ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Latest Episodes:

ANTIC Interview 251 - Carl Moser and JR Hall, Eastern House Software Nov 08, 2016

Show notes

Carl Moser and JR Hall, Eastern House Software

Carl Moser and JR Hall were founders of Eastern House Software, the company that created several products for Atari 8-bit users, including Monkey Wrench and Monkey Wrench II, and the KISS word processor. They also created the MAE assembler/software development system, which was available for Commodore PET, Apple //, Atari 8-bit, and other computers.

This interview took place on October 17, 2016.

Teaser quote: (Carl) "JR and I would work — we was working at AT&T a regular day, then we'd probably work 'til 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, then get up, go to work the next morning."

Universal 6502 Memory Test in issue 1 of Compute! magazine

Eastern House Software Advertisement

Eastern House Software - product catalog

Eastern House Software - dealer brochure

ANTIC Episode 37 - ABBUC, RetroChallenge, Crownland Nov 05, 2016

Show notes

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

ANTIC Facebook Page

AHCS

What we've been up to

40 Great Flight Simulator Adventures - https://www.flightsimbooks.com/40gfsa/
Atari PILOT Source Code
Nir Dary's "Modern Atari 8bit Computer" channel on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmzjD_biYJ5hQf-MoK9Ztcw
Atari Macro Assembler with Program Text Editor - http://mixinc.net/atari/amac.htm
Atariteca - Giann Velasquez M - "Top seven upgrades for Atari computers" - http://atariteca.blogspot.pe/2016/10/siete-mejores-upgrades-para.html
Randy's presentation on modern upgrades at VCFMW 11 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNTiEZl30Fg
Ultimate Cart runs by Santosp (Panagiotis Santos)
VideoGames Hardware Handbook Volume 2 Revised Edition, 1977 to 2001, The Game Machine Collector's Manual, From the Creators of Retro Gamer

News

Retrochallenge 2016/10 - http://retrochallenge.net/
Atari headphones article - http://thegadgetflow.com/portfolio/gameon-earphones-atari-roam/
Atari headphones at indiegogo - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gameon-sure-fit-earphones-studio-thumping-bass-headphones--3#/
Art of Atari hardcover by Tim Lapetino - http://www.amazon.com/dp/1524101036/?tag=ataripodcast-20
Atari Shows
- "Silly Venture" (http://www.sillyventure.eu/en/ ) November 11-13 (Friday-Sunday) in Gdansk, Poland
- Feb. 18, 2017 - "Atari Invasion", Marsveen, Holland - http://atari-invasion.nl/
- VCF East - March 31 through April 2, 2017 - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/
- VCF Zurich, November 19 and 20, 2016 - http://www.vcfe.ch/
ABBUC 2016 hardware contest - http://www.abbuc.de/atari/hardware-ressort/80-hardware/hardwarewettbewerbe/1810-hardwarewettbewerb-2016
ABBUC 2016 software contest - http://www.abbuc.de/atari/software-ressort/81-software/softwarewettbewerbe/1795-software-wettbewerb-2016
Atari SIO plug at thingiverse - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1831769
Atari 8-bit Vs. Arcade - Part 9 - Kieren Hawken - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNDdIlYzVOo

New at Archive.org

Bill's Modern Segment

LaResistance website - http://laresistance.pigwa.net/
Crownland (2007, PAL, 128K (e.g., 130XE), final version)
Crownland preview (2006, PAL, 64K, WIP; only one level)
Crownland review from RGCD Issue #04, December 2007
"Racing the Beam" by MIT Press - https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/racing-beam
"Parallax Scrolling" article at Giant Bomb - http://www.giantbomb.com/parallax-scrolling/3015-2915/
"Parallax Scrolling" article at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_scrolling
"Jump! for the Atari 8-bit family" @ YouTube (Highretrogamelord) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGSTGTks6JI
"Shadow of the Beast for 8-bit Atari" @ YouTube (CmdrJJA) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzWEpMl_kro
"Amiga Longplay Shadow Of The Beast" @ YouTube (World of Longplays) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiAUZe_kL_Y
"Flimbo's Quest Longplay (C64) [50FPS]" @ YouTube (Al82: Retrogaming Longplays & Reviews) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiCxXMquPKs
"Parallax Demo" into at Atari 8-bit Forever - http://gury.atari8.info/demos/896.php
"Revealing the secrets: A real 2 layer scroll on C64." - http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2922
"Atari Longplay - Crownland" @ YouTube (basicgamelover) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRuhcpSvXdk

Feedback

Living Computers: Museum + Labs - http://www.livingcomputers.org/

ANTIC Interview 250 - Rodnay Zaks, Founder of Sybex Books Nov 03, 2016

Show notes

Rodnay Zaks, Founder of Sybex Books

Rodnay Zaks was the founder of computer book publisher Sybex Books, and is author of many classic computer programming books, including 6502 Applications (1979), Programming the 6502, Advanced 6502 Programming, and 6502 Games. He also wrote or co-wrote Programming the Z80, Programming the 6809, Your First Apple II Program, Programming the Apple II in Assembly Language, and other books.

This interview took place on October 14, 2016.

Rodnay on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodnay_Zaks

Teaser quotes:

"The first 5,000 books sold out, mail order, within a few days. So it was clear that there was more interest than we anticipated."

"She said, 'There is a computer in this machine?' I said 'Yes.' And she went out screaming and never returned."

ANTIC Interview 249 - Thom Graziano, CompuClub Oct 31, 2016

Show notes

Thom Graziano, CompuClub

Thom Graziano was founder of CompuClub, an Atari mail-order company and retail store based in Massachusetts. The company began in 1983 and closed in 1986.

CompuClub ran full-page advertisements in the Atari magazines with the headline "The Greatest Atari of All Time." For a $5 annual membership, you could become a CompuClub member, which got you a subscription to their newsletter and access to their catalog of Atari software at "at least 25% below retail." The company only sold programs for the Atari computers — first, the 8-bits and later, the ST line.

This interview took place on October 13, 2016.

Teaser quote: "The Department of Defense was sending Atari software to schools all over the world ... I tried to be very up-front and very honest with them."

CompuClub newsletters: http://www.digitpress.com/library/newsletters/compuclub/

CompuClub ad

CompuClub catalogs

ANTIC Interview 248 - Kris Meier, CompuTalk BBS sysop Oct 29, 2016

Show notes

Kris Meier, CompuTalk BBS sysop

Kris Meier was sysop of CompuTalk BBS, a popular six-line BBS based in Texas that ran off off six Atari 800 computers. In this interview, I read from the article "CompuTalk: Texas-Sized BBS" by Gregg Pearlman, which ran in the August 1987 issue of Antic magazine.

This interview took place on October 6, 2016. In it, we discuss Tom Hudson, whom I previously interviewed.

"What? An Atari computer did this? Yeah. An Atari computer did this."

CompuTalk: Texas-Sized BBS

CompuTalk gets Antic magazine award: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v7n1/awards.html

CompuTalk mention in The North Texan, fall 1988: http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc119047/m1/5/

CompuTalk article in Longview News-Journal, July 7, 1985: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/209903449/

Tom Hudson on CompuTalk: http://analog.klanky.com/funstuff.htm

Antic interview with Tom Hudson

ANTIC Interview 247 - Brian Lee, Synapse and Broderbund Oct 26, 2016

Show notes

Brian Lee, Synapse and Broderbund

Brian Lee started at clothing retailer The Gap, where he used Atari computers for expense control and store operations. He was Vice President of Product Development at Synapse Software from 1982 through 1985, where he managed the Syn line of business software, and programmed SynTrend. Next he was Director of Acquisition at Br0derbund from 1984 to 1985.

This interview took place on September 30, 2016. In it, we discuss Mike Silva, whom I previously interviewed.

"So he sat nervously with $30,000 in stacked, bound $100 bills in his jacket pockets, for the entire flight over from Japan."

