order/ 
• Tfhh list - http://www.van-radecke.de/STUFF/tfhh_HW_info.pdf 
• Mystery cart - https://www.facebook.com/groups/floppydays/permalink/2840376299554125/ 
• Fresh interview with Mark Reid, Author of Getaway - https://www.everythingamiga.com/2021/01/a-conversation-with-mark-reid-author-of-getaway.html 
• Rob’s 2016 interview with Mark - http://playermissile.com/podcast/ep019.html 
• A-Train Systems A-TRACK - model railroad electronics and control - https://www.a-train-systems.co.uk/getatrack.htm 
• History and Features of the Original Atari A-TRACK Version - https://www.a-train-systems.co.uk/projects.htm#atHistory 
• 'FLOP' Magazine - http://flop.atariportal.cz/index.en.php 
• Atari800MacX v5.5.0 - https://github.com/atarimacosx/Atari800MacX/releases/tag/Release_5.5.0 
• Authentic Reproduction ATR8000 Interest - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/312890-authentic-reproduction-atr8000-interest/#comments 
• Invitation to play in the new season of the HSC, first round starting now! - http://atariage.com/forums/forum/60-8-bit-high-score-club/ 
• Real 16KB RAM game compo from Sikor Soft - Sikor on AtariAge - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/315158-real-16kb-ram-game-compo-from-sikor-soft/ 
• Atari 8-bit on hackaday - https://hackaday.com/2020/12/30/alien-inspired-cyberdeck-packs-vintage-atari-800xl/ 
• https://github.com/eizen6/6502portable 
• AspeQt on a Raspberry Pi how-to - https://13leader.net/AspeQT2RasPI.pdf 
• Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry Paperback – December 14, 2020 by Howard Scott Warshaw - https://amzn.to/3mjSC0u 
• http://www.atariwomen.org 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • April 9, 10 & 11, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East 2021 (VCF East) 
  • VCFSE June 11-13 http://southernfriedgameroomexpo.com/ 
  • KansasFest July 19-25 https://www.kansasfest.org 
  • August 7 & 8, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival West 2021 (VCF West) 
• 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 Quirks and Solutions - Thomas Cherryhomes - https://youtu.be/3lPsd0FkNss 
• Thomas Cherryhomes - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwP6ehTJXvcI-JOWTEwnyGQ U1MB and SpartaDOS X with FujiNet and a whole series of videos around FujiNet
• FujiNet Disk Copy - Vintage Computer Center (Gavin Haubelt) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YovR3mrCmQ0&t=731s 
• Building the FujiNet - Vintage Computer Center - Parts 1-5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqKOGyEjYec 
• SDrive-Max videos - Vintage Computer Center - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOp5f6eC-yh4cLnxfw2yrxQ 
• FlashJazzCat (Jonathan Halliday) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4nx-i-2K34RDHyDn06i7Ng Atari XEGS with UAV, VBXE, U1MB, and PokeyMAX, Various videos on repairing and upgrading a 600XL

New at GitHub

• https://github.com/codingbychanche/atariParallelDataTransfer 
• Bill Lange’s Exploring Atari Action https://github.com/billlange1968/ExploringAtariAction to accompany https://exploringaction.blogspot.com 

New at Archive.org

• New collection “Atari Computer Disk Images” https://archive.org/details/ataridiskimages 
• Antic magazine renewal letters https://archive.org/details/1986.07-antic-renewal https://archive.org/details/1986.05-antic-renewal 
• https://archive.org/details/rearc_atr-8000-newsletter-august-1984-08-swp-inc-us/mode/2up 
• Chalk Board Inc's Power Pad Programming Kit manual https://archive.org/details/power-pad-programming-kit-chalk-board-inc/mode/2up 
• Strategic Simulations, Inc. Spring, 1987 Catalog https://archive.org/details/strategic-simulations-inc-spring-1987/mode/2up
• Atari Home Computer Products Premium  Incentive Confidential Price List https://archive.org/details/atari-home-computer-products-1-1-82/mode/2up 

Feedback

• Adam Trionfo video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJcftw31VQw
• a nice tweet we got - https://twitter.com/dneedham8302/status/1335755648278155267?s=21 

Possible side effects of listening to the Antic podcast include stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat; drowsiness, dizziness, feeling nervous; mild nausea, upset stomach, constipation; increased appetite, weight changes; insomnia, decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm; dry mouth, intense hate of Commodore, and Amiga lust. Certain conditions apply. Offer good for those with approved credit. Member FDIC. An equal housing lender. 

The Famous Computer Cafe

This is a podcast episode featuring three interviews with people who created a radio show that did hundreds of interviews.

The Famous Computer Cafe was -- not a restaurant -- but a radio program that aired from 1983 through the first quarter of 1986. The program included computer news, product reviews, and interviews.

The program was created by three people — who were not only the on-air voices, but did all the work around the program: getting advertisers, buying air time, researching each day's computer news, booking interviews -- everything. Those three people were Andrew Velcoff, Michael Walker (now Michael FireWalker), and Ellen Fead Hansen (later Ellen Walker, now Ellen Fields.) For this episode of Antic, I got to talk with all three of The Famous Computer Cafe's proprietors.

There were several versions of the show, which aired on several radio stations, primarily in California. A live, daily half-hour version allowed phone calls from listeners. Taped versions (running a half-hour and up to two hours) also aired daily. The show started in 1983 on two stations in the Los Angeles area: KFOX 93.5 FM and KIEV 870 AM. In 1985 it began airing in the California Bay Area: on KXLR 1260 AM in San Francisco and KCSM 91.1 FM in San Matro, and KSDO 1130 AM in San Diego.

Also in 1985 a nationally syndicated, half-hour non-commercial version of The Famous Computer Cafe was available via satellite to National Public Radio stations around the United States, though it's not clear today which stations ran it.

To me, the most exciting thing about the show was the interviews. The list of people that the show interviewed is a who's-who of tech luminaries of the early 1980s.  But not just computer people: they interviewed anyone whose work was touched by personal computer technology. musicians, professors, publishers, philosophers, journalists, astrologers.

The cafe aired interviews with Philip Estridge, the IBM vice president who was responsible for developing the PC; Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates; Atari Chairman Jack Tramiel; Bill Atkinson, developer of MacPaint; Infocom's Joel Berez; Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek; musician Herbie Hancock; Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts; author Douglas Adams; Stewart Brand, editor of the Whole Earth Catalog; psychologist Timothy Leary; science fiction writer Ray Bradbury; synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog; and pop star Donny Osmond. The list goes on and on and on. By mid-1985, the show had run more than 300 half-hour interviews.

Here's the bad news. Those episodes, those interviews, are lost. Today, a recording of only one Cafe episode is known to exist. That show, which aired January 2, 1986, includes an interview with Rich Gold, creator of the Activision simulation Little Computer People; a call-in from tech journalist John Dvorak; and commercials for Elephant Floppy Disks and Microsoft Word. The entire 29-minute episode is available at Internet Archive, with the gracious permission of the show's creators. It's an amazing time capsule -- which survived because Rich Gold, interviewed on the program, saved a cassette of that show. Perhaps, somewhere, there are hundreds more episodes waiting to be re-discovered — if someone has the recordings. If you do, contact me at antic@ataripodcast.com.

The good news is that transcripts of six interviews do exist (and are now online): Timothy Leary, Donny Osmond, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky; Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series; Tom Mahon, author of Charged Bodies; and Jack Nilles, head of the University of Southern California Center for Futures Research.

Check this episode's show notes, at AtariPodcast.com, for links to the one episode, the six transcripts, and the cool Famous Computer Cafe logo.

You'll hear the interviews in the order in which I recorded them. First up is Michael FireWalker, then Ellen Fields, then Andrew Velcoff.

The interview with Michael FireWalker took place on May 27, 2020. The interview with Ellen Fields took place on June 1, 2020. The interview with Andrew Velcoff took place on July 3, 2020.

Special thanks to fellow researcher Devin Monnens, and the Department of Special Collections at Stanford University.

This podcast used excerpts from the one The Famous Computer Cafe episode that is known to exist. That episode, now available at Internet Archive, was digitized by Stanford University (the physical tape is in their special collections located in the Stanford Series 9 of the Rich Gold Collection (M1510), Box 2.)

If you have any other recordings of any Famous Computer Cafe episodes, please contact me at antic@ataripodcast.com.

The Famous Computer Cafe 1986-01-02 episode

The Famous Computer Cafe interview transcripts

The Famous Computer Cafe ads, photos, articles

ANTIC Episode 73 - Randy’s Personality Board

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… we have a ton of Christmas gift ideas for that Atari nerd in your life (even if that nerd is you); we find out Randy has a broken personality board; and we bring you the Atari 8-bit news to fill out your life.

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

• https://twitter.com/Atari8BitBot 

Recent Interviews 

• ANTIC Interview 400 - Suzanne Ciani, pioneer in electronic music - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-400-suzanne-ciani-pioneer-in-electronic-music 

News 

• River Raid “Cold Winter” for the Atari XL/XE
• • Article at Vintage is the New Old - https://vintageisthenewold.com/river-raid-cold-winter-for-the-atari-xl-xe-a-new-take-on-a-classic-game-that-goes-beyond-a-simple-rom-hack/ 
  • short video as a teaser: https://youtu.be/CnviviXT6wg 
  • Download: AtariOnline.pl 
• Pokey Explorer POKEY explorer - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/313338-pokey-explorer-v11-release/ and https://github.com/ivop/pokey-explorer 
• atarimacosx Version Release_5.4.0 - https://github.com/atarimacosx/Atari800MacX/releases/ 
• New software coming for the Atari 8-bit at AtariAge - https://mobile.twitter.com/atariage/status/1324466917051113472/photo/2 - 2 new games for Atari 8 Bit computers in the AtariAge Store later this month: Adventure II XE and Scramble! 
• Inverse ATASCII Season 6 podcast - https://inverseatascii.info/ 
• Chicken Missile Podcast https://chickenmissile.com 
• Michael Sternberg got Magic Castle working:
• • https://github.com/michaelsternberg/magic-castle 
  • ANTIC Interview 375 - Bruce May, Unreleased Magic Castle Game - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-375-bruce-may-unreleased-magic-castle-game 
• ABBUC 2020 Software Contest Winners - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/304311-atari-8-bit5200-homebrew-completedwip-in-2020/?do=findComment&comment=4678322 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • December 19, 2020: Atari Party (Bill Lange), virtual - https://t.co/uAEmMqlZz2?amp=1 
  • April 9, 10 & 11, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East 2021 (VCF East)
  • June 11-13, 2021: http://southernfriedgameroomexpo.com/ 
  • August 7 & 8, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival West 2021 (VCF West) 
• 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/ 

Christmas Gift Ideas

• Atari 1020 Tissue Box - https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/911472311/atari-1020-tissue-paper-box?ref=cart 
• buy or build a FujiNet https://fujinet.online/shop/ don’t forget about $5 off coupon at http://www.vintagecomputercenter.com Coupon code:“antic5”, limit 1 per person and only good for the FujiNet. No expiration
• Atari face mask - https://www.etsy.com/listing/840113927/atari-face-mask 
• ABBUC membership - http://www.abbuc.de/mitgliedschaft/mitglied-werden 
• SDrive Max - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/product/atari-1050-sdrive-max 
• ArcadeR Joystick - https://retroradionics.co.uk/#!/ArcadeR-9-pin-ATARI-standard-Joystick/p/168982750/category=0 
• Atari XL/XE 5-Pin DIN S-Video & Composite AV Cable - https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/atari-xlxe-5-pin-din-to-s-video-composite-av-cable/ 
• RetroTink2X Pro -  https://www.retrotink.com/product-page/retrotink-2x-pro or RT2xMini https://www.retrotink.com/product-page/2x-mini  (converting component, S-video and composite signals from retro consoles to a modern digital display)
• Atari Badges/Stickers - https://www.mateoproceo.com/search?controller=search&orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=atari&submit_search=
• books

• • Terrible Nerd by Kevin Savetz - https://www.amazon.com/Terrible-Nerd-Kevin-Savetz/dp/1939169003 
  • Atari: Visual History of the Atari 8-bit Computer by Darren Doyle - https://www.greyfoxbooks.com/product/the-atari-a-visual-history/ 
  • Atari Inc. Business is Fun by Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel - https://www.amazon.com/Atari-Inc-Business-Curt-Vendel/dp/0985597402 
  • Breakout: How Atari 8-bit Computers Defined a Generation by Jamie Lendino - https://www.amazon.com/Breakout-Atari-Computers-Defined-Generation/dp/0692851275 
  • Atari Projects by Jason Moore - https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jason-moore/atari-projects/paperback/product-196qrpj9.html?page=1&pageSize=4 
  • Art of Atari by Tim Lapetino - https://www.amazon.com/Art-Atari-Tim-Lapetino/dp/1524101036 
  • Art of Atari Poster Collection by Tim Lapetino - https://www.amazon.com/Art-Atari-Poster-Collection-Lapetino/dp/1524103020 
  • Missile Commander https://arcadeblogger.com/mcbookusa/
• Make a donation to Internet Archive https://archive.org/donate/ 

YouTube videos this month

• Atari 400 and 800 Computer Comprehensive Presentation 2019 VCF EAST Festival - DRGUILLOTINE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rT8QzHWTFQ - Curt Vendel 
• All About Atari 8-Bit Programming - Rhode Island Computer Museum - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF97bRp8tKo 
• Atari 8 Bit OS Boot Sequence - Dendrite Digital - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56ZRKFpsu48 - Find out how the Atari 8 Bit Computer initializes.

New at GitHub

• syntax highlighting for Visual Studio Code - https://github.com/pedgarcia/ossaction-vscode 

New at Archive.org

• Invitation to Programming 1,2,3 manuals in Italian:
• • https://archive.org/details/invito-a-programmare-1 
  • https://archive.org/details/invito-a-programmare-2 
  • https://archive.org/details/invito-a-programmare-3 
• Atari 130 XE, 600 XL, 800 XL für Einsteiger (for beginners) in German by Norbert Szczepanowski - https://archive.org/details/atari-130-xe-600-xl-800-xl-fur-einsteiger 

Possible side effects of listening to the Antic podcast include stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat; drowsiness, dizziness, feeling nervous; mild nausea, upset stomach, constipation; increased appetite, weight changes; insomnia, decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm; dry mouth, intense hate of Commodore, and Amiga lust. Certain conditions apply. Offer good for those with approved credit. Member FDIC. An equal housing lender.

Suzanne Ciani, pioneer in electronic music

Suzanne Ciani is a pioneer in electronic music, Grammy-nominated composer, and recording artist. In the 1980's, she created music for television commercials, corporate tags, and audio logos for Atari as well as many other companies. She also created the soundtrack for the 1980 Bally pinball machine, Xenon. In addition to being an early adopter of electronic music, she educated the world about it, demonstrating sound design techniques on The David Letterman Show, 3-2-1 Contact, and other popular media.

This interview took place on November 5, 2020.

Suzanne Ciani's web site

Suzanne Ciani Creates The Soundtrack For A Pinball Machine

A Life In Waves trailer

Suzanne Ciani interview in ANP Quarterly Vol 2/No 7

2012 Suzanne Ciani interview in LA Times Music Blog

Suzanne Ciani on Letterman

Suzanne Ciani on 3-2-1 Contact

Atari Video Game Summer commercial

This interview at YouTube 

After the interview, Suzanne found an unreleased Atari song 

ANTIC Episode 72 - Pick and Place

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… we have as a guest Mr. Gavin Haubelt who runs the Vintage Computer Center and who is feverishly producing #FujiNets for the Atari community, Brad as the host of this episode shows why he’s considered the master of segues, and we talk about all the new hardware available or coming (such as the world’s smallest Atari 8-bit).

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/with_replies and https://atari8bitbot.com/ 
• Weather app for #FujiNet:
• • https://gitlab.com/bocianu/weather 
  • https://www.howtogeek.com/697300/a-vintage-atari-is-an-amazing-weather-terminal-in-2020/ 
• ABBUC membership and newsletters - http://www.abbuc.de 
• Vintage Computer Center - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com 

News 

• The World’s Smallest Atari 8-bit (mytek, Michael St. Pierre) - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/308191-the-worlds-smallest-atari-8-bit/ 
• ”random image from curated collections” from Steve Boswell:
• • New https://twitter.com/a8bitrobot
  • (also Kay’s older https://twitter.com/Atari800screens)
  • To get SAM audio: tweet “@a8bitrobot SAM: hello”
• #FujiNet Links:
• • Vintage Computer Center (Gavin) and others creating run of FujiNet boards - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/fujinet
  • Coupon code:“antic5” to get $5 off at Vintage Computer Center; limit 1 per person and only good for the FujiNet; No expiration
  • Thom Cherryhomes video on the FujiNet at VCF East - #FujiNet in 15 Minutes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izdCLDQ1ZxU&fbclid=IwAR0X7-2Lz8oM18t3MgPtp1Ra4Dp82gsgsF-7cz4JVbM-GUVWie9X6gvWNKU 
  • #FujiNet Quick Start Guide - https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-platformio/wiki/FujiNet-Quickstart-Guide 
• Transparent plexiglass 800XL case:
• • Bernd Heraleo on Atari 8-bit Computers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/atari8bitcomputers/) 
  • https://www.plexilaser.de/Retro-Computer-Gehaeuse 
  • https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3371131223000011&set=gm.3377139998990149&type=3&eid=ARAOHLxXHWsWcELxuZzpB-nQ9Q4hFX_WDXMiTaLjUkf_SwEW9Bul2eDQXTuy8E-3NsTar1GOgh9kMDhO&ifg=1 
• Rick Trotter, Atari Dealer, Horizon Computers - Article from 1996 (WestWorld) - https://www.westword.com/news/game-over-5056756 
• Bill Lange’s “Atari Community Awareness Program” post at Atari8BitAds:
• • https://atari8bitads.blogspot.com/2020/10/atari-community-awareness-program.html 
  • https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-RARE-Arcade-Game-FLYER-Original-1986-Space-Duel-Dig-Dig-Awareness-Program/402464695055?hash=item5db4c3e30f:g:x5IAAOSwYCtfczVp 
• ATARI 5200 CONTROLLER - RIGHT STICK, NO CABLE - https://www.maker-matrix.com/product/5200-controller-right 
• Mark Simonson’s blog post about his Atari 8-bit history - https://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/de-re-atari 
• The Easy 6502 -  http://skilldrick.github.io/easy6502/ 
• 1979 Atari 800 Personal Computer Vintage Look Metal Sign 
• More Current Notes scanned by Allan Bushman - https://archive.org/details/current-notes-volume-14-number-5-june-july-1994/mode/2up 
• SIDE3 from Jonathan Halliday (firmware) and Candle (hardware) - https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=143 
• Atari Fan #1 – A new Paper magazine in English for all Atari fans out there - https://vintageisthenewold.com/atari-fan-1-a-new-paper-magazine-in-english-for-all-atari-fans-out-there/ 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • April 9, 10 & 11, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival East 2021 (VCF East)
  • VCFSE June 11-13 http://southernfriedgameroomexpo.com/ 
  • August 7 & 8, 2021: Vintage Computer Festival West 2021 (VCF West) 
• 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 800XL - Collector's Box - 2020 - retro eighties - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qJ9K96gbYY 

Making the Boxes for collectors of the Atari 800 xl and the Drive 1050 to keep the collections in perfect condition The scheme and prints in:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zE68...

• Atari FujiNet for Dummies - Doug Venner - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZx1aCD1G4Y&t=1177s 
• Atari XEGS: Installing Ultimate 1MB and s-video jack - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7nfMNz_CCc 
• Atari Fan Magazine 1/2020 Review - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zk-Jxr3uSo&t=577s 
• How to use SIDE3: Part 1 - Stand Alone - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKPjbVyrgBQ 

New at Archive.org

• https://archive.org/search.php?query=Layton+Atari+Computer+Enthusiasts
• Allan Bushman adding Current Notes (Washington Area Atari Computer Enthusiasts)
• • And manual for Timework's Swiftax manual https://archive.org/details/swiftax-timeworks 
• Happy Computer 5/86 https://archive.org/details/happy-computer-programmiersprachen
• Atari 600 XL 800 XL Intern - https://archive.org/details/atari-600-xl-800-xl-intern-data-becker 
• https://archive.org/details/%40bultro 
• • Many issues of ZONG https://archive.org/details/zong-sonderheft-1 
  • And many issues of Boletín Informativo Centro Atari  (Chili, Spanish) https://archive.org/details/boletin-informativo-centro-atari-1986-05-06 

Listener Feedback 

• Adam Trionfo Atari collection video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08ztNibKzy8 
• "My Atari 800 XL (Part 2) Troubleshooting, Getting it Working, So Many Games..." - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ7KgwjwVb4 

Possible side effects of listening to the Antic podcast include stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat; drowsiness, dizziness, feeling nervous; mild nausea, upset stomach, constipation; increased appetite, weight changes; insomnia, decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm; dry mouth, intense hate of Commodore, and Amiga lust. Certain conditions apply. Offer good for those with approved credit. Member FDIC. An equal housing lender.

Jim Tittsler, Atari 1600 prototype

Jim Tittsler got my attention with a tweet, an old photo of a computer in a PC-style case, connected to Atari joysticks and disk drive. In the tweet, Jim wrote: "A prototype of what we hoped would become the #atari 1600: an Atari 800 grafted on to an IBM PC compatible. A Jekyll/Hyde mashup allowing you to plug in cartridges, SIO drives, and  PC expansion cards. It seemed a good idea at the time."

So I reached out to Jim to learn more about that computer, and his time at Atari.

Jim worked in Atari's Special Projects Group, where he worked on several pie-in-the-sky, unreleased, home computer projects including the Atari 1600. When Atari was sold to Jack Tramiel, he was re-hired, where he worked on the Atari ST, the Atari PC-1 IBM compatible, and other projects. He worked at Atari for more than a decade.

This interview took place on September 9, 2020.

Video version of this interview at YouTube

Jim's Atari 1600 tweet

Atari Museum on the Atari 1600

Dan Noguerol (Farb): Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative

Two interviews with the same person, recorded more than four years apart. Dan Noguerol is better known to the Atari community as Farb. He is the mastermind behind the Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative, and years ago created SIO2Arduino, an Arduino-based disk drive emulator.

I interviewed Farb on August 29, 2019, where we talked primarily about the Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative. That interview took place at the Fujiama Atari event in Lengenfeld, Germany. Our friend Roland Wassenberg sat in on the interview. Shortly after doing that interview, I learned that Randy Kindig had also interviewed Farb, on April 20, 2015, but got busy and hadn't published the interview.

So in this episode, two interviews with Farb: my more recent interview first, then we'll go back to 2015 to hear Randy's interview.
...
Since this interview was recorded, I received my SuperCard Pro, and have used it to digitize a couple hundred Atari disks. I've also digitized dozens of Atari cassette tapes. With the Software Preservation Initiative web site, the process has gotten a lot easier. The Kryoflux and SuperCard Pro hardware and software still isn't as foolproof as I'd like, but there's been progress on that front for sure.

Next, Randy's 2015 interview. In it, they discuss the Software Preservation Initiative, which was at a much earlier stage at that point, and SIO2Arduino. SIO2Arduino is an Atari 8-bit device emulator that runs on the Arduino platform. It connects to Atari 8-bit hardware and emulates a single Atari 1050 disk drive. In the years since this interview was recorded, the project has largely been made obsolete by projects like the S-Drive-MAX and FujiNet. But Farb's work on SIO2Arduino, and making it open-source, absolutely laid the groundwork for those newer hardware projects.

Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative

SIO2Arduino web site

SIO2Arduino at GitHub

Farbish.com is offline but archived at Internet Archive

ANTIC Episode 71 - Goodbye, Curt Vendel

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast...we say goodbye to good friend and Atari legend Curt Vendel and bring you lots of other 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 

What We’ve Been Up To

• Atari8BitBot https://twitter.com/Atari8BitBot/with_replies and https://atari8bitbot.com/ 
• https://twitter.com/Atari8BitBot/status/1307715507391324162/video/1 
• Indy Vintage Computer Club - https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndyVCC/ 

Recent Interview Shows

• K’s twitter thread about Sofcast - https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1299759503039062016?s=20 

News 

• Curt Vendel died Aug 30 - https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-09-08-gaming-historian-curt-vendel-dies-at-53 and https://ruggieroandsonsfh.com/tribute/details/2607/Curtis-T-Vendel/obituary.html 
• Gofundme for Curt’s daughter’s education: https://www.gofundme.com/f/24lkoij26o 
• Jack Rickard died - https://www.semissourian.com/story/2831878.html 
• Paulo Garcia ACTION! Series - https://vintageisthenewold.com/going-into-action-with-atari-xl-xe-part-1-hello-world/ 
• Atari800MacX Version Release_5.3.1 - http://www.atarimac.com/atari800macx.php 
• Vintage Computer Center (Gavin) creating run of FujiNet boards - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/fujinet 
• The 20 greatest home computers – ranked! - The Guardian - Keith Stuart - https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/sep/07/the-20-greatest-home-computers-ranked 
• QuadTari - Champ Games - Sep. 1 post on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/champdotgames/posts/2758300214426652?comment_id=2759157137674293&reply_comment_id=2759988334257840¬if_id=1599159184524954¬if_t=comment_mention&ref=notif 
• Atari Paints - “RETROCOMPUTING SPRAY PAINTS: AMIGA BEIGE, COMMODORE, AND ATARI GREY” at Hackaday - https://hackaday.com/2020/09/01/retrocomputing-spray-paints-amiga-beige-commodore-and-atari-grey/ 
• also Hackaday - https://hackaday.com/2020/09/07/miniature-faux-floppy-for-8-bit-atari-looks-the-part/ 
• Gr9Lab, Photoshop for Atari computers - https://atariteca.net.pe/gr9lab-el-photoshop-para-computadoras-atari/ 
•  Gr9Lab example video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf-eK0A_iIE 
• tree simulator - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/311454-tree-simulator-4k-abbuc-contest-2020/ 
• Atari User Magazine is back! - http://www.atariuser.com/ 
• Elegy for XL-Search - http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/xlsearch/ and https://twitter.com/billkendrick/status/1305027460254191616?s=20 
• Jason Moore’s Atari Projects continues - http://atariprojects.org/ 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • October 10 - 12, VCF East, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ GONE VIRTUAL + LIVE.  NOTE: You can order a t-shirt to support the VCF events at http://vcfed.org/wp/t-shirts/ for $20 + shipping
• 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

• #Atari8bit #FujiNet Hacking on Battleship - Thom Cherryhomes - a simple game in Turbo Basic XL for Atari systems with a #FujiNet - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTpascJqw10&feature=push-lsb&attr_tag=AhNtji2D_09IhuJz%3A6 
• Silicon Valley CEO's Childhood Computer - Vintage Unboxing - by Borderline OCD - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pjvBwErl4o&feature=youtu.be 
• Bill Kendrick Radix sort (using counting sort & prefix sum) in TurboBASIC XL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXEAAvRYeO4 

New at Github

• https://github.com/pfeuh/AtariCreditsEditor 
• https://github.com/pfeuh/atariCreditsRoller 
• https://github.com/savetz/ColleenCalculator 

New at Archive.org

• https://archive.org/details/das-atari-buch-band-1-happy-computer
• https://archive.org/details/strategiespiele-und-wie-man-sie-auf-dem-atari-programmiert-data-becker
• https://archive.org/details/atari-basic-handbuch-sybex  

Possible side effects of listening to the Antic podcast include stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat; drowsiness, dizziness, feeling nervous; mild nausea, upset stomach, constipation; increased appetite, weight changes; insomnia, decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm; dry mouth, intense hate of Commodore, and Amiga lust. Certain conditions apply. Offer good for those with approved credit. Member FDIC. An equal housing lender.

Youth Advisory Board: Steve Cohen

This is the eighth in a series of episodes featuring the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting teenagers from around the United States to share their opinions about computers and video games, test software, and promote Atari's computers at events. The group consisted of kids aged 14 through 18, including Steve Cohen.

He attended George Washington High School in Denver Colorado, where his teacher, Dr. Irwin Hoffman, taught. George Washington High School received a grant from the Atari Institute for Education Action Research, Atari's educational support arm, The Atari Institute Newsletter (fall 1982) wrote: "High school students in a model math and computer program will use their grant of ATARI Home Computer systems to develop individual and group research projects in their own fields of interest. Extensible programming languages, such as FORTH, will be used to develop new syntax for use in other high school subjects: electronics, music, art, history, mathematics, and home economics. This project supports a major 'model school' known for its innovations in computer education over the last twenty years."

This interview took place on May 21, 2020.

Enter Magazine—When These Kids Talk, Atari Listens

Kai and George Esbensen, Micro-Ed Software

I first heard about the Micro-Ed software company when a member of the Atari community sent me a batch of educational cassette tapes to digitize. The tapes had titles like Maps and Globes, Punctuation, and Spelling Level E. Intriguingly, the tape labels said "Micro-Ed, creators of more than 2,500 programs, pre-school through adult." 2,500 programs? Why had I never heard of this company?

I asked 4AM, a software preservationist specializing in the Apple II — and specializing in little-known educational software — if they had heard of the company. The answer was also no. So I started to research.

A two-page advertisement in Compute! magazine issue 4, May 1980, provided my first glimpse into the company: "LOOK at all the MICRO-ED programs for the PET!" The titles listed include Agreement of Subject and Verb; Run on Sentences; Higher, Same, Lower; Word Demons; and (oddly) Usage Boners. Many of the software tapes were sold in packs, for instance $84 for a pack of 12 elementary school programs. $49.95 for a grade's worth of spelling lessons on 7 tapes.

An item in the Washington Apple Pi journal, four years later, January 1984, intrigued me: "$10,000 EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE GIVEAWAY. Micro-Ed Incorporated has announced its willingness to donate up to $10,000 worth of software to any school district, Special Education cooperative, or parent group willing to establish a school-to-home lending library. No limit has been established on the number of grants Micro-Ed will make. The donation is not contingent upon the purchase of any Micro-Ed products. ... Thorward Esbensen, Micro-Ed's president, 'envisions the establishment of a free lending library of educational software for families.'"

Less than a year later, in November 1984, the Commodore magazine The Transactor (v5n3) wrote that Micro-Ed had donated "more than a half million dollars worth of its instructional programs to school systems" for those free software lending libraries.

So. Micro-Ed was established in 1979 by Thorward (Tory) Esbensen. Based in Eden Prairie, MN, the company specialized in low-cost educational software. The software, written in the BASIC programming language, was available for Commodore PET, VIC-20, and Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, Apple II, TRS-80, and Texas Instruments computers. Micro-Ed's best-known title was perhaps "Trail West," an Oregon Trail-like game.

Mr. Esbensen died in 2012. I interviewed two of his sons, both of whom worked with their father at Micro-Ed. First, I talked with Kai Esbensen, the youngest in the family. Kai told me in email: "My siblings had all moved out by the time Micro-Ed was in motion, but I lived it. Helping out with Micro-Ed was my first paid job, in 2nd/3rd grade, and I was still on the payroll helping out through age 22." This interview took place on May 28, 2020.  ...

Next, I talked with Kai's older brother, George Esbensen, who was a salesman for Micro-Ed, and later was president of Cycle Software Services, a software duplication company that spun off from Micro-Ed. This interview took place on June 3, 2020.

Very old Micro-Ed/Thorwald Esbensen web site

AtariMania's partial list of Micro-Ed Software for Atari

Micro-Ed advertisement in Compute! magazine May 1980

Thorwald Esbensen obituary in StarTribune

Thorwald Esbensen obituary in Duluth News Tribune

Washington Apple Pi, January 1984

The Transactor v5n3

Myra Marshall, Computer Applications Tomorrow

Myra Marshall, along with her husband-at-the-time Roger Marshall, was co-founder of Computer Applications Tomorrow, a small software company that specialized in educational software for microcomputers. Most of the company's software was self-published and sold in small computer stores, including titles such as USA States and Capitals, Spelling Exam, and Alphabet Keyboard Primer. One title, Musical Computer: The Music Tutor, was sold by Atari Program Exchange. It first appeared in the spring 1982 APX catalog. It was available on disk and cost $14.95.

This interview took place on August 26, 2020.

Musical Computer in the spring 1982 APX catalog

AtariMania's list of Computer Applications Tomorrow software

ANTIC Episode 70 - Who Wants a FujiNet Anyway… I do!

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… we discuss the roll-out of the first 50 units of FujiNet, “virtual” shows remaining this year, new software, hardware and all the current Atari news riding the waves.

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

• FujiNet - https://fujinet.online 
• Lurking Horror, Infocom text adventure - http://monsterfeet.com/grue/notes/38 
• Atari Memopad from Wade at Inverse ATASCII - https://inverseatascii.info/2015/04/01/s1e14-atari-memo-pad/ 
• SIO2BT - https://github.com/TheMontezuma/SIO2BT 

News 

• Atari 1600xl prototype pics - Jim Tittsler - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/310176-new-atari-1600xl-prototype-pics-on-twitter/ 
• Revive1027 Revived - Dragonstomper (Sascha Kriegel):
• • AtariAge thread - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/271589-revive1027-order-thread/page/6/?tab=comments#comment-4614352 
  • ABBUC forum - http://www.abbuc.de/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10455 
• Decrunch 2020 Demo Party was held in Poland - https://atariteca.net.pe/intros-atari-participantes-del-decrunch-2020/ 
• ABBUC Magazine #141 - http://www.abbuc.de 
• Atari dust covers at Retro Ready. - https://retroready.one/collections/atari/dust-covers 
• Old Games Finder - http://www.oldgamesfinder.com/ 
• Steve Boswell (Atari8bit) - De Re AVGCART - https://atari8bit.net/de-re-avgcart/?fbclid=IwAR1Y9clA_WOgBhStZnE33AzCHqpY9MkF-G5GZZ64-6I2kn5xm_WrZrDF8Ok 
• New game on cartridge "Adam Is Me" pre-order - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/309962-new-game-on-cartridge-adam-is-me-pre-order-starts-today/ 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • September 12-13, VCF Midwest, Elmhurst, IL - http://vcfmw.org/ CANCELLED, but there was a call for virtual exhibits
  • October 10 - 12, VCF East, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ GONE VIRTUAL + LIVE.  NOTE: You can order a t-shirt to support the VCF events at http://vcfed.org/wp/t-shirts/ for $20 + shipping
• 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 800xl and 1010 loading with Rambit turbo upgrade - Mat Barker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gomWkGo5Q-g 
• Atari 800XL motherboard restoration and system overview (Pimp My Eight, episode 6, part 1) - The Byte Attic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scifA1AUZlo 
• Dead Atari 800XL gets Sophia RGB after repair - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHreoZNTIY 

New at Github

• Effectus - ACTION! Cross-compiler - https://github.com/Gury8/effectus 
• Parallel data transfer between the Atari 8- bit computers and the modern world via the Atari's joystick ports - https://github.com/codingbychanche/atariParallelDataTransfer 
• Bruce Lee Construction Kit (BLCK): build your own Bruce Lee for Atari 8-bit - https://github.com/fa8ntomas/blck 
• Sally-to-W65C02S-adapter https://github.com/TheByteAttic/Sally-to-W65C02S-adapter 

Commercial

• https://archive.org/details/Hey_Australia_1982_Atari_AU_a.mp4 

New at Archive.org

• https://archive.org/details/games-for-your-atari-600-xl/mode/2up (w disk image!)
• https://archive.org/details/mace-journal-v-5n-6-july-1985 
• New Atari User/Page6 https://archive.org/details/newatariuserpage6?sort=-publicdate 

Listener Feedback

• Rob Sherman - BBS - southernamis.com 
• interview with Konstantinos Giamalidis (TIX) from Greece - https://atariteca.net.pe/tix-mi-objetivo-es-producir-la-mejor-version-de-los-sprites-de-8-bits-para-prince-of-persia/ 
• "Compute!'s Third Book of Atari", first chapter, "Exponents" by Matt Giwer - https://www.atariarchives.org/c3ba/page003.php 

Possible side effects of listening to the Antic podcast include stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat; drowsiness, dizziness, feeling nervous; mild nausea, upset stomach, constipation; increased appetite, weight changes; insomnia, decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm; dry mouth, intense hate of Commodore, and Amiga lust. Certain conditions apply. Offer good for those with approved credit. Member FDIC. An equal housing lender.

Charles Marslett, MYDOS and FastChip

Charles Marslett wrote floppy disk and hard drive drivers for Percom, and was the creator of MYDOS, a disk operating system for the Atari 8-bit computers that offered support for double density sectors, subdirectories, and hard drives. He also created FastChip, a hardware add-on for the Atari, sold by Newell Industries, that claimed to speed up floating point routines by 300%. He also created the A65 Assembler, a macro assembler. He has released the source code for MYDOS and FastChip.

This interview took place on July 13, 2020.

Charles' web site

MyDOS at AtariWiki

MyDOS 3.0 User Guide

A65 Assembler at AtariWiki

ANTIC Interview 212 - Wes Newell, Newell Industries

ANTIC Interview 7 - The Atari 8-bit Podcast - Bill Wilkinson, OSS

ANTIC Interview 11 - The Atari 8-bit Podcast - David Small

ANTIC Interview 22 - The Atari 8-bit Podcast - Kathleen O'Brien, OSS

Michael Abrash

Zen of Assembly Language by Michael Abrash 

Zen of Assembly Language by Michael Abrash: free eBook version; code at GitHub 

ANTIC #69 Show Notes, July, 2020

Title: Bill Collector

Guests

• Bill Lange - https://twitter.com/BillLange1968 
• Bill Kendrick - https://twitter.com/billkendrick 
• Nir Dary - https://twitter.com/ndary 
• Bill Winters - https://twitter.com/TheGuruMeditate 

What We’ve Been Up To

• https://archive.org/details/stx_Program_Protection_Methods_for_the_Atari 
• https://archive.org/details/program-design-international-captivity-manual 

News

• ABBUC Magazine - http://abbuc.de 
• uDOS (ultra small DOS) - http://www.abbuc.de/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10347#p86149 
• Screaming Wings 2000 - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/308643-improved-version-of-screaming-wings/ 
• Atari 8-bit Display List Encoder - https://github.com/jtsom/DisplayListDecoder 
• Atari 1064 memory expansion for 600XL - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-1064-Speichererweiterung-für-600-XL-RAM-Expansion-working/203022106013?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 , http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/XL/xlperipherals/1064.html
• Atari800MacX 5.0.4 - https://github.com/atarimacosx/Atari800MacX 
• Atari Wall Art - https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/584958100/atari-wall-art-logo-sticker-decal?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=atari+computer&ref=sr_gallery-2-16&organic_search_click=1 
• Flop65 - http://flop.atariportal.cz/index.en.php 
• Atari copyright registrations - https://archive.org/details/atari-copyright-registrations/ 
• Kilobyte Magazine - https://retro.wtf/ 
• Run Your Favorite 8-bit Games On An ESP32 - https://hackaday.com/2020/06/09/run-your-favorite-8-bit-games-on-an-esp32/ 
• Bonus Life Computers - https://bonuslifecomputers.com/ 

Shows

• July 24-25, KansasFest - https://www.kansasfest.org/  (virtual) 
• August 1, VCF West, http://vcfed.org/wp/2020/05/24/vcf-west-2020-will-be-a-virtual-event/  
• Aug. 20 - Aug. 23, 2020, Fujiama, Lengenfeld, Germany - http://abbuc.de/~atarixle/fuji/2020/ 
• September 12-13, VCF Midwest, Elmhurst, IL - http://vcfmw.org/ , CANCELLED (might go virtual) 
• October 10 - 12, VCF East, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ 

YouTube

• Atari 1200XL with UAV, Sophia DVI and Ultimate 1MB - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNj4vOQSv0o 
• SIDE3: Final Progress Update - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65QOMDfYric 

Feedback

• Corey Huinker - https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmyjoystick/comments/gzr1tc/atari4001981seigelike_game/ 
• Adam Trionfo
• • Family Computing TV Show (Wikipedia) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubxigAp14Jg 
  • Ad for Family Computing TV Show - https://archive.org/details/family-computing-18/page/n103/mode/1up 

Dorothy Siegel, Pioneer in Computer Music

I'm Kay Savetz, and this is ANTIC: The Atari 8-bit podcast. This interview, however, is about events that happened before Atari released its first computers.

This interview is with Dorothy Siegel, a pioneer in computer music. The music she created was on an IMSAI 8080 computer and a clarinet.

The First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival was held August 25, 1978 as part of a show called Personal Computing '78 held at the Philadelphia Civic Center. In 1979, Creative Computing Magazine published a record album, also titled First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival. The 12" 33 RPM record was of music performed at the festival: 18 pieces, including Dorthy's.

Dorothy was co-founder of Newtech, along with her husband Michael Abram and business partner Stuart Newfeld, a company that built add-on music cards for two S-100 bus computers: the IMSAI 8080 and the Southwest Technical Products Corporation 6800. The Newtech Music Cards cost $59.95 each. (Newtech was not the same company as NewTek, the company that sold the Video Toaster in the 1990s.)

Dorothy performed Johann Wanhal's Rondo from Sonata in B-flat for Clarinet and Piano. The IMSAI, with three Newtech music boards, performed the piano part, and Dorothy accompanied it on clarinet.

I'm going to play the song now. It's about four minutes long.

Regarding Dorothy's song, the album notes read: "Newtech's music card for the S-100 bus is essentially a digital-to-analog converter controlled by an output port on the computer. The analog output is fed into amplifiers to be heard. This approach to computer music synthesis is extremely flexible since hypothetically any possible sound can be created. In actual practice the performance of the music circuitry is somewhat limited by the speed of the host computer. Each card can produce up to three voices output to one channel.

Newtech's music software consists of a BASIC program which converts music into binary tables, and a machine-language interpreter to play the music with three voices and different envelopes. The piece on this record uses three cards each playing one voice."

Check the show notes for an extensive list of links to people that we talk about and the articles that Dorothy wrote for ROM Magazine and Popular Electronics. You can hear the entire First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival at VintageComputerMusic.com or buy the album on a remastered audio CD directly from Dave Ahl of Creative Computing Magazine.

This interview took place January 7, 2014, when I was doing research for a book about the first personal computer magazines. Although I've decided not to write the book, I am publishing the interviews that I did while doing the research.

Personal Computing '78 flyer

Popular Electronics magazine, January 1975

Edward Miller's Piece for Clarinet & Tape

Stan Viet

Electro-Harmonix

ANTIC Interview 332 - Mike Matthews, founder of Electro-Harmonix

ANTIC Interview 280 - David and Betsy Ahl, Creative Computing Magazine

Samuel Abram, Dorothy's son

ROM Magazine Issue 4: Scott Joplin on Your Sci-Fi Hi-Fi by Dorothy Siegel

ROM Magazine Issue 5: Make Me More Music, Maestro Micro by Dorothy Siegel

Popular Electronics November 1979: CP/M: The Standard Microcomputer Software Interface by Dorothy Siegel

Listen to/download First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival album

Buy the album on a remastered audio CD from Dave Ahl

David Gedalia, Atari-controlled Telescope

Listener Paul Somerfeldt sent me a blurb he found in a book titled "The Dobsonian Telescope" by David Kriege and Richard Berry. The book reads: "Computer-controlled Dobsonian telescopes entered amateur astronomy in the late 1980s. An outstanding early example was David Gedalia's 10-inch f/4.5 Dobsonian driven by an Atari 800XL computer, shown at the 1987 Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. With the Atari driving altitude and azimuth stepper-motors, the telescope would move automatically to coordinates entered on the computer’s keyboard. David was a third-year engineering student when he built this telescope."

I sought out David to find out more about his Atari-controlled telescope.

This interview took place on May 29, 2020.

Photos of David with his telescope

The Dobsonian Telescope by David Kriege and Richard Berry

New Horizons in Amateur Astronomy by Grant Fjermedal

Brad Stewart, Covox

Brad Stewart was the co-founder and chief designer of Covox, the company that created Covox VoiceMaster. VoiceMaster was speech digitizer and voice recognition hardware for the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, and Apple II computers. Covox's own demonstration audio tape describes it well, although the demo tape that I found doesn't mention the Atari.

This interview took place on May 21, 2020.

Aerosynth

Brad's blog post about Covox Voice Master

Kay plays with VoiceMaster in 2014

Covox Voicemaster Demo cassette

A Bionic Approach to Speech Processing

Escape from Planet X at AtariMania

ANTIC Episode 68

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… Jonathan Halliday joins as we discuss his amazing work on the SIDE loaders for the Incognito and Ultimate 1MB  and the work going on for the SIDE3 cart.

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  

What We’ve Been Up To

• plotter ink https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1258830441320079360 But steve bowsell @A8bit working on 3-D printable solution 
• Kay’s old Atari games https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1259569122364407808 ; https://github.com/savetz (Scavange, boggler, rats, testtube, hubcap of fortune, Komix Creator) 
• Carrington and Kay play Scavange at Eaten By A Grue http://monsterfeet.com/grue/notes/35 play it at https://archive.org/details/Scavange 
• Catalina broke Altirra under WINE and Xformer, Kay got them both fixed https://atariage.com/forums/topic/286036-altirra-on-macos-update-thread/page/2/#comments  and https://atariage.com/forums/topic/289510-xformer-emulator-running-on-macos/?do=findComment&comment=4544143 
• Updated firmware to Jonathan Halliday’s for Incognito in 800 - https://atari8.co.uk/firmware/incognito/ 
• RetroPie on Pi4 - https://retropie.org.uk/ 
• 8Bit Classics - https://www.8bitclassics.com/ 

News 

• Retro Format is a physical print magazine covering computers and game consoles from the 1970s to the early 2000s; including Atari - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/8bitmagazine/retro-format-magazine-issues-1-to-12
• PaperCraft - Rocky Bergen: “I've been working on an entire Atari 8-bit tradeshow display. But it may be some time before I can finish. I have an 800XL at home so that may actually show up before I finish this display.” - http://rockybergen.com/ ; https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158054518491047&set=p.10158054518491047&type=3&theater 
• MicroProse is back. Seems that one of the original founders, Bill Stealy, and a new partner have purchased the company back from whoever had it last (Infogrammes/Atari?) https://www.microprose.com/#; Kay’s 2017 interview with Bill Stealy - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-263-bill-stealey-co-founder-of-microprose-software
• Compute magazine disk image depository - Allan Bushman - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/307591-compute-magazine-disk-image-depository/
• Break Into Chat, Josh Renaud's blog about BBS history, retro computing post “Unearthed: My Atari 8-bit cassette tape” - https://breakintochat.com/blog/2020/05/30/unearthed-my-atari-8-bit-cassette-tape/
• Atari Portable Project - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/306569-atari-portable-project/
• Kickstarter: The 8-BIT WARS - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andyremic/the-8-bit-wars
• New version of Atari800MacX - makes it compatible with Catalina - https://github.com/atarimacosx/Atari800MacX/releases 
  • also fixed plotter support for Renderrific - https://github.com/atarimacosx/Atari800MacX/issues/10 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • July 10 - 12, VCF Southeast, in conjunction with Southern Fried Gaming Expo in Atlanta, GA - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/ CANCELLED
  • July 24-25, KansasFest - https://www.kansasfest.org/ (virtual) cost $20, opened registration on April 30th
  • August 1, VCF West, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - http://vcfed.org/wp/2020/05/24/vcf-west-2020-will-be-a-virtual-event/ GONE VIRTUAL - The entire event will be scheduled for 6-8 hours on Saturday August 1st; call for exhibitors and keynote speakers
  • Aug. 20 - Aug. 23, 2020, Fujiama, Lengenfeld, Germany - http://abbuc.de/~atarixle/fuji/2020/ 
  • September 12-13, VCF Midwest, Elmhurst, IL - http://vcfmw.org/ 
  • October 10 - 12, VCF East, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ NOTE: You can order a t-shirt to support the VCF events at http://vcfed.org/wp/t-shirts/ for $20 + shipping
• 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

• Games That Push the Limits of the Atari 8-Bit Family - Sharopolis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTUmiot6vyM 
• ANALOG Computing Games on your Atari 8bit - The New Retro Show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9xOpFnqo88 
• Several demos from Poland, including one called Windows 95 - American NTSC - demo for Atari XL/XE from Poland - Miesiu - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7qy3DwsIX4 
• The Atari 8bit and ST games by Jon Williams - Into the Vertical Blank - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-HJR2WpWTc  A companion to the Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari Season 3 Episode 11 Episode interview with Jon. 

New at Github

• Bill Kendrick pointed to omc65 (Our Macro Crossassembler for 6502) at  https://GitHub.com/pkali/omc65 
• Disassembling SynCalc - https://github.com/jduerstock/syncalc 
• Alternate Reality: The Dungeon for Atari 8-bits cartridge project - https://github.com/Wilheim1977/ARDungeonCartridge 

New at Archive.org

• Italian XL catalog - https://archive.org/details/1984-catalogo-atari-home-computer/mode/2up and advertisements https://archive.org/details/@philsan69 

Possible side effects of listening to the Antic podcast include stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat; drowsiness, dizziness, feeling nervous; mild nausea, upset stomach, constipation; increased appetite, weight changes; insomnia, decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm; dry mouth, intense hate of Commodore, and Amiga lust. Certain conditions apply. Offer good for those with approved credit. Member FDIC. An equal housing lender.

Fandal: Atari programer and archivist

Frantisek Houra is better known to the Atari community as Fandal. He's an Atari computer programmer and long-time archivist of European Atari software. He has created many original Atari games and conversions from other platforms: including Fruity Pete, Mashed Turtles, Crescent Solitaire, and Diamondz.

This interview took place on August 28, 2019, during the Fujiama Atari conference in Lengenfeld, Germany. Roland Wassenberg sat in to assist with the interview. Shortly after, Fandal and I and several other attendees hooked up a multijoy and played some rounds of Mashed Turtles with six players (up to eight can play), and it was so. much. fun.

Fandal's web site

Mashed Turtles

Xenophobe game for sale at Video61

Gregg Squires, Atari Manager of Hardware Engineering

Gregg Squires was a Manager of Hardware Engineering at Atari from 1982 through 1984, working from their New York office. He was project manager for Val, a cost-reduced version of the Atari 2600; and project manager for the Atari XL computer series. He was co-designer of the 65816 microprocessor architecture.

Greg sent me a scan of an Atari 600XL Product Status Meeting handout dated January 1983. It's an impressive 45 pages and paints a clear picture of the timeline, costs, and issues involved with creating that computer.

This interview took place on February 13, 2019.

Atari VAL photo

Atari 600XL Product Status Meeting Handout

The Working Clock-Timer by Joel Moskowitz

ANTIC Interview 65 - Steve Mayer, 400/800 Designer

Rik Dickinson, Encore Video Productions

Rik Dickinson is founder of Encore Video Productions, a company that rented Atari 8-bit computers to hotels for use as character generators. The computers would show information about the hotel on channel 2 of guests' televisions. This was part of a service that Encore offered to provide in-room movies that ran off videotapes. The tape machines ran on a timer, and when the movie ended, the video feed switched back to the text information displayed by the Atari.

This interview took place on April 20, 2020.

Forum about Encore Video Productions Display System

Encore Video Productions

ANTIC Episode 67 - Still Socially Distant

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast...Randy forgets to call the artist, formerly known as Kevin, as Kay about 100 times, we continue discussion on AtariFests and World of Atari, we help you with your free time by telling you about papercraft computers and RetroPie, and help you navigate what’s happening with vintage computer shows; plus a whole lot more 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  

What We’ve Been Up To

• Carol Shaw’s Colleen Calculator - View the pages or download the images - https://archive.org/details/ColleenCalculator9K/mode/2up 

• Carol also sent the printout of Rev. A of Atari VCS Checkers - https://archive.org/details/VCScheckersA/mode/2up 
• A community member has digitized the listing - https://github.com/white-flame/vcs-checkers 

• Kay’s 10-line contest entries 2014-2020 on GitHub - https://github.com/savetz?tab=repositories 

• Bankster 
• • http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-bankster_35883.html
  • https://atariage.com/forums/topic/236768-the-atari-interview-discussion-thread/?do=findComment&comment=4506193 
  • Video of Bankster - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0cAf8ydvQc 

• Kay’s 10-line videos
  • 256 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Qh-JVKaBM 
  • 120 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2CmDYKIU6s 
  • 80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awNkk8yNkDU
• 2020 Atari 10-liners on one disk, by vitoco - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/301250-2020-basic-10liner-contest/?do=findComment&comment=4502763 
• AtariFest/World of Atari thread on AtariAge - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/304554-atarifest-and-world-of-atari 
• ABBUC (Atari Bit Byter User Club) - http://www.abbuc.de/ 

Recent Interviews

• http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-378-gabriel-baum-atari-conversational-french-and-spanish 
• http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-380-atari-speed-reading-karlyn-kamm-and-brad-oltrogge 

News 

•  Jason Moore - Atari Projects on HackaDay
  • https://hackaday.com/2020/04/29/classic-8-bit-computing-the-atari-way/
  • http://atariprojects.org/ 
• PaperCraft models - http://rockybergen.com/ Atari 800, and NeXT Cube are on the short short list 
• MidiMax at Best Electronics - http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/laser_printers.htm#MidiMax 
• RetroPie 4.6 released with Raspberry Pi 4 support - https://retropie.org.uk/2020/04/retropie-4-6-released-with-raspberry-pi-4-support/ 
• RetroMagazine - https://www.retromagazine.net/ 

• Jonathan Halliday has updated his Incognito, Ultimate 1MB, etc. to 3.1 - https://atari8.co.uk/ 

Shows

• Upcoming Shows where you might see Atari computers (or Atari people):
• • July 10 - 12, VCF Southeast, in conjunction with Southern Fried Gaming Expo in Atlanta, GA - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/ 
  • July 24-25, KansasFest - https://www.kansasfest.org/ (virtual) cost $20, opened registration on April 30th
  • August 1-2, VCF West, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west/ 
  • Fri, Aug 14, 2020 – Sun, Aug 16, 2020, Portland Retro Gaming Expo, Portland OR - https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/ CANCELLED
  • Aug. 20 - Aug. 23, 2020, Fujiama, Lengenfeld, Germany - http://abbuc.de/~atarixle/fuji/2020/ 
  • September 12-13, VCF Midwest, Elmhurst, IL - http://vcfmw.org/ 
  • October 10 - 12, VCF East, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ 

• 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

• 20MHz Atari 800XL: Rapidus, U1MB, and Sophia DVI: Part Two - Flashjazzcat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnfjxNqoZ7Y 
• 800XL with Rapidus and Ultimate 1MB: What Have We Learned? - Flashjazzcat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2go2VU7xyYU 
• How to flash Ultimate 1MB and SIDE/SIDE2 with new firmware - flashjazzcat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SLyjhLba6c 
• New Games for your Atari 8 bit Part 12 - The New Retro Show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIrZHksTKIM - Time Pilot (2018) and Runner Bear (2020)
• SpartaDos X Cartridge - 8-bit and more - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkvIyj6-lMQ 
• • Bits of the past - Super Sparta DOS PCB - https://www.bitsofthepast.com 
  • iCore64 - Atari ICD R-Time 8 Cartridge Case, XL/XE cart extender - https://corei64.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=62_87&product_id=67

New at Github

• https://github.com/A-Fitz/Atari-8bit-Pac-Man-Port 
• https://github.com/jtsom/AnalogSourceCode 

New at Archive.org

• Current Notes Volume 10 Number 9 - https://archive.org/details/current-notes-volume-10-number-9-november-1990/mode/2up 
• Many issues of Atari Interface magazine: https://archive.org/details/@scottithgames 
• Steve Boswell many issues of Atari User: https://archive.org/details/@choccyhobnob 

Feedback

• Rare Atari software found: Atamon DXG 5724 V1.3 is an Atari Germany title - https://www.atarinside.com/blog/index.php/atamon-dxg-5724/ 
• https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=ATA%20MON%20DXG%205724 
• German version of Sky Writer was the last puzzle of the series: Spielend lernen mit Atari-Programmen- https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Articles#section-Articles-GermanyAtariDeutschlandGmbH 
• From CSS, we have the BUG/65 manual Rev. 1.0 missing page - https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Bug65 
• Tanktics bits and piece to play this hybrid game. These are available at https://www.mobygames.com/game/tanktics_/cover-art/gameCoverId,349600/. 
• The parts for Dnieper River Line  are there as well - https://www.mobygames.com/game/dnieper-river-line/cover-art/gameCoverId,348252/ 

Possible side effects of listening to the Antic podcast include stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat; drowsiness, dizziness, feeling nervous; mild nausea, upset stomach, constipation; increased appetite, weight changes; insomnia, decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm; dry mouth, intense hate of Commodore, and Amiga lust. Certain conditions apply. Offer good for those with approved credit. Member FDIC. An equal housing lender. 

Youth Advisory Board: Tracey Cullinan

This is the seventh in a series of episodes featuring the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting teenagers from around the United States to share their opinions about computers and video games, test software, and promote Atari's computers at events. The group consisted of kids aged 14 through 18, including Tracey Cullinan.

Tracey worked as a salesperson at the ComputerLand store in Los Altos, California — starting at the age of 12. He started a software company, Superior Software, which produced custom software for local businesses, as well as a couple of games for the Apple II computer. At 14, Tracey was invited to be a member of the Youth Advisory Board. As part of that job, he went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago to demonstrate Atari computers. The next year, as a 15-year-old, Tracey was interviewed on the "Today" show as a young entrepreneur.

There's a chapter about Tracey in the 1984 book "Computer Kids" by George Sullivan. (His picture in on the back cover of the book.) I'm going to read several passages from that book, quotes from Tracey.

...A Computerland store opened
in a mall near my home. I made friends with the people
who worked in the store, and they let me use the computers
there.

The store happened to be within walking distance of
where I live, and I'd go there after school and on week-
ends, or almost anytime I had free time. I often wrote
game programs on the computers, and I bought a disk on
which to store the programs. They let me keep the disk
at the store.

When customers came into the store, I'd sometimes
help out by showing them what a computer could do.
They'd be amazed. "What’s this nine-year-old kid doing
showing me how a computer works?"

I’m now working at the store. I started as an employee
when I was twelve. I was in sales at first but later I shifted
over to computer repair...

I now know five or six computer languages — BASIC,
Pascal, LOGO, plus three machine languages: 6502, the
one that’s used on the Apple and Atari and the one I use
the most, Z-80. I’m starting to learn 8086, the language
for the IBM Personal Computer...

The company that I operate is called Superior Software.
I prepare custom programs for businesses in the
area. One program involves inventorying and invoicing
for a company that sells charcoal fire starters. I’ve got
another program that gathers stock market prices from a
computer, and then correlates them and prints them out
for a local stockbroker.

A third program I wrote for the Los Altos Little
League. It’s a mailing list program. They use it in sending
out notices about tryouts, practices, and things like that.
I became a member of the Atari Youth Advisory Board
because someone at the consulting firm that was getting
the names of kids together for Atari happened to know
my dad. When the consulting firm found out that I was
into computers, they put my name on the list. Then the
people at Atari picked me.

We've been giving Atari advice mostly on their home
computers. Later, I think they're going to ask us for advice
on their video games and arcade games...

I also use the computer to write game programs once
in a while. One that I’ve written is called Glutton [for the
Apple II.] You, the shooter, are armed with little missiles
and positioned on the right side of the screen. You can
move up and down only. You shoot to the left.

The glutton moves back and forth across the screen.
The glutton likes to eat. Different kinds of food fall from
the top of the screen. Some of it is good food, like apples,
carrots, and chicken drumsticks. But some of the food is
junk food, like cupcakes and soda pop. The object of the
game is to keep the glutton well fed, but healthy, You try
to eliminate the pieces of junk food by blasting them with
your missiles.

I've tried to sell Glutton to some of the companies that
market game software to computer owners, to companies
such as Broderbund and Sirius. But I haven’t been successful yet.
...As far as the future is concerned, I plan to go to college.

I'd like to go to a good private university, a technical
one, like MIT, Cal Tech, or Stanford... After that, I
think I'd like to be a game programmer, and maybe work
for Atari, Imagic, or Activision, or some company like
that.