Brian's web site: http://www.brianleeresume.com

Filling the GAP article in Antic magazine: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v2n3/fillingthegap.html

Mike Silva interview: http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-170-mike-silva-syncalc

Inverse ATASCII podcast on SynTrend: https://inverseatascii.info/2016/10/16/s3e02-synapse-syntrend-synstat-syngraph-supplement/

ANTIC Interview 246 - Harry McCracken, Technology Journalist Oct 24, 2016

Show notes

Harry McCracken, Technology Journalist

Harry McCracken is a technology journalist — he's technology editor at Fast Company magazine. He cut his teeth on the TRS-80 and Atari 400 computers, including writing for Creative Computing magazine, and creating a game that he wanted to publish with Atari Program Exchange, but didn't finish.

This interview took place on September 27, 2016.

Harry on Twitter: https://twitter.com/harrymccracken

"...fact about the Atari 400 was that it had maybe the worst keyboard in the history of computing. ... Oddly enough I don't remember having trouble with the keyboard, maybe because when you're programming, it is, generally speaking, not about the speed at which you type."

ANTIC Interview 245 - Bruce Campbell, APX Character Fun Oct 22, 2016

Show notes

Bruce Campbell, APX Character Fun

Bruce Campbell is the author of Character Fun, an educational game which was published by Atari Program Exchange. It appeared in the winter 1983 APX catalog — the final APX catalog.

This interview took place on September 22, 2016.

Shortly after we did this interview, Bruce sent me scans of the source code printout for Character Fun, it's now online at archive.org.

Character Fun source code: https://archive.org/details/AtariCharacterFunSourceCode

Character Fun the the winter 1983 APX catalog

Character Fun at AtariMania

ANTIC Interview 244 - Ed Stewart and Ray Lyons, APX Letterman Oct 20, 2016

Show notes

Ed Stewart and Ray Lyons, APX Letterman

Ed Stewart and Ray Lyons co-wrote Letterman, an educational word game that was first available in the winter 1982-1983 Atari Program Exchange catalog. Ed also wrote two articles for Antic magazine: "Hokey Pokey Interrupts" - on using POKEY timers in assembly language - and "Talk Is Cheap", a 1-bit audio digitizer. Ed also had two articles in Compute!'s Second Book of Atari: Memory Test and Back Up Your Machine Language Programs With BASIC.

This interview took place on September 15, 2016. The first voice you'll hear is Ed's.

"They played that thing for days. They would love to try and stump each other by typing in their own word, primarily."

After the interview, Ray emailed me this update: "There's one fact I wished I had included--and I'll tell you just in case you find it useful: This would have probably been early in the 2nd year of the sale of Letterman via the APX. Atari contacted us and asked us to sign some legal documents giving them permission to port Letterman to a ROM for one of their game platforms. My recall is that it was for the 2600. But I'm wondering if they were announcing a new model. Or maybe it was an updated 2600 with a keyboard added? Sorry for this lapse. Anyway, they said they needed educational software to demo this on the new device at a trade show in New York City that year. The Toy Fair I think it was. We never did hear back from Atari about whether they actually carried through or not. If I run across any paperwork about this, I'll send it to you."

Letterman in the winter 1982-1983 APX catalog

Letterman at AtariMania

Antic magazine articles by Ed Stewart

Compute!'s Second Book of Atari: http://www.atariarchives.org/c2ba/

Blog Post by Ray Lyons: https://libperformance.com/2009/03/05/technology-20/

ANTIC Interview 243 - Russ Walter, Secret Guide to Computers Oct 18, 2016

Show notes

Russ Walter, Secret Guide to Computers

Russ Walter is the author of Secret Guide to Computers & Tricky Living, a book that he has been publishing and updating since 1972. It is currently in its 32nd edition; he's working on the 33rd now. The book has evolved with technology and time — the current versions cover modern machines like Windows, Android, and iOS. The early editions covered then-modern machines like the Atari 800, TRS-80, Commodore 64, and Apple //.

In addition to the book, Russ provides a free technical support phone number, which he invites people to call at any time, day or night. (My copy of the book, from 1987, says right on the cover: "Call 24 hours: he's usually in and sleeps only lightly.") Though the phone number has changed, some 30 years later, that is still a feature that he offers.

This interview took place on September 15, 2016.

"The craziest call that I got was a girl, sounded like she was 7th or 8th grade or something ... wanted to know how to attract her boyfriend to her."

Secret Guide web site: http://SecretFun.com

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected